From 6d6dd79ff1adc8e74f1f4a615a464cf248b9959b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Phillip Moore <w.phillip.moore@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2026 07:11:02 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] chore: ban MEMORY.md usage in CLAUDE.md

MEMORY.md files are project-scoped and cause inconsistent behavior
across repos. All persistent instructions belong in version-controlled
documentation.

Fixes wphillipmoore/standards-and-conventions#347

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 CLAUDE.md | 8 ++++++++
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 09edf7b..78328a8 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -5,6 +5,14 @@ This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with co
 <!-- include: docs/standards-and-conventions.md -->
 <!-- include: docs/repository-standards.md -->
 
+## Auto-memory policy
+
+**Do NOT use MEMORY.md.** Never write to MEMORY.md or any file under the
+memory directory. All behavioral rules, conventions, and workflow instructions
+belong in managed, version-controlled documentation (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md,
+skills, or docs/). If you want to persist something, tell the human what you
+would save and let them decide where it belongs.
+
 ## Project Overview
 
 `pymqrest` is a Python wrapper for the IBM MQ administrative REST API. The project provides a Python mapping layer for MQ REST API attribute translations and command metadata experiments. The current focus is on attribute mapping and metadata modeling.