Preflight Checklist
Problem Statement
Hi Anthropic team, I'm a Claude Code user and I've encountered a significant UX limitation regarding configuration management that I'd like to bring to your attention. Current behavior:
Global settings defined in ~/.claude/settings.json are NOT automatically merged with project-specific settings in /.claude/settings.json
Claude Code agents don't have automatic access to global rules, requiring manual duplication across all projects
Proposed Solution
Expected behavior:
Global settings should automatically merge with project-specific settings
Project settings should be able to override global ones (similar to how .gitconfig works with local/global scope)
The merge should happen automatically without requiring explicit file reads or manual duplication
Why this matters:
DRY principle - Forces users to duplicate identical rules across N projects
Maintenance burden - Updating a global rule requires manual sync across all projects
Inconsistency risk - Easy to forget syncing, leading to different rule versions
Counter-intuitive - Goes against standard config file hierarchy patterns (global → local override)
Scalability - Becomes unmanageable with 10+ projects
Proposed solution: Implement automatic hierarchical config merging:
~/.claude/settings.json (global baseline)
↓ auto-merge
/.claude/settings.json (project overrides)
↓
Final system prompt applied to agent
Current workaround: Using shell scripts to manually sync files, which is error-prone and defeats the purpose of having separate global/local configs. Would greatly appreciate if this could be prioritized as it significantly impacts the developer experience for multi-project workflows. Thank you for your consideration! Best regards,
Alternative Solutions
No response
Priority
Medium - Would be very helpful
Feature Category
Configuration and settings
Use Case Example
No response
Additional Context
No response
Preflight Checklist
Problem Statement
Hi Anthropic team, I'm a Claude Code user and I've encountered a significant UX limitation regarding configuration management that I'd like to bring to your attention. Current behavior:
Global settings defined in ~/.claude/settings.json are NOT automatically merged with project-specific settings in /.claude/settings.json
Claude Code agents don't have automatic access to global rules, requiring manual duplication across all projects
Proposed Solution
Expected behavior:
Global settings should automatically merge with project-specific settings
Project settings should be able to override global ones (similar to how .gitconfig works with local/global scope)
The merge should happen automatically without requiring explicit file reads or manual duplication
Why this matters:
DRY principle - Forces users to duplicate identical rules across N projects
Maintenance burden - Updating a global rule requires manual sync across all projects
Inconsistency risk - Easy to forget syncing, leading to different rule versions
Counter-intuitive - Goes against standard config file hierarchy patterns (global → local override)
Scalability - Becomes unmanageable with 10+ projects
Proposed solution: Implement automatic hierarchical config merging:
~/.claude/settings.json (global baseline)
↓ auto-merge
/.claude/settings.json (project overrides)
↓
Final system prompt applied to agent
Current workaround: Using shell scripts to manually sync files, which is error-prone and defeats the purpose of having separate global/local configs. Would greatly appreciate if this could be prioritized as it significantly impacts the developer experience for multi-project workflows. Thank you for your consideration! Best regards,
Alternative Solutions
No response
Priority
Medium - Would be very helpful
Feature Category
Configuration and settings
Use Case Example
No response
Additional Context
No response