Private and Public Claude.md Setup

Overview

This repository provides tools to manage both public (CLAUDE.md) and private (CLAUDE_PRIVATE.md) configuration files for Claude Code, while ensuring private configuration files are automatically excluded from version control.

Purpose

• CLAUDE.md: Project-specific instructions that can be safely committed to version control
• CLAUDE_PRIVATE.md: Private/sensitive instructions that should never be committed (API keys, personal preferences, private system details, etc.)

Setup

Automatic Global Gitignore Setup

Run the included setup script to configure your global gitignore:

./setup-claude-private-gitignore.sh

This script will:

1. Check if you have a global gitignore file configured
2. Create one if it doesn't exist (at ~/.gitignore_global)
3. Add CLAUDE_PRIVATE.md to the global gitignore if not already present
4. Configure git to use the global gitignore file

Manual Setup

If you prefer to set this up manually:

1. Check your current global gitignore:

   git config --global core.excludesfile

2. Create or edit the global gitignore file:

   echo "CLAUDE_PRIVATE.md" >> ~/.gitignore_global

3. Configure git to use it:

   git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global

Usage

1. Public Instructions: Add general, non-sensitive project instructions to CLAUDE.md
2. Private Instructions: Add sensitive or personal instructions to CLAUDE_PRIVATE.md
3. Commit Safely: Only CLAUDE.md files will be tracked by git; CLAUDE_PRIVATE.md files are automatically ignored globally

Benefits

• Security: Never accidentally commit sensitive information
• Flexibility: Use private instructions across all your repositories
• Simplicity: One-time setup applies to all repositories on your system

Files in This Repository

• README.md: This file
• setup-claude-private-gitignore.sh: Automated setup script
• commands/global-claude-private.md: Slash command for Claude Code to perform setup

Requirements

• Git installed and configured
• Bash shell
• Claude Code CLI (for automated setup script)