Use CLAUDE.local.md for personal overrides you never commit

Claude Code / CLAUDE.md·12 hours ago·verified 12 hours ago·easy·~3 min setup·verified

Keep personal shortcuts and machine-specific notes in CLAUDE.local.md (gitignored) instead of polluting the shared CLAUDE.md.

#claude-md #git #team #local

The problem

Teammates do not want your local paths, aliases, or experimental rules in the shared project memory.

The hack

Put personal always-on notes in `CLAUDE.local.md` (or user-level `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md`) and gitignore the local file.

Why it works

Shared CLAUDE.md should encode team truth. Local overrides keep experiments and personal prefs out of git history.

Setup

1. Create `CLAUDE.local.md` beside the project CLAUDE.md. 2. Add it to `.gitignore` if not already ignored. 3. Put machine-specific paths, personal checklists, and experimental rules there. 4. Keep team conventions in the committed CLAUDE.md only.

Additional details

Global user memory lives in ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md and applies across projects.

Source

anthropic·View original →·by Anthropic Docs

Does this still work?

Discussion

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