Please Optimize My Claude

please-optimize-my-claude

Optimize the CLAUDE.md hierarchy in this project — deduplicate content across levels, detect misplaced sections, compress bloat, and generate visual token reports.

Arguments

• No arguments → Interactive mode (default)
• auto → Apply all optimizations (prompts for backup)
• analyze → Report only, no changes
• restore → Undo from .claude-md-backup/
• --research → Also fetch latest best practices from web

Parse $ARGUMENTS to determine mode and flags.

Pipeline

Execute these phases in order:

Phase 1: Discovery

1. Read ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (global). If not found or permission denied, note and continue.
2. Read ~/.claude/rules/**/*.md (global rules). Note which have paths: frontmatter (conditional loading).
3. Find project root — walk up from cwd looking for .git/ directory.
4. Read <project-root>/CLAUDE.md if it exists.
5. Glob **/CLAUDE.md excluding node_modules/, .git/, dist/, build/, vendor/, .claude-md-backup/.
6. Find CLAUDE.local.md alongside each CLAUDE.md found.
7. Find .claude/rules/**/*.md in the project root and each subdirectory.
8. Parse and resolve @path/to/file import references (relative to importing file, up to 5 levels deep).
9. Resolve symlinks — deduplicate by canonical path.
10. Build hierarchy: { global, globalRules, root, rootRules, subdirectories: [{claudeMd, localMd, rules, imports}...] }.
11. Strip HTML block comments (<!-- ... -->) before counting (Claude Code strips these before injection).
12. Count tokens per file: word count × 1.5 (averages 1.3–1.5 tokens/word for prose, higher for code).

Phase 2: Analysis

Run ALL detectors. Collect issues into a list with structure: { type, severity, file, lines, description, suggestion, tokensRecoverable }

Detectors to run:

2a. Duplication Detection — Compare content blocks across all hierarchy levels (including .claude/rules/, CLAUDE.local.md, @import content). Flag exact and semantic duplicates (same behavior — removing either loses no unique guidance); identify their lowest common ancestor level.

2b. Misplacement Detection — Flag: project-specific patterns (repo names, ticket IDs like [PROJ-1234]) in global; repo-specific paths/commands in root; universal rules buried in repo files.

2c. Bloat Detection — Flag: sections >300 words, oversized code examples, repeated explanations, workflow blocks duplicated across repos.

2d. Stale Content Check — Verify npm run commands exist in nearest package.json. Flag sections unchanged 90+ days via git blame. Check for stale file/directory references.

2e. Contradiction Detection — Find conflicting instructions across levels on the same topic. Distinguish: contradiction (mutually exclusive) vs refinement (one narrows the other) vs exception (one scopes out a subset). Only flag actual contradictions. Respect paths: frontmatter scoping — rules in different path scopes cannot contradict. Present with confidence levels.

2f. Token Budget Audit — Flag files exceeding budgets (global <1,000, root <3,000, repo <2,500). Calculate "What Claude Sees" per working directory: all of CLAUDE.md (ancestor levels), CLAUDE.local.md, rules (unconditional), rules (path-conditional, shown separately), and @import-expanded content.

2g. Best Practices Comparison — Use Glob to find **/please-optimize-my-claude/references/best-practices.md, then Read it for the reference. Check for missing recommended sections, anti-patterns, structure issues. With --research, also fetch latest recommendations via WebSearch/WebFetch.

2h. Missing Index Detection — Check if root CLAUDE.md has a repository/directory index. If missing, prepare an auto-generated index table (repo name, type, purpose, CLAUDE.md link).

2i. Security Scan — Scan all CLAUDE.md files for accidentally committed sensitive content. Flag with severity critical:

• Secrets and tokens: patterns matching sk-, ghp_, xoxb-, AKIA (AWS), Bearer, base64 blobs >40 chars
• Private URLs/endpoints: internal hostnames, IP addresses, localhost with ports, VPN/internal domains
• Credentials: lines matching password, secret, api_key, token, private_key followed by = or : and a non-placeholder value
• Environment variable values: ENV_VAR=actual_value patterns (flag the value, not the variable name)
• PII patterns: email addresses, phone numbers embedded in examples

For each finding: show the file, line number, matched pattern, and a suggested replacement (e.g., redact to <your-api-key> or remove the line entirely). Security issues are always shown first in the report, before all other findings. In auto mode, prompt separately before removing security findings — never silently delete them.

Phase 3: Report

Output the visual report to the user. Use Unicode box drawing characters (─│┌┐└┘├┤┬┴┼), block elements (█░), and status indicators (✅ ⚠️).

Include ALL report sections:

• Hierarchy tree — including CLAUDE.local.md, .claude/rules/, @imports, symlink indicators
• CLAUDE.md freshness — via git blame: last modified date per file, flag unchanged for 45+ days
• Token usage bar chart — bar width proportional to tokens, max 20 chars wide
• "What Claude Sees" simulator — full instruction surface per working directory: CLAUDE.md (all ancestor levels), CLAUDE.local.md, rules (unconditional), rules (path-conditional, separately), and @import-expanded content
• Issues summary — by type with token counts and total estimated savings
• Version footer — current installed version

Phase 4: Apply (mode-dependent)

Interactive: Show the full report first, then use AskUserQuestion once with options: "Apply all", "Pick categories to apply", "Review each finding individually", "Skip (report only)". If reviewing individually, show each issue with a diff preview and ask: "Apply? [y]es / [n]o / [s]kip all of this type / [q]uit".

Auto: Prompt once for backup confirmation. Backup project files to .claude-md-backup/<ISO-8601-timestamp>/ (preserving relative paths) and global files to ~/.claude/backups/<ISO-8601-timestamp>/. Auto-add .claude-md-backup/ to project .gitignore if not present. Keep last 5 backups. Apply all optimizations. Show Phase 5 comparison.

Analyze: Stop after Phase 3. Do not modify any files.

Restore: Find the latest directory in .claude-md-backup/. List files to restore. Confirm with user. Copy files back to original locations.

Phase 5: Before/After Comparison

After applying optimizations, re-count tokens for all modified files. Show the before/after comparison with bar charts and percentage reduction. Show backup path and restore command.

Migration Mode

If discovery finds only 1 CLAUDE.md file AND it exceeds 3,000 tokens, offer to split it into a hierarchy. Identify content categories (global preferences, project conventions, repo-specific details) and propose a split plan.

Important Rules

• NEVER delete content without user approval (even in auto mode, the backup is mandatory)
• When deduplicating, keep content at the HIGHEST appropriate level (global > root > repo)
• When in doubt about whether something is a duplicate, flag it for manual review
• Always show token impact for every suggested change
• The visual report is the primary output — make it clear and scannable
• Analyze the FULL instruction surface: CLAUDE.md + CLAUDE.local.md + .claude/rules/ + @imports at every level
• Resolve symlinks before modifying files — warn if a file is symlinked
• Backup global files to ~/.claude/backups/, project files to .claude-md-backup/
• For contradictions, distinguish "definite conflict" from "possible tension" — respect paths: scoping