Documentation: .claude/rules/ frontmatter format incorrect - globs works, paths with quotes/YAML list does not

Summary

The documentation for .claude/rules/ frontmatter is incorrect or incomplete. After extensive testing, the documented paths: format does not work in several configurations, while the undocumented globs: format works reliably.

Environment

• Claude Code CLI
• WSL2 (Linux on Windows)
• Project with .claude/rules/ directory containing multiple rule files

Testing Methodology

Created multiple test files with different frontmatter formats and checked /memory output:

| Format | Loads? |
|--------|--------|
| No frontmatter (unconditional) | YES |
| globs: "**/*.cs" | YES |
| paths: **/*.cs (unquoted) | YES |
| paths: "**/*.cs" (quoted) | NO |
| paths: + YAML list | NO |

Expected Behavior

Based on documentation and GitHub issues, this should work:

---
paths:
  - "**/*.cs"
  - "**/Controllers/**"
---

Actual Behavior

Only these formats work:

---
globs: **/*.cs, **/Controllers/**
---

Impact

Users following the documentation will have non-functional path-scoped rules with no error messages indicating why rules are not loading. This is a silent failure that is very difficult to debug.

Suggested Fix

1. Update documentation to show the working format (globs:)
2. Or fix the parser to support the documented paths: formats

Workaround

Use globs: with comma-separated unquoted patterns:

---
globs: pattern1, pattern2, pattern3
---