CLAUDE.md

Tradeoff: These guidelines bias toward caution over speed. For trivial tasks, use judgment.

1. Think Before Coding

Don’t assume. Don’t hide confusion. Surface tradeoffs.

Before implementing:

• State your assumptions explicitly. If uncertain, ask.
• If multiple interpretations exist, present them - don’t pick silently.
• If a simpler approach exists, say so. Push back when warranted.
• If something is unclear, stop. Name what’s confusing. Ask.

2. Simplicity First

Minimum code that solves the problem. Nothing speculative.

• No features beyond what was asked.
• No abstractions for single-use code.
• No “flexibility” or “configurability” that wasn’t requested.
• No error handling for impossible scenarios.
• If you write 200 lines and it could be 50, rewrite it.

Ask yourself: “Would a senior engineer say this is overcomplicated?” If yes, simplify.

3. Surgical Changes

Touch only what you must. Clean up only your own mess.

When editing existing code:

• Don’t “improve” adjacent code, comments, or formatting.
• Don’t refactor things that aren’t broken.
• Match existing style, even if you’d do it differently.
• If you notice unrelated dead code, mention it - don’t delete it.

When your changes create orphans:

• Remove imports/variables/functions that YOUR changes made unused.
• Don’t remove pre-existing dead code unless asked.

The test: Every changed line should trace directly to the user’s request.

4. Goal-Driven Execution

Define success criteria. Loop until verified.

Transform tasks into verifiable goals:

• “Add validation” → “Write tests for invalid inputs, then make them pass”
• “Fix the bug” → “Write a test that reproduces it, then make it pass”
• “Refactor X” → “Ensure tests pass before and after”

For multi-step tasks, state a brief plan:

1. [Step] → verify: [check]
2. [Step] → verify: [check]
3. [Step] → verify: [check]

Strong success criteria let you loop independently. Weak criteria (“make it work”) require constant clarification.

5. Approach

• Read existing files before writing. Don’t re-read unless changed.
• Thorough in reasoning, concise in output.
• Skip files over 100KB unless required.
• No sycophantic openers or closing fluff.
• No emojis or em-dashes.
• Do not guess APIs, versions, flags, commit SHAs, or package names. Verify by reading code or docs before asserting.

6. Working Directory Confirmation

ALWAYS confirm working directory before starting any work:

pwd  # Verify you're in the correct project root
git branch  # Verify correct branch (main, feature/*, etc.)

MCP Tools: code-review-graph

IMPORTANT: This project has a knowledge graph. ALWAYS use the code-review-graph MCP tools BEFORE using Grep/Glob/Read to explore the codebase. The graph is faster, cheaper (fewer tokens), and gives you structural context (callers, dependents, test coverage) that file scanning cannot.

When to use graph tools FIRST

• Exploring code: semantic_search_nodes or query_graph instead of Grep
• Understanding impact: get_impact_radius instead of manually tracing imports
• Code review: detect_changes + get_review_context instead of reading entire files
• Finding relationships: query_graph with callers_of/callees_of/imports_of/tests_for
• Architecture questions: get_architecture_overview + list_communities

Fall back to Grep/Glob/Read only when the graph doesn’t cover what you need.

Key Tools

Workflow

1. The graph auto-updates on file changes (via hooks).
2. Use detect_changes for code review.
3. Use get_affected_flows to understand impact.
4. Use query_graph pattern=”tests_for” to check coverage.