claude-skills/skills/project-bootstrap/SKILL.md

name, version, description

name	version	description
project-bootstrap	1.2.0	Initializes or upgrades a project in the current folder: git, .gitignore, README.md, .wiki/ using Karpathy's method, .tasks/ for task tracking, CLAUDE.md with skill triggers. Use this skill when the user says "initialize project", "bootstrap", "setup project", "upgrade project", "add wiki", "add tasks", "start project", "set everything up", or launches the agent in a new or existing folder and wants to configure the workspace. Trigger even if the user just says "let's start a project" or "set it all up".

Project Bootstrap

Sets up a complete working environment for a monorepo project in one pass. Operates in two modes: init (new project) and upgrade (existing project).

---

Step 0 — Detect mode

Check what already exists in the current directory:

ls -la
git rev-parse --git-dir 2>/dev/null && echo "git:yes" || echo "git:no"
[ -d .wiki ] && echo "wiki:yes" || echo "wiki:no"
[ -d .tasks ] && echo "tasks:yes" || echo "tasks:no"
[ -f CLAUDE.md ] && echo "claude:yes" || echo "claude:no"
[ -f README.md ] && echo "readme:yes" || echo "readme:no"

Show the user a summary in one block — what was found, what will be created:

Found:   ✅ git  ❌ .wiki  ✅ .tasks  ❌ CLAUDE.md  ✅ README.md
Create:        .wiki             CLAUDE.md
Skip:    git (exists)  .tasks (exists)  README.md (exists)

Ask one question: "Looks right? Shall we proceed?" — and wait for confirmation. Create nothing before confirmation.

---

Step 1 — Git

If git is not initialized:

git init

If .gitignore does not exist — create from template assets/.gitignore.template. If it exists — leave it untouched.

---

Step 2 — README.md

If it does not exist — create a minimal one:

# <project folder name>

## About
<!-- Describe the project here -->

## Quick start
<!-- Instructions for running the project -->

If it exists — leave it untouched.

---

Step 3 — .wiki/

Delegate to the setup-wiki skill. It handles greenfield creation, canon migration, and the no-op case (already canon) uniformly, with its own confirmation gate. Don't recreate the layout inline here — that's how drift happens.

If setup-wiki is not installed on this machine, stop and tell the user: project-bootstrap requires setup-wiki (and setup-tasks) installed. Don't fall back to ad-hoc creation.

Reference (for context only — setup-wiki is the source of truth): the canonical layout per Karpathy (gist: https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94f) and using-wiki:

.wiki/
  CLAUDE.md          ← schema: project-specific wiki conventions
  index.md           ← catalog of all pages (by type), updated on every ingest
  log.md             ← append-only op log: ## [YYYY-MM-DD] op | desc
  overview.md        ← single human-readable project overview
  raw/
    README.md        ← raw/ is immutable; this file documents that
  entities/          ← entity pages (people, services, modules) — empty .gitkeep
  concepts/          ← concept / design decision pages — empty .gitkeep
  packages/          ← package pages — empty .gitkeep
  sources/           ← one summary per ingested source — empty .gitkeep

Page-level workflow (ingest, query, lint) and file formats are owned by the wiki-maintainer skill. Bootstrap only lays the skeleton; the skill takes over from there.

.wiki/CLAUDE.md (schema)

# Wiki Schema — <project name>

Project-specific wiki conventions. Read this before any wiki operation.

This wiki follows Karpathy's LLM Wiki pattern:
**https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94f**

The `wiki-maintainer` skill enforces the workflow and file formats. This
file overrides the skill where they conflict.

## Page types

- `entities/` — discrete things the project tracks (people, services, modules).
- `concepts/` — recurring ideas, design decisions, gotchas.
- `packages/` — code packages this project produces or consumes.
- `sources/` — one summary page per ingested external doc; frontmatter carries `ingested:` and `raw_path:`.
- `overview.md` — single project-wide overview.

## Naming

- `kebab-case.md`, **Latin only**. Transliterate Cyrillic in filenames; keep the original title in the H1 + frontmatter.

## Domain conventions

<!-- Fill in as the project takes shape — what counts as an entity here, which packages exist, naming idioms specific to this codebase. -->

.wiki/index.md

# Wiki Index

Catalog of all wiki pages. One line per page, organized by type. The agent updates this on every ingest.

## Overview

- [overview.md](overview.md) — project overview

## Entities

<!-- (none yet) -->

## Concepts

<!-- (none yet) -->

## Packages

<!-- (none yet) -->

## Sources

<!-- (none yet) -->

.wiki/log.md

# Wiki Log

Append-only operation log. One entry per operation. Format:

\`\`\`
## [YYYY-MM-DD] <op> | <one-line description>
\`\`\`

Operations: `init`, `ingest`, `query`, `lint`, `refactor`, `decision`.

Parseable: `grep "^## \[" .wiki/log.md | tail -20`.

---

## [<today's date>] init | bootstrap empty wiki via project-bootstrap

.wiki/overview.md

# <project name> — overview

<!-- Replace with a high-level description: what this project does, who it's for, the main components. -->

.wiki/raw/README.md

# Raw Sources

**Immutable.** Read, never edit. The only allowed modification is appending a `> Status:` blockquote when the user explicitly asks for a status audit.

Place raw inputs here — articles, transcripts, PDFs, screenshots — exactly as they came in. The agent reads from `raw/`, writes summaries into `../sources/`, and never modifies raw files.

