[FEATURE] Option to exclude global CLAUDE.md from specific projects

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

The global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md is loaded into every session and its instructions accumulate with project-level files. There's no way to opt a specific project out of the global memory file.

This becomes a problem when:

• A project has conventions that conflict with global preferences (e.g., global says "use Vitest" but the project uses Jest)
• You're running specialized agents where the global context is irrelevant noise that wastes instruction budget
• You want a clean-slate session for a particular repo without modifying your global file

Project-level CLAUDE.md can override on conflicts, but you still pay the token cost and risk instruction degradation from the accumulated rules. There's no way to say "don't load global memory for this project."

Proposed Solution

Any of these would work (not mutually exclusive):

1. Project setting — A key in .claude/settings.json like "ignoreGlobalMemory": true that prevents ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md from being loaded for that project.
2. CLI flag — Something like --no-global-memory for one-off sessions (less invasive than --bare, which disables much more).
3. Selective imports — Allow project-level CLAUDE.md to declare something like <!-- ignore-global-memory --> to skip the global file.

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

Low - Nice to have

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

_No response_

Additional Context

Current workarounds

• Keeping the global CLAUDE.md nearly empty (defeats the purpose of having one)
• Using project-level overrides for each conflicting rule (tedious, doesn't save token budget)
• Using --bare (too aggressive — disables hooks, plugins, LSP, and skills too)