Claude Code Marketing Quickstart

A fork-and-go starter repo for marketers building an AI-native marketing operating system on Claude Code. Built around the 4-systems framework: Context · Action · Orchestration · Integrations.

15 minutes from clone to a working marketing OS with a populated example you can learn from + an empty workspace ready for your company's data.

Built by Matteo Tittarelli at Genesys Growth. Questions → DM me on LinkedIn.

What this repo gives you in 60 seconds

• 10 pre-seeded research skills ready to run: ICP research, competitor research, positioning, messaging, brand kit, voice rules, funnel strategy, competitor aggregate, win/loss analysis, expert POV.
• A fully populated example (pulse-analytics-example/) — a fictional B2B SaaS marketing analytics company called PulseAnalytics. Read it first to see what a working marketing OS looks like.
• An empty workspace (marketing/) — same structure as the example, ready for your company's data. Each subfolder has a one-line CLAUDE.md telling you what goes there + which skill to run.
• A 12-connector setup guide (.claude/connections.md) — covers Exa, Firecrawl, Google Drive, Notion, Slack, Linear, Granola, Gong, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Framer, Webflow. Split by input/output role with install instructions for Claude Code CLI, Cursor, and claude.ai.
• A discipline layer (.claude/rules/) — the "one page per CLAUDE.md" rule and the 90-day maintenance ritual that keep the system from rotting.

Before you clone — 5-minute prerequisite

Handle these once, before the 15-minute tour:

Required

1. Claude Code CLI — install instructions. 5 minutes.
2. Pick your interface — Claude Code CLI in your terminal works for everything in this repo. If you want a richer editor experience, also install Cursor (Claude Code integrates as MCP) or the Claude Desktop app. Free to pick one and stick with it.
3. An Exa API key — exa.ai. Free tier covers the quickstart. Exa is the web-search + page-fetch backbone every research skill in this repo uses.

Optional (wire when you need them)

• Google Search Console (for SEO data — once you start the seo-aeo lane)
• Granola or Gong (for meeting/call transcripts — once you start win-loss work)
• Slack (for team notifications — once you start lifecycle work)

Full setup guide for all 12 connectors lives in .claude/connections.md. Don't try to wire everything on day 1; start with Exa.

The 15-minute tour

0:00 → 0:30 — Clone

gh repo create my-marketing-os --template matteotitta/claude-code-marketing-quickstart --private
cd my-marketing-os

Or click "Use this template" on the GitHub repo page.

0:30 → 1:30 — Configure Exa

cp env .env
# Edit .env, add your Exa API key after EXA_API_KEY=

The env file (committed) is a template. .env (gitignored) holds your real keys. Yes, this breaks the conventional .env.example pattern — done on purpose so the template file is visible at the top of your file listing instead of hidden as a dotfile.

1:30 → 5:00 — Read the example

Open pulse-analytics-example/. Start in this order:

1. pulse-analytics-example/CLAUDE.md — the workspace index
2. pulse-analytics-example/positioning/positioning.md — see what a populated positioning doc looks like
3. pulse-analytics-example/icp/ICP.md — see what a populated ICP looks like
4. pulse-analytics-example/funnel/funnel-strategy.md — GTM motion + funnel stages
5. pulse-analytics-example/goals/goals.md — KPI structure

This is the shape your own marketing OS will take.

5:00 → 7:00 — Skim the skills

Look at the 10 pre-seeded research skills in .claude/skills/. Each one has a SKILL.md with canonical frontmatter + a body that explains when to use it, what it produces, and an example run.

The 10 skills:

• brand-kit — extract design tokens + voice rules from a brand
• competitor-research — per-competitor 11-dimension analysis
• competitor-aggregate — roll N competitor docs into shared insights
• funnel-strategy — map GTM motion to funnel stages
• icp-research — TAM + champion + economic buyer + anti-ICP
• positioning — anchor + differentiators + statement
• product-messaging — 10-component messaging library
• tov-guidelines — voice rules with violation/fix patterns
• win-loss-analysis — why deals close + churn, in the buyer's own words (needs transcripts)
• expert-pov — founder beliefs + recommended "one big idea" (needs founder input)

Plus one mastery skill (meta, not research):

• level — score your Claude Code maturity 0-10 against the same 4 systems this repo teaches (Context · Skills · Integrations · Orchestration), via a fun quiz or a repo scan. Gives you a next-level roadmap + a shareable card (HTML or ASCII). Run /level any time to see how far along the curve you are and what to build next.

7:00 → 10:00 — Run your first skill

Open Claude Code in this repo and run:

/competitor-research

Claude asks for the competitor URL + name. It does the research via Exa, writes the file to marketing/competitors/MMYY-{competitor-slug}.md. Repeat for 2–4 competitors, then run /competitor-aggregate to synthesize.

