CLAUDE.md is the instruction file that Claude Code reads before acting. It exists at two levels: a project file at the repository root, and a user-level file at ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md that applies everywhere and belongs to no repository.
Each clone and worktree carries its own project copy. The user-level file sits outside version control entirely — it is where rules go when nobody wants to argue about them in review, and it is invisible to CI.
A scan of one working machine found 18 versions of the same CLAUDE.md, with no reliable way to say which was current. That is instruction drift in its most common form.
This entry is part of the untactit glossary. Definitions draw on measured write-ups published on the blog.
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