The anatomy of a Claude Code configuration
Claude Code is Anthropic’s AI-powered coding assistant — the one that reads files, runs commands, edits code, and drives a full development workflow from your terminal, editor, or a desktop app. It is a distinct product from the browser-based Claude chat at claude.ai; the two share the same underlying model but almost nothing about how you interact with them. Everything in this post is about Claude Code specifically. Out of the box, Claude Code behaves the same for everyone. But almost every serious user ends up with a personal configuration: a folder called ~/.claude/ on their machine that quietly shapes how Claude Code behaves for them. ...