docs: add CLAUDE.md as token-efficient navigation map - #84
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Anchor-style repo map — not human documentation. Purpose is to eliminate the 3-5 exploration turns per session that Claude currently spends rediscovering devkit layout, the engine's parallel/branch/loop semantics, file locations for hooks/runners/MCP tools, and repo conventions. Rough cost/savings on a structural session: - Cost: ~1000 tokens loaded per session (~0.5% of 200k, ~0.1% of 1M) - Savings: ~1500-2000 tokens + 3-5 tool call turns eliminated - Lose case (narrow one-file edit): pays cost for zero savings — still noise Content is 100% grounded in files verified during authoring — no speculative anchors. Covers layout (26 rows), architectural invariants (5 bullets on deterministic execution, parallel fan-out, enforce gating, engine-vs-wrapper split, skills-vs-commands legacy), conventions pulled from memory (no direct push, no amend, version bump auto, etc.), and a "fixing this file" note. Rot protection: pr-ready's doc-check already targets CLAUDE.md, so stale entries get caught at PR time. A stale map would be worse than no map, so this safety net is load-bearing. Adds one file; zero code or workflow changes.
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Summary
Adds a 59-line anchor-style
CLAUDE.mdat repo root. Purpose: eliminate the 3-5 exploration turns per session Claude currently spends rediscovering devkit layout, the engine'sparallel/branch/loopsemantics, file locations for hooks/runners/MCP tools, and repo conventions.This is an AI-instruction file, not human documentation — closer in spirit to
.editorconfigor.gitignorethan toCONTRIBUTING.md. It does not duplicateREADME.md,ROADMAP.md, orCONTRIBUTING.md.Cost / savings math
Over a realistic mix of devkit work the file is strongly net positive, and the lose case is small in absolute terms.
Content (verified, not speculative)
Every row in the layout table points to a file or directory I read or listed while authoring. Nothing aspirational.
skills/,workflows/, each relevantsrc/subdir down to specific files,hooks/,agents/,mcpb/,bin/,resources/,.claude-plugin/plugin.json,src/Makefile,commands/(marked legacy).parallel: [ids]skip-then-fan-out pattern (referencesparallelChildreninsrc/engine/engine.go),enforce: soft|hardgating insrc/cmd/guard.go, engine-binary-vs-wrapper split, skills-vs-commands legacy status (PR refactor(plugin): migrate commands/ to skills/ #77).Rot protection
Staleness is the dominant failure mode for a navigation map — a wrong anchor is worse than no anchor.
pr-ready'sdoc-checkstep already targetsCLAUDE.mdby name (seeskills/pr-ready/SKILL.mdstep 6), so stale entries get mechanically caught and updated on every PR. That safety net is load-bearing for this file's long-term value.Not in this PR
README.md,ROADMAP.md,CONTRIBUTING.mdare untouched.Test plan
pr-ready's doc-check correctly flags CLAUDE.md as needing updates on a future PR that changes any referenced file path