Boost-generated CLAUDE.md guidelines contain redundant/wasteful tokens

**Update:** I've decided to solve my own problem by using subdirectory-CLAUDE.md files, see comment: https://github.com/laravel/boost/issues/606#issuecomment-4451916468

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> [!NOTE]
> This analysis was performed using Claude (Opus 4.6), so the "already in training data" observations are specific to Claude's knowledge. However, the duplication and verbosity issues apply universally, and most modern LLMs share similar baseline knowledge of Laravel/PHP conventions — so the savings would likely benefit other models too.

## Summary

The `` injected into CLAUDE.md contain a significant amount of content that is either already in Claude's training data, duplicated across sections, or overly verbose. This burns context window tokens every conversation without improving output quality.

Rough estimate: **~220 of ~510 lines (~43%)** (in my personal generated file) could be removed or compressed without losing any behavioral benefit.

## 1. Content Claude Already Knows (Training Data)

These are standard Laravel/PHP conventions that don't need to be stated:

**PHP rules section:**
- "Always use curly braces for control structures" — standard, and already enforced by the Pint rule
- "Use PHP 8 constructor property promotion" — well-known since PHP 8.0
- "Always use explicit return type declarations" / "Use appropriate PHP type hints" — standard practice
- The code example showing a typed method signature — unnecessary illustration of basic PHP
- "Prefer PHPDoc blocks over inline comments" — generic best practice

**Laravel/core rules section:**
- "Use Eloquent models and relationships before raw queries"
- "Avoid `DB::`, prefer `Model::query()`"
- "Prevent N+1 with eager loading"
- "Use Form Request classes for validation"
- "Use gates, policies, Sanctum"
- "Prefer named routes and `route()`"
- "Use `ShouldQueue` for long operations"
- "Never use `env()` outside config files"
- "Use factories in tests"

**Livewire/core rules section** — entirely redundant. "Livewire allows you to build dynamic, reactive interfaces using only PHP" is explaining what Livewire is to a model that already knows. The only useful line ("activate the skill") is already stated in the Skills Activation section.

**Laravel 12 Structure** — the middleware/Kernel/bootstrap changes have been standard since Laravel 11 and are well within training data.

## 2. Content Duplicated Across Sections

| Instruction | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| "Use `search-docs` tool" | **5x** — boost rules, Laravel 12, Pest, Tailwind, Filament sections |
| "Activate `[skill-name]` skill" | **2x each** — Skills Activation section + individual package section (Livewire, Pest, Tailwind, AI SDK, Prism) |
| "Use `list-artisan-commands`" | **3x** — boost, laravel/core, filament sections |
| "Pass `--no-interaction`" | **2x** — laravel/core, filament sections |
| "Use `get-absolute-url`" | **2x** — boost, herd sections |
| Frontend bundling / Vite error advice | **2x** — foundation section, laravel/core section |

## 3. Verbose / Compressible Content

- **Boost search-docs syntax** (7 lines) — could be 1 line: "Supports stemming, AND logic, quoted phrases, and multiple queries"
- **Skills Activation descriptions** (~7 lines per skill) — each skill has a multi-line description of when to activate, but these descriptions are already present in the skill system prompts. A simple list of skill names would suffice.
- **Filament code snippets** (~100 lines) — helpful for v5, but the testing examples are standard Livewire testing patterns. These could be moved to a separate reference file rather than injected into every conversation. The **Common Mistakes** section (incorrect namespaces, breaking changes) is the actual high-value content here.

## Suggestions

1. **Remove standard PHP/Laravel knowledge** — trust the model's training data for basics; only include project-specific conventions or non-obvious choices
2. **Deduplicate** — state each instruction once (e.g., "use search-docs" at the top, skill activations in one place only)
3. **Move Filament code snippets** to a reference file that can be loaded on demand, keep only the Common Mistakes / namespace corrections inline
4. **Compress verbose descriptions** — the Skills Activation section could be just skill names since the skill prompts already contain activation triggers
5. **Delete the Livewire/core section** entirely — adds nothing beyond what's in training data + the skill activation already mentioned elsewhere

## Environment

- Laravel Boost v2
- Claude Code (Opus 4.6)
- Filament v5, Laravel 12, Livewire 4, Pest 4

Start by locating the code that generates the content in CLAUDE.md, then compare its sections with the redundancies and compression opportunities listed in this issue. Done means removing or consolidating low-value and duplicated guidance while preserving project-specific rules, and confirming the generated output remains useful.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.