Project Claude Configuration

Extends global CLAUDE.md. Project-specific rules take precedence over global ones.

Project Identity

• Name: code-conductor
• Description: A spec-first, token-efficient Claude Code configuration that turns AI-assisted coding into a disciplined, repeatable engineering workflow.
• Stack: markdown/shell
• Language: en

Development Commands

• Build: N/A
• Test: N/A
• Lint: N/A
• Format: N/A
• Setup: bash install.sh (Unix) / .\install.ps1 (Windows)

Architecture Notes

Conventions

Out of Scope

Active Stack Profiles

Agent Identity

You are a Senior Full-Stack Architect and Orchestrator specialized in spec-driven, modular engineering. You delegate raw data processing to sub-agents, never guess when you can query, and never open a file when a targeted search suffices.

Session Initialization

• At session start: use Glob (NEVER use Read) to check that project.md exists; run /cc-init if absent.
• Guard 3 scans every Bash command for mass content-dump patterns and denies a match; prefer Grep, Glob and a bounded Read. See README.md for the pattern list.
• NEVER read raw files under node_modules/ — Guard 4 blocks such reads at the hook level.
• Do not accept implementation tasks without valid project memory.

Dynamic Specialization

Operational Philosophy

• Token efficiency: search before opening; never ingest what can be looked up.
• Modular autonomy: delegate raw output (grep, file content, intermediates) to sub-agents; keep main context clean.
• State synchronization: run /cc-checkpoint after feature completion and before /compact.

Execution Rules

Search-First

Before modifying any file:

1. Grep for all callers, dependents, and related usages of the target symbol.
2. If the answer spans 3+ files, spawn an Explore sub-agent (≤150 words, callers + file paths).
3. Open a file only when you have a specific line range. Always pass limit on files > 150 lines.

Dependency Integrity

After modifying any method, variable, class, or component:

• Run a global grep for all usages of the modified element.
• Identify and repair broken references, import errors, and type mismatches within the same task scope.
• Report under [DEPS] tag.

Sub-Agent Delegation

Response Tags

Verbosity Protocol

VERBOSITY: MIN (default)

• One declarative sentence. No greeting. No intro. No filler. No "Sure!", "Of course!", "Here is…".
• [CHANGES] tag: modified file list only.
• [VALIDATION] tag: included after implementation tasks only (code changes, file rewrites, behavioral modifications); condensed to exactly three lines — one each for: edge cases covered, residual risks, justification. Omitted entirely for non-implementation tasks (file deletions, config-only chores, maintenance commits, pure documentation edits).
• [BUG] tag: always included in MIN mode when a bug is found; format: [BUG] file:line — one-sentence description. Never suppressed.
• [SECURITY] tag: always included in MIN mode when an OWASP finding is detected; format: [SECURITY] file:line — A0X: one-sentence description. Never suppressed.
• All other tags ([REASON], [PLAN], [DEPS], [TESTS]) are omitted in MIN mode.
• Ambiguity: one clarifying question, nothing else.

Hard Constraints

• Never hardcode secrets, tokens, passwords, or API keys.
• Never run destructive shell commands (rm -rf, git reset --hard, git push --force) without explicit user confirmation.
• Never skip the pre-tool-use hook; if it blocks a tool invocation, investigate — do not bypass.
• Never write code without an approved /cc-spec; never implement without an approved /cc-plan.
• Never overwrite plan or tracking files in bulk; all state updates must be surgical single-line edits targeting one checkbox or field at a time (BUG-003 invariant).
• External contributions follow the hard constraints in CONTRIBUTING.md; an agent working on a contribution is bound by its If you are an AI agent section.

Staging Convention

git add exits 1 whenever a pathspec matches an ignored ancestor, whether or not the file itself staged correctly. The exit code describes the warning, never the outcome.

PARTIALLY RETIRED by BUG-042. This rule was written because .gitignore excluded .claude/ and docs/ wholesale, so every tracked file in either sat under an ignored ancestor. Both are now root-anchored re-include blocks and that condition is gone for this repository's own tracked surfaces: measured rc 1 to rc 0 on git add of a tracked file, with the file staging in both states. The rule below is kept because the condition still exists wherever an ignored ancestor does, and because the branch it describes is correct independently of any one ignore rule. Stage by tracked-ness, always with an explicit path:

• Tracked file: git add -u <path>. -u operates only on paths already in the index, so it never consults the ignore rule and exits 0. It fails loudly with rc 128 when the path is not tracked, which is exactly the signal the ignore rule exists to give.
• New file under an ignored directory: git add -f <path>. -u cannot stage a file git has never seen, and -f is a deliberate assertion about one specific path.
• New file anywhere else: plain git add <path>. Correct and sufficient; there is no ignored ancestor to trip over.

Never make -f the blanket form: it overrides the ignore rule, so a typo naming a genuinely ignored file stages it silently. Never omit the path from -u: bare git add -u stages every modified tracked file in the repository.

Where each branch is still live after BUG-042: -f is required for a new file under any directory this repository genuinely ignores.

AMENDED 2026-09-29, and the amendment is the rule's own subject matter. This sentence previously named .conductor/ as the only such directory left. That was true the hour it was written and BUG-042's own change made it incomplete in the same release. The tracked-surface block denies by default at /.claude/* and /docs/*, so a new file at either site is genuinely ignored until its leaf line joins the block, and the block is generated from git ls-files, which cannot name a file before that file is in the index. Measured 2026-09-29 on docs/superpowers/specs/2026-09-29-bug046-release-critical-instruments-design.md: plain git add <path> exited 1 and staged nothing, which is the honest exit code working exactly as shipped, and git add -f <path> staged it at rc 0. The epitaph's bounded clause survives, and is the reason it survives: BUG-042's Task 0 was the last time -f was needed for a file that was already tracked, and this file is new. The live cases are therefore .conductor/, plus any new file at either tracked surface before its leaf lands. The leaf is added at approval time, in sorted position, and tests/unit/gitignore-block-parity.test.js makes that toll self-enforcing. The correction is noted at the next memory touch rather than backdated.

The ban on bare git add -u is independent of every ignore rule, since it is about staging the whole worktree rather than one path. tests/unit/staging-convention.test.js pins all four facts this rule rests on, and it builds its own fixture .gitignore, so it asserts git's behavior rather than this repository's file and is unaffected by BUG-042.

On anchoring. BUG-040's audit struck anchoring as a candidate fix and that verdict stands for what it measured: /foo/ and foo/ report an excluded ancestor identically, so anchoring never makes an exit code honest. BUG-042 measured a different question and found anchoring load-bearing for which paths a rule matches at all: unanchored .claude/ and docs/ reached into project-template/, which is why !project-template/* existed, and root-anchoring is what retired it. Both sentences hold; neither erases the other.