My CLAUDE.md file was 300+ lines of verbose documentation that Claude Code routinely ignored. Sound familiar?

After researching what actually works in the community, I discovered the brutal truth: Claude Code doesn’t read novels. It needs bullet points and shortcuts.

The Problem

My original CLAUDE.md had detailed explanations for error handling, service patterns, and testing rules. Claude Code would consistently miss these rules because they were buried in prose.

What Actually Works

Expert developers reported that concise, scannable formats work dramatically better. Top developers use shortcuts like qplan, qcode, qcheck with “10x better results.” Research shows “1 iteration with structure was of similar accuracy to 8 iterations with unstructured prompts.”

Before: Verbose Explanations

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### Services
- Follow the Single Responsibility Principle: one service, one task.
- Use class methods for stateless operations.
- Return domain objects, not primitives or temporary files.

After: Scannable Patterns

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class ExampleService
  def self.call(user:, resource:)  # keyword args only
    # return domain objects, comprehensive error handling
  end
end

Instantly scannable. Immediately actionable.

The Secret Weapon: Shorthand Commands

The biggest game-changer? Adding commands that trigger specific workflows:

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### Common Commands
- `qplan` = analyse codebase consistency before implementing
- `qcode` = implement with tests and formatting
- `qcheck` = review against CLAUDE.md checklists
- `qcommit` = run quality checks then commit

Now instead of hoping Claude remembers rules, I just type qcheck and it automatically reviews against my standards.

Key Principles That Work

1. Scannable Over Comprehensive — Bullet points beat paragraphs
2. Commands Over Explanations — qcheck beats “please review your code”
3. Examples Over Rules — Code snippets beat written explanations
4. Structure Over Length — Clear sections beat comprehensive coverage
5. Enforcement Over Hope — Build verification into workflow

The Results

Before: Claude would skip documentation checks, forget to run quality scripts, create the wrong types of tests, ignore established patterns.

After: Claude now always checks specs with qspec, automatically runs quality checks with qcommit, creates request specs instead of controller specs, follows patterns consistently.

Claude Code is incredibly powerful, but only if you speak its language. That language isn’t verbose documentation — it’s concise, structured, actionable guidance.

Stop writing novels. Start writing bullet points.