Never let it describe your product from memory
The knowledge base is not documentation. It is the vocabulary file that stops Claude inventing features you do not sell.
7 min read
Curious
0 XPAsk Claude to write about your product and it will describe a product. It will be a reasonable product in your category, with the features that category usually has.
Some of those features will not be yours. That is not a hallucination in the dramatic sense, it is just a confident average, and an average is wrong in specific ways.
One line, and it prevents most of the damage
Never describe the product from memory. Read the knowledge base first, every session. Put it in your CLAUDE.md word for word.
What goes in it
Not marketing copy. The knowledge base is there to constrain, so the most valuable parts are the limits.
## What we actually do Order capture from phone calls, converted to structured orders. NOT inventory management. NOT a full ERP. ## Proof points (all verified 2026-07-30) - 3,100 orders/month processed for one customer - 11 minutes average time saved per order - Live with 40+ distributors ## Do NOT claim - Real-time sync. It is 15-minute intervals. This has been written wrong twice. - Integrations we do not have. The list is in integrations.md. - Anything about pricing without checking the pricing page today. ## Promotion policy Soft-sell only. Product may appear twice, in third person. Never in the intro. Never in the FAQ. Sentence must work for a reader who never buys.
The promotion policy is a real rule, not a vibe
How the brand may appear is a decision, and it varies by client and by business model. Write it down as a number and a place, not as a feeling.
| Vague | Enforceable |
|---|---|
| "Mention us naturally" | "Twice maximum, in third person, never in the intro or the FAQ" |
| "Do not be too salesy" | "Every product sentence must work for a reader who never buys" |
| "Be neutral about competitors" | "State what each does. No comparative adjectives about ours." |
The product pointed at a use case it does not serve
A cross-article check caught an article recommending the product for a use case the knowledge base explicitly excludes. Every individual sentence was true and followed the style rules. The article read perfectly. It was simply recommending the wrong thing to the wrong reader.
Cost: Would have reached the client as a finished, polished, wrong article.
The rule that came out of it. Style checks cannot catch this. You need a separate pass that reads the draft against the knowledge base, asking one question: does this article claim anything the KB says we do not do?
Do this now
- 1
Create the file, and start with the fence rather than the features.
mkdir -p knowledge touch knowledge/product.md # First section: 'Do NOT claim'
Everyone writes the features section. The limits section is the one that changes the output.
- 2
Add the never-from-memory line to your CLAUDE.md.
Never describe the product from memory. Read knowledge/product.md at the start of every session.
- 3
Test the fence.
> Write one paragraph about what our product does. > Then list anything you were tempted to say that the KB rules out.
That second sentence is the interesting one. It shows you exactly which wrong claims your category invites.
Finished reading?
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