Discussion: What rules have YOU added to your CLAUDE.md?

[sgroy10]

Discussion: What rules have YOU added to your CLAUDE.md?

I want to crowdsource the best rules this community has written. Drop yours below — we'll build a living reference that new SpecLock / Claude Code / Cursor users can copy from.

Format

For each rule, please share:

1. The rule (exact text from your CLAUDE.md)
2. Why you added it (what drift it prevents)
3. The category (architecture, tests, deps, process, security, etc.)

I'll start

Architecture

Rule: Always use the repository pattern for database access. Never call the ORM directly from route handlers or service layers — go through repositories/.

Why: Claude kept inlining raw Prisma calls into route handlers "because it's shorter." Six weeks later we had no consistent place to add query logging, caching, or tenant scoping.

Tests

Rule: Never delete a test. If a test is flaky, mark it with .skip and open an issue. Deleting tests is a human-only decision.

Why: AI tools love to delete "broken" tests as part of "cleanup." That's how bugs ship.

Dependencies

Rule: No new npm packages without explicit approval. If you need functionality that seems to require a new dep, explain the need first and wait for confirmation.

Why: Went from 94 deps to 127 in a month before I added this rule. Most were unnecessary.

Process

Rule: Minimal diffs only. If the user asks for a one-line fix, deliver a one-line fix. Do not refactor adjacent code, do not rename variables, do not "improve" unrelated sections.

Why: Scope creep is the #1 cause of merge conflicts and review fatigue on my solo projects.

Security

Rule: Never read from or write to .env, .env.*, secrets/, or any file matching *credentials*. If you need a new env var, tell me and I'll add it.

Why: Self-explanatory.

Style

Rule: Do not add emojis to code, comments, commit messages, or PR descriptions unless I explicitly ask for them.

Why: Personal preference but strongly held.

Your turn

Drop your rules below. The best ones will make it into a curated rule pack that ships with SpecLock in v5.6. Contributors will be credited in the changelog.

Some prompts to get you thinking:

• What's a rule you added after getting burned by an AI?
• What's a rule your team argues about?
• What's a rule that seems obvious but isn't in anyone's CLAUDE.md?
• What's the weirdest rule you've had to add?

Let's build the canonical list.