[FEATURE] Automatic merge of global and project-specific settings in Claude Code

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Hi Anthropic team, I'm a Claude Code user and I've encountered a significant UX limitation regarding configuration management that I'd like to bring to your attention. Current behavior:
Global settings defined in ~/.claude/settings.json are NOT automatically merged with project-specific settings in <project>/.claude/settings.json
Claude Code agents don't have automatic access to global rules, requiring manual duplication across all projects

Proposed Solution

Expected behavior:
Global settings should automatically merge with project-specific settings
Project settings should be able to override global ones (similar to how .gitconfig works with local/global scope)
The merge should happen automatically without requiring explicit file reads or manual duplication
Why this matters:
DRY principle - Forces users to duplicate identical rules across N projects
Maintenance burden - Updating a global rule requires manual sync across all projects
Inconsistency risk - Easy to forget syncing, leading to different rule versions
Counter-intuitive - Goes against standard config file hierarchy patterns (global → local override)
Scalability - Becomes unmanageable with 10+ projects
Proposed solution: Implement automatic hierarchical config merging:
~/.claude/settings.json (global baseline)
↓ auto-merge
<project>/.claude/settings.json (project overrides)
↓
Final system prompt applied to agent
Current workaround: Using shell scripts to manually sync files, which is error-prone and defeats the purpose of having separate global/local configs. Would greatly appreciate if this could be prioritized as it significantly impacts the developer experience for multi-project workflows. Thank you for your consideration! Best regards,

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

Medium - Would be very helpful

Feature Category

Configuration and settings

Use Case Example

_No response_

Additional Context

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