حط لـ Claude كناري: سطر واحد ينبهك قبل ما تخرب المحادثةGive Claude a Canary: One Line That Warns You Before a Chat Goes Bad

Key terms

context rot

The longer a conversation gets, the less attention the model pays to what you told it at the start. Anthropic uses this term on its engineering blog.

Canary

A small marker you ask Claude to repeat in every reply. While it is there, your rules are loading. When it goes missing, that is your warning.

Standing instructions

The text Claude reads before every chat: Personal preferences on claude.ai, Project instructions inside a Project, or the CLAUDE.md file in Claude Code.

The steps

1. 1

   Step 1

   Pick your canary

   Keep it small and easy to spot in the first line of every reply. Your name is the simplest choice.

   Do not make it long or annoying. You will see it in every reply.

   PromptThe canary rule

   Copy

   Start every reply with "Hey [your name]". This is a standing rule for the whole conversation, even if the reply is one line.

   Tip: A slightly unusual greeting is clearer than a plain hello Claude might write anyway.

2. 2

   Step 2

   Add it to Personal preferences

   On claude.ai, open Settings and put the rule in Personal preferences. It then applies to all your chats.

   If you already have preferences there, make the canary the first line.

   support.claude.com

   

3. 3

   Step 3

   Or add it to Project instructions

   If you work inside a Project, open it and add the rule to the project instructions. It then applies to that Project only.

   This helps when a Project carries a lot of rules and you want to know they are all still working.

   support.claude.com

   

4. 4

   Step 4

   In Claude Code, put it in CLAUDE.md

   In Claude Code, the CLAUDE.md file in your project folder is read at the start of every session. Put the rule at the top of the file.

   code.claude.com

   

   PromptA line for CLAUDE.md

   Copy

   Start every reply with "Hey [your name]". This is a standing rule for the whole session.

5. 5

   Step 5

   Watch the canary while you work

   Nothing to do. Just glance at the first line of each reply.

   If the canary is gone, Claude has started dropping some of your rules. Harder to spot mistakes usually follow.

6. 6

   Step 6

   Canary gone? Ask for a summary

   Do not argue or repeat your rules in the same chat. Ask for a summary of the work so far.

   PromptSummary prompt

   Copy

   Summarize this conversation as bullet points: the decisions we agreed on, the rules you must follow, the work that is done, and the next step. No extra explanation.

7. 7

   Step 7

   Start a fresh chat

   Open a new chat, paste the summary and carry on from there.

   In Claude Code, type /clear to start a clean session, then paste the summary.

   

   Tip: Read the summary before you paste it. Fix anything wrong yourself.

8. 8

   Step 8

   Know the canary's limits

   The canary is an early warning, not a guarantee. Claude can greet you by name and still get a number wrong.

   Always check important numbers and facts at the source.

Ready prompts to copy

End every reply with one line: "Rules: [number of rules] active". This is a standing rule for the whole conversation.