Your CLAUDE.md is too long. The 200-line ceiling that actually works. (opens in new tab)

Most CLAUDE.md files we see are too long. Five thousand lines, six thousand. Every team rule, every legacy comment, every "I once tried this and it didn't work" footnote. The author feels productive writing them. The model reads the first 800 lines and ignores the rest. There's a known ceiling, and it's lower than people think. The 200-line rule The community consensus that's hardened over the last six months: keep CLAUDE.md under 200 lines. Anthropic's own Claude Code best practices and Huma...