CCAR-F Domain 2: Claude Code Configuration & Workflows

Published 7 Oct 2026 · By Ts. Tan Aik Keong (AK)

This domain is 20% of the exam. All five weightings:

This domain is the most "recall-able": exact file locations, flags and settings. It rewards hands-on time with Claude Code more than reading.

Where instructions live: the CLAUDE.md hierarchy

• ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — your personal preferences, not in version control.
• .claude/CLAUDE.md (or a project-root CLAUDE.md) — team-wide standards, shared through version control.
• CLAUDE.md in a subdirectory — conventions that apply to that directory.
• .claude/rules/ files with a YAML paths: glob — rules that load only when Claude works on matching files (for example, test-file conventions).

The exam likes "where should this rule go?" questions: personal habit vs team standard vs conditional-on-file-type.

Commands and skills

• .claude/commands/ — project-scoped slash commands, shared with the team. ~/.claude/commands/ — personal.
• Skills can set context: fork to run in an isolated subagent so verbose work does not pollute your main conversation; allowed-tools restricts what they can touch and argument-hint prompts for input.

Plan mode, direct execution and exploration

Use plan mode when a change is large, ambiguous or touches many files — agree the approach first. Direct execution suits small, well-understood edits. Delegate open-ended codebase exploration to an exploration subagent so the main context stays clean.

Claude Code in CI/CD

• -p / --print runs non-interactively. Without it, a pipeline job hangs waiting for input.
• --output-format json returns machine-readable output; --json-schema validates the shape of the result.
• --resume <name> continues a named session; use independent sessions for an unbiased review.
• /compact compresses context but can lose exact details such as numbers — be careful with it when precision matters.

Common wrong answers

• "Run Claude Code in the pipeline without extra flags" — missing -p.
• Putting a personal preference in the shared team file, or a team rule in the personal one.
• Loading every rule everywhere when a path-scoped rule would do.

Build to learn it

Make a small project with a project-level standard, your personal ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, a .claude/rules/ file scoped to test files, and one skill using context: fork. Then run claude -p "Review this file" from a script, add --output-format json, and parse the result. Our cheat sheet lists the settings in one place.

Sources

• AK's original CCAR-F field guide (claudeaimalaysia.com)