claudemd-gen
This skill should be used when the user wants to generate, create, write, audit, improve, or review a CLAUDE.md file, set up .claude/rules/ for path-specific instructions, create a CLAUDE.local.md for personal preferences, set up project instructions, configure Claude Code for a project, ask what should go in a CLAUDE.md, or needs guidance on Claude Code memory configuration and project instruction best practices. Also trigger when the user wants to initialize Claude Code in a repo, bootstrap Claude config, set up project memory, or asks how to make Claude work better with their codebase — even if they don't mention "CLAUDE.md" explicitly.
What this skill does
# CLAUDE.md Generator
Generate effective CLAUDE.md files that encode project-specific knowledge for Claude Code.
## Core Principles
1. **WHAT/WHY/HOW framework** — Every section should answer: What does the project do? Why are things done this way? How to build/test/deploy?
2. **80% rule** — If Claude would get something right 80%+ of the time without instruction, don't include it
3. **Imperative, not descriptive** — Write instructions ("Use pnpm"), not descriptions ("This project uses pnpm")
4. **Reference, don't copy** — Point to existing docs ("See docs/api.md for endpoints"), don't duplicate them
5. **Keep it concise** — Target under 200 lines for most projects (monorepo roots may reach 300). If longer, split into .claude/rules/ with path patterns
## Memory Hierarchy
| Level | File | Scope | Use For |
|-------|------|-------|---------|
| 1 | `CLAUDE.md` or `.claude/CLAUDE.md` (repo root) | All sessions, all users | Build commands, architecture, conventions |
| 2 | `CLAUDE.md` (subdirectory) | When working in that dir | Package-specific rules |
| 3 | `.claude/rules/*.md` | Path-matched to file patterns | Path-specific rules (e.g., test patterns) |
| 4 | `CLAUDE.local.md` | Personal, gitignored | Individual preferences |
| 5 | `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` | All projects for this user | Global personal preferences |
| 5b | `~/.claude/rules/*.md` | All projects for this user | Global personal rules (lower priority than project rules) |
| 6 | Auto-memory | Claude-managed per-project | Learned patterns across sessions (not user-editable) |
**Tip:** CLAUDE.md supports `@path` imports (e.g., `@docs/architecture.md`) to pull in external files inline. Useful for sharing rules across tools or keeping CLAUDE.md lean. See `references/memory-system.md` for details.
## Quick Decision Guide
| Situation | Action |
|-----------|--------|
| New project, no CLAUDE.md | Generate with `/claudemd-gen:generate` |
| Existing CLAUDE.md, unsure if good | Audit and auto-fix with `/claudemd-gen:generate --audit` |
| Large project, need path-specific rules | Generate rules with `/claudemd-gen:generate --rules` |
| Want personal preferences separate | Create local with `/claudemd-gen:generate --local` |
| Full setup from scratch | Complete setup with `/claudemd-gen:generate --full` |
## What Belongs in CLAUDE.md
**Always include:**
- Build/test/lint commands (the #1 most impactful content)
- Project architecture overview (key directories, entry points)
- Non-obvious conventions (naming, patterns, error handling)
- Common pitfalls specific to this codebase
**Never include:**
- Generic language tutorials or best practices
- Information already in package.json, Cargo.toml, etc.
