Give Claude Code system-wide memory with CLAUDE.md

Tired of telling Claude the same things over and over? There’s one file in your home folder — ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — that Claude Code reads at the start of every session, in every project. Whatever you put in it becomes context Claude always has.

~/.claude/CLAUDE.md is global. It applies whether you’re working in your finance folder, a marketing project, or a quick scratch session. Use it for things that are true about you or your company — not things that belong to one specific project.

What you’ll achieve

• A single file at ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md that Claude Code reads at the start of every session, in every project.
• Persistent context for things you’d otherwise repeat: your KPIs, role, tools, and how you want Claude to write.

What to put in it

Anything you find yourself repeating. For most people that’s:

• Your KPIs — weekly active users, MRR, churn, whatever you actually track. Claude can then frame answers around them.
• Who you are — your company name, what you sell, one line about your role.
• How you want Claude to write — “plain English, no jargon” goes a long way.
• Tools you use — Slack, Notion, BigQuery, etc.

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: Open the file

Copy this into your Mac terminal and hit enter. It creates the folder, creates the file, and opens it in TextEdit (the text editor that comes with macOS):

mkdir -p ~/.claude && touch ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md && open -e ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md

Step 2: Write what you want Claude to remember

A short, plain example:

# About me

I run product at Acme. Our main KPIs are:
- Weekly active users (WAU)
- Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
- Net revenue retention (NRR)

When you analyse data, always reference these KPIs by name.
Write in plain English. Avoid jargon.

Save and close. That’s it.

Verification / Testing

Open a new Claude Code session in any folder and ask: “What KPIs should I be tracking?” If the file is set up correctly, Claude will name yours back to you.

What you learned

• Why a system-wide ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md saves you from repeating yourself across projects.
• What belongs in it (you, your company, your KPIs, your writing style) and what doesn’t (project-specific rules — those go in a project-level CLAUDE.md).