For large or path-sensitive sources that live outside the repo, register them here:

\`\`\`
- short-name → /absolute/path/to/source
\`\`\`

The empty subdirectories (entities/, concepts/, packages/, sources/) each get a .gitkeep so git tracks them.

---

Step 4 — .tasks/

Delegate to the setup-tasks skill. It handles greenfield creation, migration from flat STATUS.md, and the no-op case uniformly, with its own confirmation gate. Don't recreate the layout inline.

If setup-tasks is not installed, stop and tell the user — same rule as Step 3.

Reference (for context only — setup-tasks is the source of truth): the canonical layout is .tasks/STATUS.md (the board, with emoji status 🔴/🟡/⚪/🟢/🔵) plus .tasks/<task-slug>.md per active or paused task. The full pattern is documented in this repo at .wiki/raw/setup-task-status-wiki.md.

---

Step 5 — CLAUDE.md

If CLAUDE.md already exists — show its contents and ask: "CLAUDE.md already exists. Append skill triggers to the end, or leave as is?"

If it does not exist — create from template assets/CLAUDE.md.template.

Template contents:

# CLAUDE.md
# Agent instructions. Each line is a trigger for an installed skill.

talk like a caveman
use superpowers
use project wiki
use task management system
check across all projects
we're on Windows

The check across all projects line activates the using-projects-meta skill so cross-project task aggregation and the shared projects-wiki are available without an explicit verbal trigger. The skill is a no-op until the projects-meta-mcp server is registered — install via setup-projects-meta on a fresh machine if mcp__projects-meta__* tools are missing.

The we're on Windows line activates the active-platform skill and pins the project's default platform to Windows / PowerShell — so generated commands and README quick-starts use PS-native syntax. Bootstrapping on a Linux or macOS host? Substitute we're on Linux or we're on macOS instead.

---

Step 5.5 — Bootstrap manifest

Write .wiki/concepts/bootstrap-manifest.md. The manifest records which skills (and at which versions) initialized this project's .wiki/ and .tasks/ layout, so layout drift between projects bootstrapped at different times is debuggable.

Read each delegated skill's SKILL.md frontmatter to pick up the live version: value (don't hardcode):

---
title: Bootstrap Manifest
type: concept
updated: <today's date>
generator: project-bootstrap@<version>
---

# Bootstrap Manifest

Skills used to initialize this project's `.wiki/` and `.tasks/` layout, with their versions at install time.

| Skill | Version | Role |
|---|---|---|
| `project-bootstrap` | <version> | orchestrator |
| `setup-wiki` | <version> | wiki canonical layout |
| `setup-tasks` | <version> | tasks canonical layout |

This file is overwritten if `project-bootstrap` is re-run on the same project. For history, use `git log .wiki/concepts/bootstrap-manifest.md`.

If a delegated setup-skill is unavailable on this machine (e.g. user installed only a subset), record the missing skill as unknown in the version column so the gap is visible.

---

Step 5.6 — Recommend superpowers plugin (chat-only, never auto-install)

The CLAUDE.md template just written contains use superpowers as a trigger. That trigger is a no-op unless the official superpowers plugin is installed on the host. On a fresh machine the plugin is often absent, and the user won't know the trigger is silently dead. Detect and recommend.

Read ~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json. The path is identical on Windows / Linux / macOS — ~ resolves correctly under git-bash too.

Look for the key superpowers@claude-plugins-official under plugins. Two outcomes:

• Installed — say nothing. Skip to Step 6.

• Missing (key absent, or the JSON file itself doesn't exist) — print this block in chat exactly once. Do not write it into any project file:

  ℹ️  Recommended: install the official `superpowers` plugin
  
  CLAUDE.md now contains `use superpowers`, but that trigger is a no-op
  until the plugin is installed. With it, every session auto-loads
  brainstorming, planning, code-review, debugging, and TDD skills.
  
  Install (run inside Claude Code):
    /plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-official
  
  Source: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official
  
  After install + Claude Code restart, the trigger picks it up.
  

Hard rule — never auto-install. Slash commands aren't callable from a skill, and silently mutating user-level plugin state without consent is overreach. The recommendation is informational. The user can install it later, ignore it entirely, or remove the use superpowers line from CLAUDE.md if they prefer a leaner setup.

If the JSON file is malformed (rare), treat as "missing" and print the recommendation. Do not crash the bootstrap over a plugin-detection edge case — the file isn't ours to fix here.

Step 6 — Commit

git add .
git commit -m "chore: bootstrap project structure"

If the repo already had commits — commit only the files just created:

git add .wiki/ .tasks/ CLAUDE.md .gitignore README.md
git commit -m "chore: upgrade project structure"

---

Step 7 — Summary

Print a final report:

✅ Done! Created:
  .wiki/          — project wiki (Karpathy method)
  .tasks/         — task tracking system
  CLAUDE.md       — skill triggers
  .gitignore      — standard template
  README.md       — starter file

Skipped (already existed):
  git             — left untouched

Next step: describe the project in README.md and start your first task —
say "use task management system".

---

Rules

• Never overwrite existing files without explicit user confirmation
• Always show the plan first — one question, one confirmation
• Never invent details — if the project already exists, read what's there
• Commit only what was just created — do not touch the rest of the file tree
• Commit automatically after each successful step, no extra questions
• Push only after explicit user confirmation — ask "Push to remote?" and wait for "yes"