Claude Md Guardian

CLAUDE.md Guardian

I. Philosophy

CLAUDE.md is the agent's behavioral contract. When rules drift, conflict, or accumulate without review, agent behavior becomes unpredictable. The guardian skill treats CLAUDE.md as a living document that requires the same rigor as source code: validation, consistency checks, and protection against unreviewed modification.

Three failure modes threaten CLAUDE.md health:

1. Drift -- Rules added to one CLAUDE.md but not propagated to related files.
2. Conflict -- Contradictory rules across global, project, and subdirectory files.
3. Bloat -- Accumulated rules that are no longer relevant or are redundant.

Mechanical enforcement (hooks) prevents unauthorized modification. Periodic audits catch semantic drift that mechanics cannot detect.

II. When to Use

• After applying learnings from reflect-and-learn to verify no conflicts were introduced.
• During periodic maintenance (weekly or sprint boundaries).
• When agent behavior deviates unexpectedly (first suspect: CLAUDE.md conflict).
• Before onboarding a new team member or agent to a project.
• After merging branches that may have modified CLAUDE.md independently.

Do not use this skill for writing new CLAUDE.md rules (use reflect-and-learn for correction-based rules, or edit directly). Do not use it for auditing documentation broadly (use documentation-audit).

III. Workflow

Step 1 -- Inventory all CLAUDE.md files.

Locate every behavioral configuration file:

• ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (global)
• ./CLAUDE.md (project root)
• ./subdirectory/CLAUDE.md (subdirectory overrides)
• ./AGENTS.md (cross-tool compatibility)

Step 2 -- Extract and normalize rules.

Parse each file into discrete behavioral rules. Normalize phrasing to detect semantic duplicates and contradictions. Flag:

• Duplicate rules across files (redundancy)
• Contradictory rules (conflict)
• Rules that reference deprecated tools, paths, or patterns (staleness)

Step 3 -- Check inheritance hierarchy.

CLAUDE.md files form a cascade: global < project < subdirectory. Verify:

• Subdirectory rules do not contradict project rules unintentionally
• Project rules do not repeat global rules unnecessarily
• Override intent is explicit, not accidental

Step 4 -- Configure mechanical protection (optional).

Set up a PreToolUse hook that intercepts Write/Edit operations targeting CLAUDE.md files. The hook can:

• Log all modification attempts for audit trail
• Block modifications from sub-agents (only primary agent may modify)
• Require a specific confirmation pattern before allowing changes

Step 5 -- Report findings.

Produce a health report listing:

• Total rule count per file
• Conflicts found (with file locations and rule text)
• Redundancies identified
• Staleness candidates
• Recommended actions (merge, delete, promote, demote)

IV. Best Practices

• Run the guardian after every reflect-and-learn session.
• Keep global CLAUDE.md under 50 rules. Overflow to project-level files.
• Use explicit override markers when subdirectory rules intentionally contradict project rules ("OVERRIDE: ...").
• Version CLAUDE.md in git to track rule evolution over time.
• Cross-reference CLAUDE.md rules with AGENTS.md for cross-tool consistency.

V. Quality Checklist

• All CLAUDE.md files inventoried (global, project, subdirectory)
• No unintentional contradictions between hierarchy levels
• Redundant rules identified and consolidated
• Stale rules flagged for removal
• Mechanical protection hook installed (if appropriate)
• Health report generated with actionable recommendations

VI. Common Pitfalls

• Treating all contradictions as bugs. Some subdirectory overrides are intentional.
• Over-guarding. Blocking all CLAUDE.md modifications prevents legitimate learning.
• Ignoring AGENTS.md. Cross-tool files can contradict CLAUDE.md silently.
• Manual-only audits. Without hooks, modifications between audits go undetected.
• Rule count as quality metric. More rules does not mean better behavior.

VII. Related Skills

• reflect-and-learn -- Applies learnings that this skill then validates
• documentation-audit -- Broader documentation health (not CLAUDE.md-specific)
• hooks-reference -- Configure the mechanical protection hooks
• health-audit -- Repository-wide health check (includes CLAUDE.md as one dimension)

Output

• Health report: total rule count per file, list of conflicts with file locations and rule text, redundancies identified, staleness candidates, and recommended actions (merge, delete, promote, demote).
• Optional: a PreToolUse hook script and settings.json registration blocking unauthorized CLAUDE.md edits from sub-agents.

Examples

Scenario 1: "Agent started ignoring my no-emoji rule after a merge" → Guardian inventories all CLAUDE.md files, finds a subdirectory rule that overrides the project-level rule unintentionally, and recommends adding an explicit OVERRIDE marker or removing the duplicate. Scenario 2: "Weekly CLAUDE.md maintenance" → Identifies 3 rules referencing a deprecated tool path, 2 redundant rules between global and project files, and recommends consolidation. No conflicts found. Hook already installed from prior run.

Edge Cases

• Intentional subdirectory overrides that genuinely contradict project rules are not bugs — confirm intent before flagging as conflicts. Check for explicit "OVERRIDE:" markers.
• AGENTS.md files can contradict CLAUDE.md silently; always include them in the inventory even if the user only mentions CLAUDE.md.

Anti-Patterns

• Treating rule count as a quality metric — more rules does not mean better agent behavior; favor fewer, precise rules.
• Blocking all CLAUDE.md modifications via hook without a human override path — prevents legitimate learning and creates operational friction.