diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 07a7c3c..cdab21c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
 __pycache__/
 *.pyc
 .worktrees/
+
+# Local AI assistant context - not for publication
+CLAUDE.md
+AGENTS.md
+GEMINI.md
+.claude/
+.cursor/
diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
deleted file mode 100644
index d329eb9..0000000
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,29 +0,0 @@
-# autoresearch
-
-> **Status: MVP complete** — all core components built and tested.
-
-Autonomous research loop for Claude Code. Runs inside tmux, one window per project.
-
-## Key files
-- `bin/start.sh` — tmux session orchestrator (start/stop/status)
-- `bin/check_budget.py` — Anthropic API budget checker
-- `bin/log_view.py` — formatted log viewer (overview pane, left)
-- `bin/metrics.py` — metrics summary (overview pane, right)
-- `~/.claude/autoresearch.yaml` — main config
-- `~/.claude/skills/autoresearch/skill.md` — /autoresearch skill
-- `~/.claude/skills/autoresearch-loop/skill.md` — /autoresearch-loop (ralph-loop payload)
-
-## Run
-```
-bin/start.sh          # start tmux session
-bin/start.sh stop     # stop all windows
-bin/start.sh status   # show running experiments
-```
-
-## Plans
-
-`docs/plans/` contains design and implementation documents for this project.
-
-## Logs
-- `~/.claude/autoresearch/log.jsonl` — append-only experiment log
-- Each line: `{ "ts": "ISO8601", "project": "...", "exp": "NNNN", "metric_before": 0.0, "metric_after": 0.0, "kept": true, "files_changed": ["..."] }`