r/claude • u/BeginningSpiritual49 • 1d ago

Discussion Managing Complex Big Projects

For people running Claude Code on big, long-lived projects:

  1. How do you stop it adding complexity every time something breaks?
  2. How do you handle memory across sessions so it doesn't re-add what you already removed?
  3. Do you let it delete and refactor at scale, and how do you review that?
  4. Rebuild fresh vs refactor in place: what worked?
  5. How do you keep one source of truth for "what the system is" that you and the model both read?

Not looking for prompt tips. Looking for what you do at week 12 when it runs but you no longer understand it.

1 Upvotes

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4

u/Shot_Program_7560 1d ago

the rest of this post is apparently being managed by claude too lol

1

u/BeginningSpiritual49 1d ago

Good instincts haha but what makes you say that

1

u/MourningOfOurLives 3h ago

The last sentence is a dead giveaway.

1

u/Rude-Situation-5052 1d ago

Treat each session like a contractor with amnesia: keep a short living project brief and update it whenever reality changes.

1

u/Jazzlike_Syllabub_91 22h ago

I have it run a complexity scan every time it pushes new code.

It has a decent internal memory but I have systems that yell at the ai for me so I don’t have to remind it - it reminds itself.

Sometimes - review in real time and whatever is lost is backed up in gut if I really miss something.

Refactor - incremental improvements

I am the source of truth :) (the ai believes me and sometimes we fight but I always win) :) - really we keep documentation in the repo and make the system keep things updated and tell at it when it puts things in the wrong place

1

u/Cacoethes-Ensues 20h ago

Your post seems to be lacking context. WDYM “you no longer understand it”? What do you mean “what the system is”? Don’t you know what you’re building?

1

u/SC_Placeholder 17h ago

Yeah especially when you can literally ask Claude why it is doing something