Tell Claude who you are

Claude doesn't know who you are. Unless you tell it, it guesses, and it often guesses you know more than you do. A few lines about yourself change every answer you get.

What to tell it

Four things matter most:

• Who you are, and what the app is for.
• How much you know. Have you built anything before? Do you know any technical words?
• How you like to be talked to. Plain words or technical ones. Short answers or full detail.
• How much it should do without asking. Should it fix the obvious thing next door, or check with you first?

Three examples to copy

Copy the one closest to you and change it to fit.

New to all of this:

About me: I'm Sam. I run a yoga studio and I've never written code or built an app.
- Use plain words. If you need a technical word, explain it the first time.
- Ask me one question at a time.
- Keep reports short: what you changed, and exactly what I should click to check it.
- Don't change anything I didn't ask for without checking with me first.

Knows a bit:

About me: I'm Alex. I manage a small charity and I'm good with spreadsheets,
but I've never built an app.
- You can use common words like "database" or "log in", but explain anything less common.
- Tell me why you're doing something, not just what.
- If you see a problem I'll hit later, say so.

A developer:

About me: I'm Priya, a senior developer. I'm new to NodeGX, not to building apps.
- Be direct and technical. Skip the basics.
- Fix small, obvious things without asking, and mention them in your report.
- Ask before big changes to how the app is put together, or anything that deletes data.

Say it at the start of a conversation

Paste your lines at the top of your first message, before you describe what you want. Claude reads them first and pitches everything after at your level.

The catch: a new conversation starts from nothing, so you'd have to paste it every time. NodeGX can do that for you.

Save it in NodeGX so it sticks

NodeGX keeps a short file about you. It hands that file to Claude whenever Claude opens one of your projects, in every project on your computer. You write it once.

1. Open any project in NodeGX.
2. Click the cog icon (Settings) at the bottom of the icon bar on the left.
3. At the top of the Settings panel, click the Editor tab.
4. Click About you to open that section.
5. Click Create and open preferences. (If you've done this before, the button says Open preferences.)

The file opens in whatever app your computer uses for text files. If nothing opens, NodeGX shows you the file in its folder instead. Open it with any text editor, such as TextEdit on a Mac or Notepad on Windows.

The file has four headings:

• How I like to be talked to
• How I like things built
• What I know, and what I don't
• What I am building, and where it runs

Write a line or two under the ones that matter to you. You can paste your "About me" lines from above. Delete any heading you have nothing to say under. Then save the file.

The text between <!-- and --> is help for you. It is never sent to Claude.

Check it's working

Go back to the About you section. It tells you how many characters go to Claude with every build. If it says nothing is being sent, you haven't written under any heading yet, or the file isn't saved.

Keep it short. Only the first 2,000 characters are sent, which is about a page. The section tells you if you've gone over.

NodeGX notices changes to the file within a couple of seconds, so you can edit it any time.

How it reaches Claude, and the order of precedence

The file is PREFERENCES.md in NodeGX's own settings folder (the path is shown under the button). When you click Connect Claude Code, NodeGX includes that path in the connection it registers, as the NODEGX_USER_PREFERENCES environment variable. Claude receives the text when it asks NodeGX about the project it has opened.

If you connected Claude Code with an older version of NodeGX, click Connect Claude Code again. It replaces the old connection with one that carries the path.

Claude is told these preferences outrank its own habits, and that the project's own rules (docs/CONVENTIONS.md) outrank them. Where the two disagree, it follows the project and says so.

For preferences that should apply to all your Claude Code work, not only NodeGX, put them in ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md. See Claude Code in depth.

Quick reference

• Tell Claude who you are, how much you know, how to talk to you, and how much to do without asking.
• Paste it at the start of a conversation, or save it once in NodeGX.
• NodeGX: Settings (cog) → Editor tab → About you → Create and open preferences.
• Write under the headings, delete the rest, save.
• Keep it under 2,000 characters.