10:00 → 15:00 — Populate the PMM spine

The recommended order:

1. /competitor-research (3–4 competitors) → /competitor-aggregate to lock the canonical version
2. /icp-research → produces marketing/icp/ICP.md
3. /brand-kit + /tov-guidelines → produces brand kit + voice rules
4. /positioning → reads ICP + competitors, produces positioning
5. /product-messaging → reads positioning, produces messaging library
6. /funnel-strategy → maps your GTM motion to funnel stages

Situational (run when you have the inputs): /win-loss-analysis before /icp-research if you have 5+ sales-call transcripts — it's the evidence base under ICP + positioning. /expert-pov before founder-led content if you have founder material (posts, interviews).

Each skill takes 5–15 minutes. By the end of week 1, your PMM spine is locked.

The 4-systems framework

This repo is built around four systems that compose into a loop:

The loop: integrations feed context → context informs action → orchestration chains action → output becomes new context. Each cycle the system gets sharper.

Repo structure

claude-code-marketing-quickstart/
├── README.md                          ← you are here
├── CLAUDE.md                          ← one-line pointer for Claude Code auto-load
│
├── .claude/                           ← Claude Code internals
│   ├── connections.md                 ← 12-connector setup guide
│   ├── skills/                        ← 10 pre-seeded research skills (system of action)
│   ├── agents/                        ← ready for your custom agents (orchestration)
│   ├── hooks/                         ← ready for your custom hooks (orchestration)
│   └── rules/                         ← discipline rules (one-page rule + quarterly maintenance)
│
├── marketing/                         ← YOUR workspace — fill with your company data
├── pulse-analytics-example/           ← REFERENCE — fully populated example, read first
│
├── env                                ← API key template — copy to .env
├── .mcp.json                          ← MCP registry — Exa wired by default
└── .gitignore

The marketing/ and pulse-analytics-example/ folders mirror each other structurally. The example is populated; yours starts empty with one-line CLAUDE.md files pointing back to the example for each subfolder.

How to contribute back

If you adapt this repo and find a pattern that should live in the canonical version — open a PR.

Conventions:

• Keep every CLAUDE.md to one page. Pointers, not content. See .claude/rules/one-page-rule.md.
• New skills: follow the canonical frontmatter format. See any existing SKILL.md in .claude/skills/.
• New connectors: add to .claude/connections.md in the appropriate I/O section.
• Don't commit secrets. The .env file (not env) is gitignored by default.

Questions about whether something belongs: DM me on LinkedIn.

No formal LICENSE yet — the repo is shared as-is. Reuse the patterns; credit appreciated but not required.

Plan your next 3 skills

Once your PMM spine is populated, you'll feel the friction of the next 3 tasks you do manually that should be skills. Capture them here as you go:

Skill #1

• Name: {your-skill-name}
• Archetype: Gate / Query / Visibility (pick one)
• Problem it solves: {one sentence — what task does this remove from your weekly groan list?}
• Target build date: {date — within 30 days is healthy; 60 days is the ceiling}
• Reads from: {which marketing/ files or MCPs?}
• Writes to: {what artifact does it produce?}

Skill #2

• Name: {your-skill-name}
• Archetype: Gate / Query / Visibility
• Problem it solves: {one sentence}
• Target build date: {date}
• Reads from: {sources}
• Writes to: {output}

Skill #3

• Name: {your-skill-name}
• Archetype: Gate / Query / Visibility
• Problem it solves: {one sentence}
• Target build date: {date}
• Reads from: {sources}
• Writes to: {output}

If you can't name 3 skills within 30 days of running the repo, the system isn't compounding yet. Diagnose: are you using it enough? Are the friction points real or imagined?

Maintenance — keeping this alive

The marketing OS only compounds if someone maintains it. Three rules — adapted from Carl Vellotti's "Team OS" article — codified in .claude/rules/quarterly-maintenance.md:

1. Every artifact has a named owner (not a team — a person).
2. Coach contributors, don't gatekeep — when someone's first contribution is broken, help them fix it, don't reject.
3. Quarterly 30-minute pruning ritual — every 90 days, audit: is each artifact still used, still owned, still working? Archive the ones that aren't.

Calendar the next pruning ritual 90 days from your fork date.

Inspirations + attribution

• Carl Vellotti — org-os-starter and faculty-products-org-os (fullstackpm.com/orgos). Patterns adopted: one-page CLAUDE.md, folder-local CLAUDE.md as navigation maps, committed .mcp.json, repo-as-GitHub-template, README-as-reading-order, the three sustainability rules. Both Vellotti repos lack LICENSE files as of May 2026 — every convention here is re-implemented in our own words; no file content is copied verbatim.
• Kyle Poyar — Growth Unhinged. The 4-systems framing originated in an article on context engineering for marketing.

Where to go next

• Stuck on which skill to run first? Start with /competitor-research against your top 3 competitors. Everything else flows from there.
• Want a richer connector setup? Open .claude/connections.md — install guide for 12 connectors split by I/O role.
• Curious how the example was built? Browse pulse-analytics-example/ — every file is a real-shaped artifact a marketing team would produce.
• Need help or want to share what you built? LinkedIn or genesysgrowth.com.