Freek Van der Herten says the CLAUDE.md file should be treated as short-term working memory for AI coding sessions rather than as a permanent place for project documentation. Its job is to give the AI immediate context, not to act as a long-term archive.

To keep it useful, Van der Herten advises leaving the file lean and narrowly focused. He cautions against letting CLAUDE.md grow into a huge 300-line dump, since that makes it hard to read and less helpful for AI agents.