claude-setup

Production-grade Claude Code configuration, extracted from 500+ real sessions

A complete Claude Code developer setup: CLAUDE.md templates, 17 safety hooks, 60+ skills, server infrastructure, terminal workflow, WhatsApp/Gmail integration, memory system, and cost tracking. Everything is templated for reuse with no personal data.

Who is this for?

• Solo developers using Claude Code daily who want battle-tested guardrails and productivity patterns
• Teams standardizing their Claude Code configuration across projects and machines
• Anyone who's been burned by Claude running rm -rf, pushing secrets, or claiming "should work" without verifying

What makes this different?

Most Claude Code configs share a single CLAUDE.md. This repo shares the full stack: the hooks that enforce the rules, the skills that automate workflows, the server infrastructure that runs it all, and the memory system that makes Claude learn across sessions. Every pattern is extracted from real production use, not hypothetical best practices.

Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• What's Included
• CLAUDE.md Templates
• Safety Hooks
• Skills (40+)
• Memory System
• Server Infrastructure
• WhatsApp & Gmail Integration
• Architecture
• Requirements
• Configuration
• Related Projects

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/buildingopen/claude-setup.git
cd claude-setup
./install.sh          # Symlinks configs into ~/.claude/

That's it. The installer detects existing configs, backs them up, resolves $HOME paths in hook commands, and installs 17 hooks + 7 scripts + 60+ skills + memory template. Run ./install.sh --copy for standalone files instead of symlinks.

After install:

1. Edit ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md to match your workflow (search for <!-- Customize --> comments)
2. Copy claude/CLAUDE-project.md into your project roots
3. Optionally copy .env.example to .env for API keys used by some hooks/scripts

What's Included

CLAUDE.md Templates

Two templates encoding months of iteration on making Claude Code reliable:

• claude/CLAUDE.md - Global config (~/.claude/CLAUDE.md). Drop-in template with engineering principles, self-audit checklist, error recovery, communication standards, and quality gates.
• claude/CLAUDE-project.md - Per-project config. Tech stack, key files, testing conventions, deploy config. Copy into any project root.

Safety Hooks

17 hooks wired into settings.json that prevent Claude from doing damage. They run automatically on every tool call.

All hooks are pure bash (no external deps beyond jq). See claude/hooks/README.md for how hooks work, the JSON protocol, and how to wire them in settings.json.

Scripts included:

Skills (60+)

Slash commands that extend Claude's capabilities. Each skill is a SKILL.md file installed to ~/.claude/commands/. Invoke with /skill-name or let Claude detect and use them automatically. Includes session-learn, a meta-skill that analyzes past session transcripts to derive new skills and CLAUDE.md rules from real usage patterns.

Shipping & QA:
bouncer (Gemini quality gate), ship (pre-merge workflow), qa (autonomous testing), debug (systematic debugging), target-loop (verified iteration engine), gh-launch (repo launch checklist)

Planning & Review:
retro (weekly retrospective), compass (strategic planning), blast-radius (impact analysis), deep-audit (full repo audit via Gemini), cost (token spend reporting), negotiator (BATNA/ZOPA analysis, message scoring), product (UX decision framework)

Auditing:
ui-audit (UX/product review + wireframe comparison with Playwright screenshots and CSS extraction), ux-audit (independent Gemini-powered UX scoring), seo (technical SEO 8-dimension audit), geo (geographic data validator for aviation/travel)

Document Generation:
pdf, docx, pptx, xlsx manipulation, yc-pitch-deck (investor pitch deck)

Design & Content:
frontend-design, slide-design, canvas-design, algorithmic-art, linkedin-copy, cold-outreach, brand-guidelines (Anthropic brand), republic-design (investor-grade design scoring), theme-factory (10 pre-set visual themes), web-artifacts-builder (React + shadcn/ui artifacts), internal-comms (company newsletters, 3P updates)

Video & Media:
video-edit (trim, concat, overlays, audio mix, voiceover), review-video (frame extraction + visual review), yc-video (plan/score/audit startup launch videos), slack-gif-creator (animated GIFs optimized for Slack)

Infrastructure & Ops:
deploy (multi-project), docker-deploy (self-hosted), dns (DNS API), health (system audit), email-check (IMAP), wa (WhatsApp read/send), mcp-builder, webapp-testing, browse (browser automation), browser-use (persistent browser daemon), post-to-x (cross-post to X/Twitter)

Context & Recovery:
vault (context vault ops), morning (daily briefing), recall (post-compaction recovery), session-learn (derive skills from sessions), issue (multi-account GitHub issues), agents (scan running Claude sessions), food-finder (restaurant discovery via Swiggy + Maps)

Meta:
skill-creator (create new skills), subagent-templates, new-project (scaffolding), doc-coauthoring, workplan (multi-step task planning)

See claude/skills/README.md for the full list, SKILL.md format, and how to create your own.

Memory System

An external brain pattern that persists knowledge across Claude Code sessions:

• MEMORY.md - Concise index (< 200 lines) auto-loaded into every conversation
• Topic files - Detailed notes on specific subjects, read on demand
• Claude auto-updates these as it learns preferences, patterns, and corrections

This prevents Claude from repeating mistakes across sessions and lets it build on prior context. See claude/memory/README.md for the full pattern.

Server Infrastructure

Templates for running Claude Code on a dedicated dev server (VPS/dedicated). Not needed for local-only setups.

• Systemd services - Chrome headless with CDP, SSHFS mounts, CDP keepalive, Docker-host proxy
• Safety utilities - safe-pipeline (flock + timeout + cgroup memory cap), safe-run, stale process cleanup
• Browser automation - Chrome CDP setup guide, bridge keeper for session persistence
• Multi-account management - GitHub, Render, Supabase account switching patterns
• Terminal workflow - tmux config, bashrc (999K history, aliases), background task queue system

WhatsApp & Gmail Integration

WhatsApp (via OpenClaw gateway):

• Docker-based WhatsApp Web bridge
• Verified send script with SQLite contact lookup (prevents wrong-number sends)
• Direct SQLite DB reading for message history

Gmail (via IMAP):

• Multi-account email checking
• Preserves read/unread status (BODY.PEEK[] instead of RFC822)
• Standalone Python script, stdlib only, no pip dependencies

Architecture

~/.claude/
  CLAUDE.md          <- claude/CLAUDE.md (global config)
  settings.json      <- claude/settings.json (hooks + permissions, $HOME resolved)
  .mcp.json          <- claude/.mcp.json (MCP servers)
  hooks/             <- claude/hooks/ (12 safety hooks)
  scripts/           <- claude/scripts/ (5 utility scripts)
  commands/          <- claude/skills/ (40+ slash commands)
  metrics/           <- cost tracking output (costs.jsonl)
  projects/*/memory/ <- external brain (MEMORY.md + topic files)

your-project/
  CLAUDE.md          <- claude/CLAUDE-project.md (per-project config)

Requirements

Configuration

After running install.sh:

1. Edit CLAUDE.md - Search for <!-- Customize --> comments and replace placeholders with your setup (server names, tool routing rules, project paths)
2. Add project configs - Copy claude/CLAUDE-project.md to each project root and fill in the tech stack section
3. API keys (optional) - Copy .env.example to .env for hooks/scripts that need external APIs

The settings.json file has $HOME paths pre-resolved by the installer. If you update the repo's settings.json, re-run ./install.sh to pick up changes.

Related Projects

Other open-source tools from BuildingOpen:

License

MIT