Fixing steering rules adherence via @import loading

[Drizzt321]

So with the ability to analyze in more depth the way in which Claude Code loads up and treats things in it's context/memory, I've come across something extremely important I think. What is loaded by a SessionStart hook is inherently not kept/treated any differently than any other user input. So long sessions, compaction, etc all serve to cause those steering rules to not really be paid attention to by the agent.

However, ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md is specifically delegated to by the Operator (e.g. Claude Code as the operator), and is given privileged position at the start of the context, and is also preserved as-is through compaction. There is also @import which allows referencing external files for inlining, to allow composition of CLAUDE.md from multiple files.

As such, I've gone ahead and modified my own installation as per the instructions at the Gist below. I've found it to be VERY successful, even with >600K context it was obeying my preferences/rules, not running ahead with beginning implementation before done with discussion, etc.

There's some significant background and analysis in the Gist, but go to section 6 if you want to just get to modifying your own installation.

Gist: https://gist.github.com/Drizzt321/a4c567f0d263701152bf4e13c17855f1

[danielmiessler]

Closing this out as part of a cleanup of the discussion board. We're on the 7.x releases now and a lot has changed since this thread was active. Thanks to everyone who jumped in. If this is still relevant on 7.x, please open a fresh discussion or issue and we'll pick it up there.