Day one with Claude Code

The template: CLAUDE.md

CLAUDE.md is a plain text file that Claude Code reads at the start of every session. Whatever is in it, it knows without you explaining again. This is the structure of my own file, without the personal details. Fill in what is in square brackets and delete any line that does not fit you. Mine is in Hebrew; write yours in the language you work in.

# Who I am
My name: [your name]
What I do: [one sentence, for example: independent mortgage advisor]

# The business
What I sell: [the product or service]
To whom: [who the customer is, in their words]
How many people work with me: [number]
Tools I work with: [for example: Google Drive, WhatsApp Business, Excel]

# How I like to work
- Answer me short and clear.
- Before you change or delete a file, tell me what you are about to do.
- When you are not sure, ask me one question. Do not guess.
- When you finish, tell me what changed and how I can check it myself.

# Never
- Never send a message, email or post in my name without my approval.
- Never write passwords or keys into files.
- Never delete files without asking.

# My words
- When I write "[word]", I mean "[meaning]".

How to put it in

1. Open Claude Code and start a new session.
2. Paste the template after you filled it in.
3. On the last line, write: Save this to CLAUDE.md, for all projects.

Here it is all together, ready to paste. Fill in the brackets before you send it:

# Who I am
My name: [your name]
What I do: [one sentence, for example: independent mortgage advisor]

# The business
What I sell: [the product or service]
To whom: [who the customer is, in their words]
How many people work with me: [number]
Tools I work with: [for example: Google Drive, WhatsApp Business, Excel]

# How I like to work
- Answer me short and clear.
- Before you change or delete a file, tell me what you are about to do.
- When you are not sure, ask me one question. Do not guess.
- When you finish, tell me what changed and how I can check it myself.

# Never
- Never send a message, email or post in my name without my approval.
- Never write passwords or keys into files.
- Never delete files without asking.

# My words
- When I write "[word]", I mean "[meaning]".

Save this to CLAUDE.md, for all projects.

The three sentences, to copy

These are the sentences I type every day. Each one saves something different, in a different place.

1. When you want it to always know something, in every folder

Save this to CLAUDE.md, for all projects.

2. When it made a mistake and you do not want it back

Remember this.

3. When a task went well and you want it done that way next time

Turn this into a skill.

Sentence 1: save this to CLAUDE.md

What happens: it writes what you said into CLAUDE.md. The words "for all projects" matter: without them it may save the file only in the folder that is open now. With them it saves it to ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, your personal file, which loads in every folder you open.

What to check: open a new session and ask "What do you know about me?". When I tested this in a clean folder, before the file it said it did not know me. After the file, a new session answered with my name, my business and how I like to work.

When not to: something that is true for one project only, like "on this site the buttons are blue", goes into that project's CLAUDE.md. Then you write "save this to the project's CLAUDE.md".

Sentence 2: remember this

What happens: when it gets something wrong, do not fix it yourself. Tell it what is right and add "remember this". It saves that to its auto memory, which loads at the start of every new session in the same folder.

An example from my test: it wrote "users", I corrected it to "clients" and told it to remember. In a new session, without me mentioning it, it wrote "clients".

Where to see what it saved: type /memory inside Claude Code. From there you can open the memory and delete anything saved wrong.

Good to know: this memory belongs to the folder. What it learned in your business folder does not show up in another folder. A rule you need everywhere goes in with sentence 1.

Sentence 3: turn this into a skill

What happens: a skill is an instruction file for one task. After a task that went well, write "turn this into a skill", and it writes a SKILL.md file with the steps that worked. From then on it does the task the same way, without you explaining again.

An example from my test: I asked it to draft a WhatsApp meeting reminder, corrected it once, and told it to turn that into a skill. It created a skill called meeting-reminder. In a new session I typed /meeting-reminder with a name and a time, and got a reminder in the same style.

How to run it: type / and the skill name, or just ask for the task in words and it finds the skill on its own.

How you know it worked

• •The file: in a new session, "What do you know about me?" returns what you wrote in the template.
• •The memory: /memory shows the correction it saved.
• •The skill: when you type /, the skill name shows up in the list.

Did not work? In order:

1. Open a new session. The file and the memory load at the start of a session, not in the middle.
2. Ask it "Where did you save that?". If it says the file is inside the current folder and not in ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, tell it again "for all projects".
3. The memory is missing? Check that you opened the same folder where it learned.
4. The skill is not in the list? Ask "Where did you create the skill?" and open a new session in the same folder.

Sources

• •CLAUDE.md, auto memory and /memory: code.claude.com/docs/en/memory
• •Skills and SKILL.md: code.claude.com/docs/en/skills
• •The examples in this guide are real Claude Code output from a clean demo folder, on November 13, 2026.