Skip to content

Navigation Menu

Sign in
Appearance settings

Search code, repositories, users, issues, pull requests...

Provide feedback

We read every piece of feedback, and take your input very seriously.

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Appearance settings

dewitt4/claude-code-template

Open more actions menu

Repository files navigation

Claude Code Template

A comprehensive template repository to jumpstart your Claude Code development workflow with best practices, skills, and project structure.

🚀 Quick Start

  1. Use this template: Click "Use this template" button on GitHub
  2. Clone your repository: git clone <your-repo-url>
  3. Open in VS Code: Open the folder with Claude Code extension installed
  4. Customize: Update .claude/CLAUDE.md with your project-specific instructions
  5. Start coding: Begin your conversation with Claude Code

Need detailed setup instructions? See GETTING_STARTED.md for a comprehensive guide.

📁 Repository Structure

.
├── .claude/                    # Claude Code configuration
│   ├── CLAUDE.md              # Project-specific instructions for Claude
│   ├── PLAN.md                # Project plan and roadmap (optional)
│   └── skills/                # Custom skills for Claude
│       ├── SKILLS.md          # Skills overview
│       ├── SKILL_TEMPLATE.md  # Template for creating new skills
│       └── [skill-name]/      # Individual skill directories
│           └── SKILL.md       # Skill definition and instructions
├── .claude-plug-in/           # Claude plugins configuration
│   ├── README.md              # Plugin setup guide
│   └── marketplace.json       # Plugin marketplace configuration
├── src/                       # Your source code (customize as needed)
├── tests/                     # Test files
├── docs/                      # Project documentation
├── .gitignore                 # Git ignore rules
├── GETTING_STARTED.md         # Detailed setup guide
└── README.md                  # This file

🎯 What's Included

Claude Configuration

  • CLAUDE.md: Central place for project-specific instructions that Claude Code reads automatically
  • PLAN.md: Comprehensive project plan template with architecture, phases, and requirements
  • Skills System: Modular, reusable instruction sets that Claude loads on-demand
  • SKILL_TEMPLATE.md: Template for creating new skills with best practices

Example Skills

This template includes three production-ready skills:

  • code-review: Comprehensive code review with quality, security, and performance checks
  • testing: Generate tests with coverage analysis for unit, integration, and e2e
  • documentation: Create technical docs, API documentation, and guides

Project Structure

  • Clean, organized directory layout
  • Example source code and test structure
  • Gitignore configured for common development scenarios
  • Comprehensive documentation and guides

🧠 Understanding Skills

A skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file with:

  • Frontmatter: Metadata (name, description) in YAML format
  • Instructions: Detailed guidance for Claude below the frontmatter

How Skills Work

  1. Load Time: Claude loads only skill names and descriptions at startup
  2. Matching: Incoming requests are matched against descriptions using semantic matching
  3. Confirmation: You get a confirmation prompt before Claude loads the full skill content
  4. Priority: Enterprise → Personal → Project → Plugins (in case of name conflicts)

Managing Skills

  • Add: Create a new directory with SKILL.md in .claude/skills/
  • Update: Edit the SKILL.md file directly
  • Remove: Delete the skill directory
  • Apply Changes: Restart Claude Code for changes to take effect

🔧 Customization Guide

1. Update Project Instructions

Edit .claude/CLAUDE.md with your project-specific context:

  • Tech stack and architecture
  • Coding conventions and standards
  • Project goals and constraints
  • Important file locations

2. Create Your Project Plan (Optional but Recommended)

Edit .claude/PLAN.md to define your project roadmap:

  • Project goals and success criteria
  • Technical architecture and design decisions
  • Development phases and milestones
  • Feature requirements with acceptance criteria
  • Coding standards and API design
  • Security, performance, and deployment strategy

Why use a project plan?

  • Gives Claude full context about your project
  • Ensures consistent architectural decisions
  • Tracks progress through development phases
  • Serves as single source of truth for requirements

3. Create Custom Skills

Use the provided template to create skills for your common tasks:

  1. Copy .claude/skills/SKILL_TEMPLATE.md as reference
  2. Create your skill directory:
mkdir -p .claude/skills/my-skill
  1. Create .claude/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md:
---
name: my-skill
description: Brief description for semantic matching
---

# Detailed instructions for Claude

Your detailed instructions here...

4. Configure Plugins

Update .claude-plug-in/marketplace.json if using Claude plugins

5. Adapt Project Structure

Modify the src/, tests/, docs/, and other directories to match your project needs

📚 Best Practices

  1. Be Specific: Write clear, detailed instructions in CLAUDE.md
  2. Plan Your Project: Use PLAN.md to document architecture and requirements
  3. Modular Skills: Break complex workflows into focused skills
  4. Good Descriptions: Skill descriptions should clearly indicate when they're relevant
  5. Version Control: Commit your Claude configuration with your code
  6. Documentation: Keep docs in sync with your Claude instructions
  7. Iterate: Refine instructions based on what works best

🎓 Resources

About

Use this template to launch a Claude Code development workflow with project plan, skills, plug-ins, and MCP servers

Topics

Resources

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

No releases published

Packages

 
 
 

Contributors

Morty Proxy This is a proxified and sanitized view of the page, visit original site.