Initial commit: Claude Code foundations and improvements research

Conventions, community best practices research (Sept 2025 - March 2026),
and prioritized improvement backlog for Claude Code workflows.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

improvements/global-configuration.md

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+# Global Configuration
+
+## Why This Matters
+
+A global `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` provides cross-project defaults, eliminating duplication across project-level files. The community has converged on a layered configuration strategy.
+
+## Current State
+
+- No global `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` exists
+- Cross-project conventions (Gitea, secrets, SSH) are in the project-level `~/dev/claude/CLAUDE.md`
+- `~/.claude/settings.json` contains only `{"model": "opus"}`
+
+## Layered Configuration Model
+
+| Layer | File | Scope | Checked In |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| Personal defaults | `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` | All projects | No |
+| Project shared | `./CLAUDE.md` | Team, per-project | Yes |
+| Directory-specific | `./subdir/CLAUDE.md` | Loaded when working in subdir | Yes |
+| Local overrides | `CLAUDE.local.md` | Machine-specific, gitignored | No |
+| Path-scoped rules | `.claude/rules/*.md` | Conditional on file patterns | Yes |
+| On-demand knowledge | `.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md` | Loaded only when relevant | Optional |
+
+## Suggested Global CLAUDE.md Content
+
+Move these from the project-level file to global:
+
+- **Gitea conventions** — SSH aliases, remote URL format, org structure
+- **Secrets folder rules** — read-only, never copy values, never pass as CLI args
+- **Commit message format** — meaningful messages, small focused commits
+- **Session behaviour** — "Do not allow implicit decisions — confirm with the user"
+- **Response style** — concise, no trailing summaries, no unnecessary emojis
+- **SOPS + age** as the standard encryption tool
+- **Documentation standards** that apply across all projects (CLAUDE.md, MEMORY.md, FUTURE.md, README.md)
+
+## Settings.json Improvements
+
+Beyond `model`, consider:
+
+- Hook definitions (see hooks-and-automation.md)
+- MCP server registrations (see mcp-servers.md)
+- Permission preferences for common tool calls