I Wrote 500 Lines of Rules for Claude Code. Here's How I Made It Actually Follow Them.

CLAUDE.md is supposed to be the operating manual for Claude Code. You write your rules, preferences, project context, and workflow instructions. Claude reads it at session start and follows your instructions. Except it doesn't. Not reliably. If you have used Claude Code for than a few sessions, you have seen it ignore your CLAUDE.md rules. Not maliciously. It just prioritizes answering your question over following a protocol. It skips steps, forgets constraints, and does things you explicitly told it not to do.