The outcome
Make Claude Code consistently follow the project’s real conventions.
Claude Code is a agentic coding tool for terminal, IDE, web, and desktop. Inspecting repositories, planning and implementing code changes, running development tools, debugging failures, and coordinating reviewable engineering work. This guide narrows that broad capability into one repeatable outcome, with checkpoints that keep the source material and your judgment in the loop.
Before you begin
Set the boundary before the tool starts.
Choose one real task, identify who will use the result, and decide what evidence or test will make the result acceptable. Gather only the source material needed for that task. If the work contains confidential, personal, regulated, or client-owned information, confirm that the platform and account are approved before sharing it.
AI should make the work easier to inspect. If the workflow removes the source, the owner, or the review step, redesign the workflow.
Step by step
A workflow you can repeat.
- 01
Identify authoritative commands, architecture boundaries, style rules, and prohibited changes.
- 02
Write guidance as short, testable statements in the appropriate project context file.
- 03
Point to canonical examples instead of duplicating large documentation blocks.
- 04
Test the guidance with a small planning task and correct any ambiguous instruction.
- 05
Review the context file when tooling, architecture, or team policy changes.
Working standard
What good use looks like.
- Document enduring rules, not task chatter.
- Prefer checks over subjective wording.
- Keep secrets out of context files.
Claude Code can read files, modify code, and run commands according to granted permissions. Keep scope narrow, protect secrets, understand permission prompts, and never publish changes you have not reviewed.
Official references
Check the current product documentation.
Features, plan limits, availability, and data controls change. These official pages are the starting points used for this collection.