💡 Not just Claude Code. A rules file is the "persistent context file" pattern, and it has a shared standard:
AGENTS.md. Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Antigravity, Hermes and other agents read it on their own. Claude Code has its ownCLAUDE.md, so that file holds one line,@AGENTS.md, which imports the shared file. The concept is universal: context lives in a file, the agent reads it at session start.
When you start a new Claude Code session — what do you re-explain every time?
Don't think of it as "instructions" — picture it as a tree's growth rings. Every season leaves its mark directly in the wood — drought, growth, frost — all encoded into the structure, not stored in a separate archive. The tree doesn't "remember" last year; it's made of it.
Run your work with the agent through your head: what from your experience has already grown into the project's structure? What hasn't taken root yet — still spoken aloud each time, as if for the first time?
Getting it wrong is fine: it is part of learning. Guessing first helps the answer stick later, and the answer itself comes after the explanation.
Copy your personal prompt and paste it into your agent's learn mode — it picks up your context and takes you forward.
Honestly: with AI it feels like you can do more than you can without it. After practice, check yourself without AI. (Bastani et al., PNAS 2025)
Explains the material using the course method.