Feature Request: Auto-load CLAUDE.md files from submodules

## Description
When working with repositories that contain submodules, Claude Code should automatically load and consider CLAUDE.md files from both the
main repository and its submodules when providing assistance.

## Current Behavior
Currently, Claude Code only loads the CLAUDE.md file from the current working directory at startup. When a repository contains submodules
(like frameworks or libraries) with their own CLAUDE.md files, these aren't loaded automatically, requiring manual loading requests.

## Proposed Behavior
Claude Code should:

1. Detect git submodules within the repository
2. Automatically load CLAUDE.md files from these submodules at startup
3. Intelligently merge or prioritize information based on the files being worked on
4. Consider module-specific documentation when working with files from that submodule

## Additional Configuration Capability
Implement a configuration file (e.g., CLAUDE.config.json or .clauderc) at the repository root that would allow:

1. Explicitly specifying additional paths to search for CLAUDE.md files
2. Excluding certain submodules or directories from auto-loading
3. Setting priority/precedence for conflicting instructions
4. Controlling how documentation is merged or segmented

Example configuration:
``json
{
"documentation": {
"include": [
"./core-framework/CLAUDE.md",
"./docs/conventions.md"
],
"exclude": [
"./third-party/**/CLAUDE.md"
],
"priority": [
"./CLAUDE.md",
"./core-framework/CLAUDE.md"
]
}
}
``

Use Cases

• Working with modular applications built on frameworks
• Repositories with separate but related components, each with specialized documentation
• Projects that integrate multiple libraries, each with specific usage guidelines

Benefits

• More complete contextual understanding of the codebase
• Faster assistance with submodule-specific code
• Reduced need for repetitive loading of documentation
• Better adherence to module-specific conventions and patterns

Implementation Suggestions

• Add a configuration option in claude.json to control this behavior
• Provide a way to specify priority when multiple CLAUDE.md files might conflict
• Consider a hierarchical approach where more specific documentation overrides general documentation

Example

In a typical web application structure:

• Main app code in /src/ with /CLAUDE.md containing app-specific guidelines
• Framework code in /core-framework/ with /core-framework/CLAUDE.md containing framework-specific documentation

Currently, when working with framework files, Claude doesn't automatically know about the framework-specific patterns documented in the
submodule's CLAUDE.md.