Consolidate personal project files to a single location instead of splitting across ./.claude/ and ~/.claude/projects/

Problem

Project-specific configuration is split across two locations: ./.claude/ in the repo and ~/.claude/projects/<path>/ in the home directory. Some files like settings.local.json and CLAUDE.md can exist in both places and both get loaded.

I understand the need to separate team-shared files (committed to the repo) from personal files (not committed). But personal files are currently split across both locations — settings.local.json lives in ./.claude/ while memory and personal CLAUDE.md live in ~/.claude/projects/. This makes it hard to remember what goes where.

Suggestions

Two options that would simplify this:

1. Keep all project files in ./.claude/, including personal ones, with appropriate .gitignore entries managed by Claude Code. This is slightly risky (personal files live near committed ones), but it keeps everything in a single location.

1. Enforce a strict split: committed team files only in ./.claude/, personal files only in ~/.claude/projects/. Move settings.local.json out of ./.claude/ to eliminate the overlap.

Either approach would give users a clear mental model: one location for team config, one for personal — with no files that could live in both.

Related Issues

• #25947 — Store project memory files in project-local .claude folder
• #28276 — Configurable auto-memory storage location
• #33131 — Allow customizing the .claude/ directory location
• #25739 — Portable project memory across machines