codeaashu-claude-code/prompts/10-context-and-prompts.md

Prompt 10: Wire Up System Prompt, Context Gathering & Memory System

Context

You are working in /workspaces/claude-code. The CLI constructs a detailed system prompt before each conversation. This prompt includes:

1. Static instructions — core behavior rules (from src/constants/prompts.ts)
2. Dynamic context — OS, shell, git status, working directory (from src/context.ts)
3. Tool descriptions — auto-generated from tool schemas
4. Memory — persistent .claude.md files (from src/memdir/)
5. User context — config, preferences, project settings

Key Files

• src/constants/prompts.ts — System prompt construction
• src/constants/system.ts — System identity strings
• src/context.ts — OS/shell/git context collection
• src/context/ — Additional context modules
• src/memdir/ — Memory directory system (reads .claude.md, CLAUDE.md files)
• src/utils/messages.ts — Message construction helpers

Task

Part A: Trace the system prompt construction

Read src/constants/prompts.ts and map:

1. What is getSystemPrompt()'s signature and return type?
2. What sections does the system prompt contain?
3. How are tools described in the prompt?
4. What model-specific variations exist?
5. Where does the MACRO.ISSUES_EXPLAINER reference resolve to?

Part B: Fix the context gathering

Read src/context.ts and:

1. Understand getSystemContext() and getUserContext()
2. These collect OS info, shell version, git status, etc.
3. Verify they work on Linux (this codebase was likely developed on macOS, so some paths may be macOS-specific)
4. Fix any platform-specific issues

Part C: Wire up the memory system

Read src/memdir/ directory:

1. How does it find .claude.md / CLAUDE.md files?
2. How is memory content injected into the system prompt?
3. Does it support project-level, user-level, and session-level memory?

Verify it works by:

1. Creating a test CLAUDE.md in the project root
2. Running the system prompt builder
3. Checking the memory appears in the output

Part D: Create a prompt inspection script

Create scripts/test-prompt.ts:

// scripts/test-prompt.ts
// Dump the full system prompt that would be sent to the API
// Usage: bun scripts/test-prompt.ts

import './src/shims/preload.js'

async function main() {
  // Import the prompt builder
  const { getSystemPrompt } = await import('./src/constants/prompts.js')
  
  // May need to pass tools list and model name
  // Check the function signature
  const prompt = await getSystemPrompt([], 'claude-sonnet-4-20250514')
  
  console.log('=== SYSTEM PROMPT ===')
  console.log(prompt.join('\n'))
  console.log('=== END ===')
  console.log(`\nTotal length: ${prompt.join('\n').length} characters`)
}

main().catch(err => {
  console.error('Prompt test failed:', err)
  process.exit(1)
})

Part E: Fix MACRO references in prompts

The prompt system references MACRO.ISSUES_EXPLAINER. Make sure our MACRO global (from src/shims/macro.ts) provides this value. If the prompt references other MACRO fields, add them too.

Part F: Context module audit

Check src/context/ for additional context modules:

• Project detection (language, framework)
• Git integration (branch, status, recent commits)
• Environment detection (CI, container, SSH)

Verify these work in our dev environment.

Verification

1. bun scripts/test-prompt.ts dumps a complete system prompt
2. The prompt includes: tool descriptions, OS context, memory content
3. No undefined or MACRO. references in the output
4. Memory system reads .claude.md from the project root