Critical Thinking Mindset — Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination.

AI Mistake Prevention — Failure modes to avoid on every task:

• Check downstream references before deleting. Deleting components causes documentation and code staleness cascades. Map all referencing files before removal.
• Verify AI-generated content against actual code. AI hallucinates APIs, class names, and method signatures. Always grep to confirm existence before documenting or referencing.
• Trace full dependency chain after edits. Changing a definition misses downstream variables and consumers derived from it. Always trace the full chain.
• Trace ALL code paths when verifying correctness. Confirming code exists is not confirming it executes. Always trace early exits, error branches, and conditional skips — not just happy path.
• When debugging, ask "whose responsibility?" before fixing. Trace whether bug is in caller (wrong data) or callee (wrong handling). Fix at responsible layer — never patch symptom site.
• Assume existing values are intentional — ask WHY before changing. Before changing any constant, limit, flag, or pattern: read comments, check git blame, examine surrounding code.
• Verify ALL affected outputs, not just the first. Changes touching multiple stacks require verifying EVERY output. One green check is not all green checks.
• Holistic-first debugging — resist nearest-attention trap. When investigating any failure, list EVERY precondition first (config, env vars, DB names, endpoints, DI registrations, data preconditions), then verify each against evidence before forming any code-layer hypothesis.
• Surgical changes — apply the diff test. Bug fix: every changed line must trace directly to the bug. Don't restyle or improve adjacent code. Enhancement task: implement improvements AND announce them explicitly.
• Surface ambiguity before coding — don't pick silently. If request has multiple interpretations, present each with effort estimate and ask. Never assume all-records, file-based, or more complex path.

easy-claude-help

[Utilities] Configuration guide for the easy-claude framework — explain available settings, guide user/AI through configuring

.claude/.ck.json

When to Use

• User asks "how do I configure Claude?", "how do I disable workflow confirmations?", "how do I turn off hooks?"
• User wants to know what settings are available in easy-claude
• User says "configure workflow mode", "set power user mode", "disable workflow detection"
• AI needs to help user update their

  .claude/.ck.json

  configuration

Quick Reference

Config File Location

~/.claude/.ck.json        ← global (applies to all projects)
.claude/.ck.json          ← project (shared, committed to git)
.claude/.ck.local.json    ← personal override (gitignored, per-developer)

Each layer overrides the previous via deep merge — you only need to set values you want to override. Use

.ck.local.json

codingLevel

workflow.confirmationMode

Key Settings

1. Workflow Confirmation Mode

Controls whether workflow detection requires user confirmation before activating.

Location:

.claude/.ck.json

workflow.confirmationMode

"always"

"never"

quick:

"off"

Example — disable confirmation gate:

{
    "workflow": {
        "confirmationMode": "never"
    }
}

Example — full opt-out (plain Claude):

{
    "workflow": {
        "confirmationMode": "off"
    }
}

Tip: Even in

"always"

mode, you can prefix any prompt with

quick:

to skip confirmation for that prompt only (e.g.,

quick: review the auth code

).

2. Coding Level

Controls the response style and verbosity level. Affects how Claude explains things.

Location:

.claude/.ck.json

codingLevel

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

Example:

{
    "codingLevel": 4
}

3. Language Settings

Configure Claude's thinking and response language.

Location:

.claude/.ck.json

locale

{
    "locale": {
        "thinkingLanguage": "en",
        "responseLanguage": "fr"
    }
}

4. Assertions

Custom instructions injected into every session as reminders.

Location:

.claude/.ck.json

assertions

{
    "assertions": ["Always use TypeScript strict mode", "Prefer functional components over class components"]
}

5. Plan & Naming

Control plan file naming format and date pattern.

Location:

.claude/.ck.json

plan

{
    "plan": {
        "namingFormat": "{date}-{issue}-{slug}",
        "dateFormat": "YYMMDD-HHmm",
        "issuePrefix": "GH-"
    }
}

6. Paths

Override where plans and docs are stored.

