condense
Deduplicate and consolidate CLAUDE.md memory files. Trigger when user says "condense my CLAUDE.md files", "deduplicate CLAUDE.md", "clean up my memory files", or "consolidate my instructions". Removes redundancy within files and across the file hierarchy.
When & Why to Use This Skill
This Claude skill optimizes agent performance by deduplicating and consolidating CLAUDE.md memory files. It streamlines the instruction hierarchy by removing redundant data and organizing project-specific rules, ensuring the AI agent operates with a clean, concise, and non-conflicting context window.
Use Cases
- 1. Repository Maintenance: Automatically scan large, complex codebases to find and consolidate scattered CLAUDE.md files into a clean, logical hierarchy.
- 2. Context Window Optimization: Improve agent focus and reduce token overhead by identifying and merging semantically similar instructions across multiple memory files.
- 3. Rule Standardization: Ensure project-wide consistency by moving global instructions to the root directory while keeping directory-specific rules in their relevant subfolders.
- 4. Instruction Conflict Resolution: Detect and resolve overlapping or contradictory instructions that may have accumulated during long-term project development.
| name | condense |
|---|---|
| description | Deduplicate and consolidate CLAUDE.md memory files. Trigger when user says "condense my CLAUDE.md files", "deduplicate CLAUDE.md", "clean up my memory files", or "consolidate my instructions". Removes redundancy within files and across the file hierarchy. |
CLAUDE.md Condensation
Deduplicate and consolidate CLAUDE.md memory files to remove redundancy.
Workflow
Phase 1: Discovery
Find all CLAUDE.md files:
python ../reflect/scripts/find_claude_md.py
Read all discovered files and analyze for:
- Intra-file duplication (same instruction repeated within a file)
- Cross-file duplication (same instruction in multiple files)
- Misplaced instructions (subdirectory files containing project-wide content)
Phase 2: Analysis
Intra-file duplication:
- Identify repeated bullet points or instructions
- Find semantically similar content (different wording, same meaning)
Cross-file duplication:
- Root CLAUDE.md should contain project-wide instructions
- Subdirectory CLAUDE.md should only contain directory-specific instructions
- If an instruction appears in both root and subdirectory, keep only in root
- If an instruction in subdirectory applies to whole project, move to root
Misplaced instructions:
- Subdirectory file contains instructions that apply project-wide → move to root
- Root file contains instructions only relevant to one directory → move to subdirectory
Phase 3: Interaction
Present findings using AskUserQuestion with checkboxes.
For each issue found:
- Show the duplicated or misplaced content
- Identify which files are affected
- Propose the consolidation (delete, move, or merge)
Example:
Issue: "Use 2-space indentation" appears in both ./CLAUDE.md and ./src/CLAUDE.md
Proposal: Remove from ./src/CLAUDE.md (already covered by root)
Wait for user approval before implementing.
Phase 4: Implementation
For approved changes:
- Remove duplicates - Delete redundant entries, keeping the most appropriate location
- Move misplaced content - Transfer instructions to correct hierarchy level
- Merge similar items - Combine semantically similar instructions into one
Hierarchy rules:
./CLAUDE.md- Project-wide instructions (highest priority)./.claude/rules/*.md- Topic-specific rules (modular)./subdir/CLAUDE.md- Only instructions specific to that subdirectory~/.claude/CLAUDE.md- Personal preferences across all projects./CLAUDE.local.md- Personal project-specific (not shared)
Resources
Uses shared resources from the reflect skill:
../reflect/scripts/find_claude_md.py- Locate all CLAUDE.md files../reflect/references/memory-locations.md- Memory hierarchy details../reflect/references/anti-patterns.md- What to avoid when writing instructions