What Is CLAUDE.md? A Guide for API Documentation Teams

CLAUDE.md is a concise, project-specific Markdown file that gives Anthropic’s Claude Code persistent instructions for working accurately with an API, reducing reliance on stale training data or inferred documentation. API documentation teams can include it in public SDKs, starter kits, and sample applications to define the API’s purpose, authentication requirements, authoritative documentation sources, common errors, and implementation conventions such as pagination, idempotency, versioning, and field naming. The file should generally remain under 200 lines, link to rather than duplicate OpenAPI specifications and reference documentation, and be maintained through Git reviews, release-cycle checks, periodic audits, and feedback from recurring developer issues. CLAUDE.md complements rather than replaces OpenAPI specifications, while LLMs.txt helps AI tools navigate hosted documentation and AGENTS.md provides similar cross-tool guidance. ReadMe’s LLMs.txt, MCP server, AI-assisted documentation tools, and structured OpenAPI support can help Claude retrieve current API schemas and documentation rather than relying on scraped or outdated sources.

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