Global instructions (all projects)

A template for your user-level ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md. Neither install.sh nor the plugin installs it (that would overwrite yours), so copy in the parts you want. Once there, Claude Code loads it every session. Keep it short — long files get ignored. Prune ruthlessly.

Workflow

• Explore → plan → code → verify. For multi-file or unfamiliar changes, use plan mode first. Skip planning for one-line/obvious fixes.
• Never mark work done without a check Claude can run: tests, build exit code, linter, or a diff against expected output. Show the evidence (command + result), don't just assert success.
• Fix root causes, not symptoms. Don't suppress errors to make a check pass.

Context & cost (balanced)

• Prefer rg/grep and targeted reads over reading whole files or directories.
• For broad codebase investigation, delegate to the scout subagent so exploration doesn't fill main context.
• Use the verifier subagent for an independent review of non-trivial diffs.
• Between unrelated tasks, expect a /clear. Don't carry stale context forward.

Code style

• Match the surrounding file's conventions over any personal default.
• Prefer the project's existing libraries; don't add dependencies without reason.
• No comments that restate the code; comment only non-obvious "why".

Safety

• Never write secrets, tokens, or keys into code or commits. .env* and key files are protected by a hook — don't work around it.
• Ask before: force-push, history rewrite, rm -rf, dropping DB tables, or touching production.

Memory

• The recall skill records durable, cross-session facts to $XDG_STATE_HOME/forgekit/recall/ (default ~/.local/state/forgekit/recall/; FORGE_HOME overrides).
• Save only what's non-obvious and lasting (env quirks, decisions, gotchas). Never save secrets or PII.

Tools

• Use CLI tools when available: gh (GitHub), cloud CLIs, etc. — most context-efficient.
• Learn unknown CLIs with <tool> --help before guessing flags.