claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [DOCS] CLAUDE.md line limit mistranslated as ~500 in all non-English locales (should be 200) [1 comments, 2 participants]

Documentation Type

Incorrect/outdated documentation

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/de/features-overview

Section/Topic

"Understand how features load" section → CLAUDE.md tab → line limit recommendation

Current Documentation

The English version correctly states:

Keep CLAUDE.md under 200 lines. Move reference material to skills, which load on-demand.

However, all non-English translations incorrectly state ~500 lines instead of 200:

Korean (ko):

CLAUDE.md를 약 500줄 이하로 유지하세요. 참조 자료를 skill로 이동하면 온디맨드로 로드됩니다.

French (fr):

Gardez CLAUDE.md sous environ 500 lignes. Déplacez le matériel de référence vers les skills, qui se chargent à la demande.

German (de):

Halten Sie CLAUDE.md unter ~500 Zeilen. Verschieben Sie Referenzmaterial zu Skills, die On-Demand geladen werden.

This same issue also appears on the costs page (/docs/{lang}/costs).

What's Wrong or Missing?

The CLAUDE.md line limit recommendation is mistranslated across all non-English locales. The English source says "200 lines" but every translation says "~500 lines" — a 2.5× discrepancy.

Affected pages (confirmed):

• /docs/{lang}/features-overview — "Understand how features load" section
• /docs/{lang}/costs — context management section

Affected languages: All non-English locales (KO, FR, DE, JA, ZH, ES, etc.) — confirmed that every available translation uses ~500 instead of 200.

This is not a minor typo — 500 vs 200 is a meaningful difference that directly impacts user behavior. Users following the translated docs may create CLAUDE.md files 2.5× larger than intended, wasting context window tokens and reducing Claude's effectiveness.

Additional finding: In the "Compare similar features" section → CLAUDE.md vs Skills tab, all locales correctly state: "Rule of thumb: Keep CLAUDE.md under 200 lines. If it's growing, move reference content to skills or split into .claude/rules/ files." This confirms 200 is the intended value and the ~500 figure in other sections is a translation error, not a deliberate change.

Suggested Improvement

Replace ~500 with 200 in all non-English translations of the following pages:

1. /docs/{lang}/features-overview — "Understand how features load" section, CLAUDE.md tab
2. /docs/{lang}/costs — context management section

Example corrections (same pattern applies to all non-English locales):

Korean:

• Before: "CLAUDE.md를 약 500줄 이하로 유지하세요."
• After: "CLAUDE.md를 200줄 이하로 유지하세요."

French:

• Before: "Gardez CLAUDE.md sous environ 500 lignes."
• After: "Gardez CLAUDE.md sous 200 lignes."

German:

• Before: "Halten Sie CLAUDE.md unter ~500 Zeilen."
• After: "Halten Sie CLAUDE.md unter 200 Zeilen."

All other non-English locales (JA, ZH, ES, etc.) have the same issue and should be corrected accordingly.

Impact

Medium - Makes feature difficult to understand

Additional Context

<img width="1050" height="460" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/14ccbc78-8204-4ebf-848e-409203bc1bc4" /> <img width="986" height="427" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9de176c3-4535-4a87-b405-4efe2f6a3961" /> <img width="1005" height="528" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/561b2e6e-7fe4-40f8-a6e0-fcb2b797547d" /> <img width="982" height="491" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ee954bf9-19c1-4c05-a6c3-db23286a2af0" />