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The One Question That Decides What Stays in CLAUDE.md
You're pruning a 400-line CLAUDE.md file that's grown over a year of ad hoc additions.
What single test does this subject recommend applying to each line to decide whether to keep it?
Solution
The correct answer is "Would removing this line cause Claude to make mistakes?"
That's the exact filter this subject recommends: if removing a line wouldn't cause a mistake, cut it, because bloated files cause Claude to ignore your actual instructions. Whether a new hire finds a line interesting, how recently it was written, and its length are all irrelevant to whether the line is doing load-bearing work — plenty of short, recent lines are useless, and plenty of longer ones aren't.
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