Location:

.claude/.ck.json

paths

{
    "paths": {
        "docs": "docs",
        "plans": "plans"
    }
}

7. Reference Docs Staleness

Controls how old reference docs can be before the staleness gate activates.

Location:

.claude/.ck.json

referenceDocs.staleDays

60

1-365

Example — relax to 90 days:

{
    "referenceDocs": {
        "staleDays": 90
    }
}

How it works:

1. On session start, checks

   <!-- Last scanned: YYYY-MM-DD -->

   in each reference doc
2. If any doc is older than

   staleDays

   , shows a warning listing stale docs
3. On next prompt, blocks until you run

   /scan-all

   ,

   /scan-*

   , or type

   skip scan

4. skip scan

   dismisses the gate for 24 hours

Tip: Run

/scan-all

to refresh all 10 reference docs at once.

Quick Configuration Examples

Power User Setup (minimal overhead)

{
    "workflow": {
        "confirmationMode": "never"
    },
    "codingLevel": 5
}

Opt-out Setup (plain Claude)

{
    "workflow": {
        "confirmationMode": "off"
    }
}

Team Setup (collaborative, Vietnamese responses)

{
    "workflow": {
        "confirmationMode": "always"
    },
    "codingLevel": 3,
    "locale": {
        "responseLanguage": "vi"
    }
}

How to Apply Config

Default: always use

.claude/.ck.local.json

AI Config Update Protocol

1. Default →

   .claude/.ck.local.json

   (personal override, not committed to git)
   • Read current local config:

     Read .claude/.ck.local.json

   • If file doesn't exist, create it with only the desired settings
   • If file exists, merge the new settings (preserve existing keys)
2. Only if user explicitly requests →

   .claude/.ck.json

   (shared, committed to git)
   • Use when user says "update project config", "share with team", "commit this setting"
3. Confirm to user what was changed and which file was updated

Config changes take effect on the next prompt (no restart needed).

.ck.local.json

overrides

.ck.json

via deep merge — safe for personal preferences without affecting teammates.

Schema Validation

.ck.json

What gets checked:

• confirmationMode

  must be one of

  "always"

  ,

  "never"

  ,

  "off"

• codingLevel

  must be a number between -1 and 5

• assertions

  must be an array of strings
• Unknown top-level keys produce warnings (catches typos like

  workfow

  )

CLI validation command:

node .claude/hooks/lib/ck-config-schema.cjs .claude/.ck.json

Workflow Settings (Advanced)

The workflow catalog itself lives in

.claude/workflows.json

• Set

  settings.enabled: false

  to disable workflow injection entirely
• Change

  settings.overridePrefix

  (default

  "quick:"

  ) for the per-prompt skip prefix

Note: Prefer

.ck.json → workflow.confirmationMode

over editing

workflows.json

directly, as

.ck.json

supports global+local cascading.

Code Review Graph (Structural Code Intelligence)

Optional feature that builds a knowledge graph of your codebase for graph-blast-radius analysis and smarter code reviews.

Setup:

pip install tree-sitter tree-sitter-language-pack networkx

/graph-build

Skills:

/graph-build

/graph-blast-radius

/graph-export

/graph-connect-api

/graph-query

/graph-export-mermaid

Auto-features (when graph is built):

• Session start: shows graph status
• Review skills: auto-inject blast radius analysis
• File edits: auto-update graph in background

Frontend→Backend API detection: Auto-configured by

/project-config

graphConnectors

docs/project-config.json

Docs:

.claude/docs/code-graph-mechanism.md

Closing Reminders

• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION break work into small todo tasks using

  TaskCreate

  BEFORE starting
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION search codebase for 3+ similar patterns before creating new code
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION cite

  file:line

  evidence for every claim (confidence >80% to act)
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION add a final review todo task to verify work quality <!-- SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset:reminder -->
• MUST ATTENTION apply critical thinking — every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: never present guess as fact. <!-- /SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset:reminder --> <!-- SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder -->
• MUST ATTENTION apply AI mistake prevention — holistic-first debugging, fix at responsible layer, surface ambiguity before coding, re-read files after compaction. <!-- /SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder -->