Claude Desktop to support project-level CLAUDE.md reading

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

<img width="897" height="478" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8a3a00e4-56fb-42dc-8709-551ab857543c" />

Proposed Solution

<img width="871" height="267" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/92a6c437-159f-47bc-a621-c80e65769f3d" />

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

Example scenario:

1. I maintain a Python sales bot (vq-sales-bot) with a project CLAUDE.md

that defines forbidden files, architecture invariants, pricing gates,
and deploy workflow rules

1. When I use Claude Code (terminal), it auto-reads both ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md

(global rules) and ./CLAUDE.md (project rules) — works perfectly

1. When I switch to Claude Desktop for the same project, it has zero

knowledge of my project rules. It would happily edit forbidden files,
ignore the 3-key pricing gate, or push directly to main

1. I currently have to manually copy-paste ~400 lines of merged instructions

into Desktop's preferences field, and swap them every time I switch projects

1. With this feature, Claude Desktop would auto-read the project CLAUDE.md

when I open/reference a project folder — same behavior as Claude Code

<img width="880" height="402" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a133d00c-8b9d-4aa6-ba42-9bd6c0198dc7" />

Additional Context

• Claude Code already implements this: global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md +

project ./CLAUDE.md, loaded automatically per session

• Cursor and Windsurf support similar project-level instruction files

(.cursorrules, .windsurfrules)

• The workaround (merged instruction files pasted into preferences)

creates drift — when either source file updates, the paste becomes stale

• Desktop's preferences field is global, so project-specific rules

contaminate non-project conversations

• Ideal UX: Desktop detects project root (via .git or CLAUDE.md presence)

and loads the project instructions alongside global preferences

<img width="931" height="341" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b6714127-c5b8-400e-8393-702673e5a2a4" />