Stop copy-pasting project context: 4 stages of CLAUDE.md evolution

Last Tuesday I pasted the same 15 lines of project context into Claude -- for the 47th time. Stack, conventions, database schema, the "don't use localStorage for JWT" rule. Every. Single. Session. That's when it hit me: my CLAUDE.md was frozen in time, written for a prototype that had become a production app six months ago. Sound familiar? Most CLAUDE.md guides tell you what to put in the file . This article is about something different: when to put it there . Your CLAUDE.md should grow with you