Configuration

All project policy lives in .task/CLAUDE.md, written inline on the first use of a capture skill. You never run a separate setup command.

It is a nested CLAUDE.md, not a bespoke config format. Claude Code loads a CLAUDE.md from a subdirectory as soon as a session reads a file in that directory — so an implementing session and task:code-reviewer, which both open .task/task/<slug>.md, get your settings without being told to.

First-run setup

On a fresh project, the first to-task / to-plan / to-roadmap / to-spec:

1. reads CLAUDE.md and your commit conventions, detects language/stack, build/test commands, and a testing policy;

2. writes .task/CLAUDE.md, records git config --local task.root, and excludes .task via .git/info/exclude;

3. reports what it wrote, then continues into the capture you asked for:

   Wrote .task/CLAUDE.md — Language: follow task.md Description; Testing Policy: on-demand.

There is nothing to confirm. If a detected value came out wrong, edit the file — which is also the answer to every later change.

The file is yours

Setup writes .task/CLAUDE.md once and never rewrites it. An existing file is left untouched even when a section is missing or a value has gone stale, so hand edits survive every later capture. Only two things are repaired silently when they go missing: the git config task.root anchor and the .task line in .git/info/exclude.

To regenerate the file from scratch, delete it and run any capture skill again.

What it holds

Section	Meaning
Language	By default the Description is in your language; everything parser-stable (headers, the ## Execution pointer, commit trailers) stays English.
Testing Policy	always / on-demand (default) / never. In on-demand, ## Tests is written only if the Description explicitly asks for it ("needs tests", "with tests", "cover with tests").
Build and Tests	The command(s) task:code-reviewer runs end to end before it amends the commit. A red run fails the item; when nothing is declared, the reviewer reports the skip in words rather than implying a green run.
Commit Format	A pointer to your existing CONTRIBUTING.md; failing that, rules derived from git log; failing that, a pointer to the plugin's bundled Conventional Commits template.
Code Navigation / Code Editing	Tool priority — which MCP tools or built-ins the executing session prefers. Omitted when your project has nothing beyond the built-ins.
Executing a task	The instructions an implementing session follows: read Spec: anchors, implement the Plan, commit, spawn the reviewer, tick the roadmap checkbox.

Language, Testing Policy, Build and Tests, Commit Format and Executing a task are always written — consumers look them up by heading, and read a missing one as nothing declared. When your own CLAUDE.md already documents one, the section stays and its body shrinks to a **Source:** pointer rather than repeating the content. Only Code Navigation / Code Editing are dropped outright when there is nothing to say.

Executing a task lives here, in one copy

Each task file ends with a one-line pointer:

## Execution
> Read [.task/CLAUDE.md](../CLAUDE.md) and follow its `## Executing a task` section.

The instructions themselves are in .task/CLAUDE.md, once. Edit them and the change applies to every task — including ones captured weeks ago. Rewording the pointer inside a task file, on the other hand, changes nothing but that file.

Two limits are worth knowing, and they are why the pointer exists at all:

• The automatic load fires for file-read tools only. A session that opens a task with cat or sed never triggers it — the pointer is what still gets it to the instructions.
• A nested CLAUDE.md is not re-injected after /compact (a project-root one is). It reloads the next time the session reads a file under .task/.

Language policy in practice

The split is deliberate: content follows your language, contract strings stay English. Your ## Description and Plan prose can be in any language, while ## Description, ### Step N:, Roadmap:, Spec: (including the slug in a header's link text), the ## Execution pointer, and commit trailers are always English — because parsers and the executing session key on them.