Claude Code Starter Kit

A clean, opinionated starting configuration for Claude Code — the global rules, safety hooks, permissions, and a dedicated-workspace model that turn a fresh install into a careful, production-minded coding partner from the first session.

It installs into your user-level ~/.claude/ directory, so it applies to every project on your machine. Nothing here is project-specific — it's the baseline behavior layer.

Built by distilling a heavily-used personal setup down to the parts that are universal. No secrets, no business data — just the structure and the good habits. Treat it as a template: read it, keep what fits, change what doesn't.

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What you get

Piece	What it does
CLAUDE.md	Global instructions loaded every session: how to communicate, the quality bar, working principles, and pointers to the rule files.
rules/	Nine focused "boot rules" that shape behavior every turn — coding standards, a verification discipline, git workflow, agent-output fact-checking, memory habits, file hygiene, and context management.
hooks/	Four shell hooks that act as guardrails: block destructive commands, protect credential/system paths from writes, snapshot git state at session start, and preserve project state through context compaction.
settings.json	Permissions (a sensible allow-list), a deny-list that keeps Claude out of credentials and binary files, and the wiring that connects the hooks.
ARCHITECTURE.md	The 5-tier model for what config lives where and when it loads — so your setup stays lean instead of ballooning into 100K tokens of boot context.
docs/	The dedicated-workspace model: why every project gets its own folder + git repo, and how that keeps Claude's blast radius contained.

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Prerequisites

1. Claude Code installed. If you don't have it yet:

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
   # or follow https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/setup

   Run claude once so it creates ~/.claude/, then exit.
2. jq and python3 on your PATH (the hooks use them).
   • macOS: brew install jq (python3 ships with the Xcode command-line tools, or brew install python).
   • Linux: sudo apt install jq python3 (or your distro's equivalent).

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Quick start

git clone https://github.com/meriabroz/claude-code-starter.git
cd claude-code-starter
./install.sh

The installer:

• Backs up anything it would overwrite to ~/.claude/backup-<timestamp>/ — it never destroys your existing config.
• Copies CLAUDE.md, ARCHITECTURE.md, rules/, and hooks/ into ~/.claude/.
• Renders settings.json with the absolute paths for your machine (hooks need absolute paths) and merges it carefully — if you already have a settings.json, it writes the new one as settings.json.from-starter and tells you, rather than clobbering it.
• Makes the hook scripts executable.

Then start a new Claude Code session — the config loads automatically.

Letting Claude install it for you

If you'd rather hand it to Claude: open Claude Code in the cloned folder and say

Read README.md and install.sh, then install this starter kit into my ~/.claude/.

It'll walk the same steps and explain what it's doing.

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What it changes about Claude's behavior

• Reads before editing, keeps diffs minimal, no placeholder/TODO stubs.
• Verifies its work — "it builds" isn't "it's done"; the real path gets exercised before anything is called complete, and hype words ("fully verified", "production-ready") are banned without evidence.
• Fact-checks sub-agents against primary sources before acting on their findings.
• Commits sanely — stages files by name (never git add -A), writes "why" in the message, never force-pushes to main.
• Stays out of dangerous territory — rm -rf, sudo, pipe-to-shell, disk ops, and writes to credential/system paths are blocked at the hook layer.
• Uses persistent memory for durable cross-session knowledge.

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Customizing

Everything is plain Markdown and shell. To make it yours:

• Edit ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — add your name, your stack, your preferences.
• Add or remove files in ~/.claude/rules/. Anything in that folder auto-loads every session, so keep it lean (see ARCHITECTURE.md for the size discipline).
• Tune ~/.claude/settings.json permissions to taste.
• The hooks are short and commented — adapt the protected paths or destructive-command patterns to your environment.

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Uninstalling

The installer told you where your backup went (~/.claude/backup-<timestamp>/). To revert, copy those files back over the installed ones, or just delete the files this kit added and restore your prior settings.json.

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License

MIT — do whatever you want with it.