I Cut My Claude Code Token Usage by 65% With a Simple File Structure Change

If you use Claude Code regularly, you've probably noticed that your CLAUDE.md file grows over time. You add rules, context, conventions, examples — and before long it's 400 lines of markdown that loads into every single session whether you need it or not. That's the problem. Claude Code reads your entire CLAUDE.md at the start of every conversation. A typical project file runs around 13,000 tokens. You're burning that budget before writing a single line of code. The Fix: A Lean Index, Not a Monolith The insight is straightforward: Claude doesn't need all your rules in every session. It needs the right rules for what you're working on right now. leanclaude is a Claude Code project template built around this idea. Instead of one large CLAUDE.md , you get: A lean CLAUDE.md index (~200 tokens) that names the rules but doesn't load them Focused rule files under .claude/rules/ that Claude pulls in as needed A memory system for persisting session discoveries across conversations Claude Code r