CLAUDE.md — your agent's instructions

Setting the working directory decides what your agent can see. A file called CLAUDE.md decides how it behaves.

What it is

CLAUDE.md is a plain text file you put in your working directory. Every time you start a conversation, your agent reads it first. So it’s where you write down anything you want your agent to always know — how you like things done, what your projects are, what to call things, rules to follow.

Without it, you’ve got a capable but generic assistant. With it, you’ve got your agent — one that already knows how you work before you’ve said a word.

A simple example

Say you drop a file called CLAUDE.md in your vault root with something like this inside:

# How I work

- I'm a freelance designer. Most of my notes are client work.
- When I ask you to write, keep it plain and short. No corporate waffle.
- My daily notes live in the Journal folder. My clients each have a folder under Clients.
- Always use British English.

Now every conversation starts with your agent already knowing your setup. You don’t have to explain who you are or where things live each time. It just knows.

Where to put it

Put CLAUDE.md in the root of your working directory — so if you’re using your whole vault (the default), that’s your vault’s top-level folder. Your agent picks it up automatically. There’s nothing to switch on.

If you’ve pointed Hyo at a different folder, put the CLAUDE.md in that folder instead.

Start small, grow it over time

You don’t need to write a perfect one up front. Start with a few lines about who you are and how you like things done. Every time you find yourself explaining the same thing to your agent twice, add it to the file. Over time it becomes the memory that makes your agent feel like it really knows you.

This is where the bigger picture starts

A working directory plus a good CLAUDE.md is the foundation of a real personal agent — one that works from your knowledge and knows how you operate. That’s the whole methodology behind College of Knowledge, where this goes a lot deeper.

For now, you’ve got everything you need to set your agent up well. Next, explore the basics of working in Hyo day to day.