claude-md-budget

name	claude-md-budget
description	How to keep CLAUDE.md under its character Floor without deleting a rule: measure sections first, rotate by derivability, two edits per rotation. Load in /release step 6 and before any CLAUDE.md rotation or split.

CLAUDE.md budget

Authority: CLAUDE.md Maintenance Practice 5 (the whole forensic record), tests/test_claude_md_size.py, tests/test_claude_md_rotation.py, tests/test_key_files_split.py, tests/test_cli_env_split.py; the Floor is claude_md.max_chars (uv run python -m harness check claude_md.max_chars).

1. Measure sections by heading and sort by size BEFORE choosing what to rotate; twice the answer was a section nobody suspected.
2. A rotation is TWO edits: the release moves out of Current State AND the "Older releases (X and earlier)" boundary moves; the rotation test fails naming both numbers.
3. What is derivable leaves, what is not stays: a description jcodemunch can answer live goes to KEY-FILES.md / CLI-AND-ENV.md; a prohibition, a constraint whose violation causes a defect, or a rationale stays. Adding a name to the split tests' rationale lists to buy budget is the thing the split exists to stop.
4. Rotated text goes to ISSUE-HISTORY.md verbatim; ask what lesson it earned and put that one line in Standing lessons.
5. The target must be tracked: git check-ignore the path before writing (docs/* is ignored; docs/standard/, docs/harness/, docs/cicd/, docs/workflows/ are re-included).
6. Never raise the Floor to make room; never delete a warning-marked rule.