- Task-specific instructions (use chat context instead)
- Obvious things Claude already knows
## References
For detailed guidance, read these on demand:
- `references/best-practices.md` — Detailed writing Do's and Don'ts
- `references/memory-system.md` — Full memory hierarchy, @import, rules/ patterns
- `references/templates.md` — Starter templates for different project sizes
- `references/anti-patterns.md` — Common mistakes and how to fix them
## Examples
Project-type examples (read when matching the user's stack):
- `examples/claudemd-typescript-monorepo.md` — Turborepo/Nx monorepo
- `examples/claudemd-python-django.md` — Django web application
- `examples/claudemd-rust-cli.md` — Rust CLI tool
- `examples/claudemd-minimal.md` — Bare minimum for small projects
- `examples/rules-structure.md` — .claude/rules/ directory layout
- `examples/claude-local-example.md` — CLAUDE.local.md personal preferences
Related in AI Agents
skill-development
IncludedComprehensive meta-skill for creating, managing, validating, auditing, and distributing Claude Code skills and slash commands (unified in v2.1.3+). Provides skill templates, creation workflows, validation patterns, audit checklists, naming conventions, YAML frontmatter guidance, progressive disclosure examples, and best practices lookup. Use when creating new skills, validating existing skills, auditing skill quality, understanding skill architecture, needing skill templates, learning about YAML frontmatter requirements, progressive disclosure patterns, tool restrictions (allowed-tools), skill composition, skill naming conventions, troubleshooting skill activation issues, creating custom slash commands, configuring command frontmatter, using command arguments ($ARGUMENTS, $1, $2), bash execution in commands, file references in commands, command namespacing, plugin commands, MCP slash commands, Skill tool configuration, or deciding between skills vs slash commands. Delegates to docs-management skill for official documentation.
reprompter
IncludedTransform messy prompts into well-structured, effective prompts — single or multi-agent. Use when: "reprompt", "reprompt this", "clean up this prompt", "structure my prompt", rough text needing XML tags and best practices, "reprompter teams", "repromptception", "run with quality", "smart run", "smart agents", multi-agent tasks, audits, parallel work, anything going to agent teams. Don't use when: simple Q&A, pure chat, immediate execution-only tasks. See "Don't Use When" section for details. Outputs: Structured XML/Markdown prompt, quality score (before/after), optional team brief + per-agent sub-prompts, agent team output files. Success criteria: Single mode quality score ≥ 7/10; Repromptception per-agent prompt quality score 8+/10; all required sections present, actionable and specific.
adaptive-compaction
IncludedAdaptive add-on policy and recovery layer that decides WHEN to compact, prune, snapshot, or fork -- replacing fixed-percent auto-compaction across Claude Code, Codex, and MCP-capable hosts. Trigger on auto-compact timing or damage: "when should I compact", "is it safe to compact now or start a fresh session", "auto-compact fires too early/mid-task", "switching to an unrelated task but the window still has space", "context rot", "answers get worse the longer the session runs", "the agent forgot the plan or my decisions after it summarized", "add a layer on top that manages context without changing the agent", raising autoCompactWindow to give the policy room, or installing/tuning a cross-tool compaction policy or PreCompact hook -- even when "compaction" is never said but the problem is context-window pressure or post-summarization memory loss. Do NOT use to summarize a conversation, build RAG, write a summarization prompt (decides WHEN not HOW), or answer max-context-length trivia.
agent-skill-creator
IncludedCreate cross-platform agent skills from workflow descriptions. Activates when users ask to create an agent, automate a repetitive workflow, create a custom skill, or need advanced agent creation. Triggers on phrases like create agent for, automate workflow, create skill for, every day I have to, daily I need to, turn process into agent, need to automate, create a cross-platform skill, validate this skill, export this skill, migrate this skill. Supports single skills, multi-agent suites, transcript processing, template-based creation, interactive configuration, cross-platform export, and spec validation.
llm-wiki
IncludedUse when building or maintaining a persistent personal knowledge base (second brain) in Obsidian where an LLM incrementally ingests sources, updates entity/concept pages, maintains cross-references, and keeps a synthesis current. Triggers include "second brain", "Obsidian wiki", "personal knowledge management", "ingest this paper/article/book", "build a research wiki", "compound knowledge", "Memex", or whenever the user wants knowledge to accumulate across sessions instead of being re-derived by RAG on every query.
skill-master
IncludedAgent Skills authoring, evaluation, and optimization. Create, edit, validate, benchmark, and improve skills following the agentskills.io specification. Use when designing SKILL.md files, structuring skill folders (references, scripts, assets), ingesting external documentation into skills, running trigger evals, benchmarking skill quality, optimizing descriptions, or performing blind A/B comparisons. Keywords: agentskills.io, SKILL.md, skill authoring, eval, benchmark, trigger optimization.