Claude Codebeginner

CLAUDE.md Starter Template

A drop-in CLAUDE.md template that gives Claude Code immediate context about your stack, conventions, and what 'done' means.

Use case

Onboarding Claude Code to a new project in under 5 minutes.

The Prompt

Drop this into the root of your repo as `CLAUDE.md`. Customize the bracketed sections.

# [PROJECT NAME]

## Project Overview
[One paragraph: what this project is, who uses it, where it's deployed.]

## Tech Stack
- Frontend: [framework + version]
- Backend: [framework + version]
- Database: [database + ORM]
- Hosting: [platform]
- Auth: [provider]

## Important Rules
1. **Task completion**: A task is not complete until [your definition — e.g., pushed to GitHub, deployed, tested].
2. **No emojis**: Do not use emojis in code, comments, or commit messages.
3. **No new files unless necessary**: Prefer editing existing files.

## Conventions
- Style: [eslint/prettier/specific rules]
- Naming: [camelCase / PascalCase / etc.]
- Imports: [absolute / relative / order]
- Tests: [where they live, how to run]

## Commands
- Dev: `[command]`
- Build: `[command]`
- Test: `[command]`
- Typecheck: `[command]`
- Lint: `[command]`

## Project Structure
[Tree showing top 2 levels of src/]

## What "Done" Means
- [ ] Code changes
- [ ] Types check
- [ ] Tests pass
- [ ] Manually verified [in browser / via curl / etc.]
- [ ] Committed and pushed