May 4, 2026 — CLAUDE.md template updated. The CLAUDE.md template has been modernized with 3 new variants (CLAUDE-template-1.md, CLAUDE-template-2.md, CLAUDE-template-3.md) following official Anthropic best practices — including dual-memory architecture, progressive disclosure, and standalone behavioral rules. Existing users: use CLAUDE-migrate-to-new-template.md as an AI prompt to migrate your current CLAUDE.md to any of the new templates while preserving all your project-specific content. See the CLAUDE.md Templates section for details.

• My AI journey Substack to follow me in more indepth AI adventures - https://ai.georgeliu.com
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My Claude Code Project's Starter Settings

Alternate Read Me Guides

The beauty of using AI is that I can get AI to generate alternate Read Me guides using different formats and styles to suit different readers and learners. So I asked Claude Code to generate alternate Read Me guides in different styles - pick one that suits you best or read all of them to get a better understanding of how to use this project.

• README.md - Original written version I did myself below
• README-v2.md - Progressive Disclosure Guide (Beginner → Intermediate → Advanced sections)
• README-v3.md - Task-Based Guide ("I want to..." navigation for goal-oriented users)
• README-v4.md - Technical Reference Manual (Chapter-based, dense reference format)

Overview

My Claude Code project's starter settings and Claude Code hooks and slash commands are provided in this repository for users to try out. The CLAUDE.md is setup as set of memory bank files to better retain context over many chat sessions. The repo now includes 3 CLAUDE.md templates following official Anthropic best practices with progressive disclosure, dual-memory architecture, and a migration guide for existing users. Be sure to read the official Claude Code docs first at https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/overview and sign up for a paid Claude AI account to use Claude Code. You can pay for Claude Pro $20/month, Claude Max $100/month or Claude Max $200/month. The paid Claude tier plans will include varying quotas for usage and rate limits outlined here. You can also use Claude Code with Z.AI to get higher token usage quotas and get access to Z.AI GLM-4.7 LLM models within Claude Code. Use Z.AI invite code for additional 10% discount which can stack with current 50-60% yearly discounts.

1. Copy the files in this Github repo to your project directory (where you intended codebase will be).
2. Modify the template files and CLAUDE.mdto your liking. .claude/settings.jsonneeds to install Terminal-Notifier for macOS https://github.com/centminmod/terminal-notifier-setup. If you're not using macOS, you can remove.claude/settings.json`.
3. After launching Claude Code for the first time within your project directory, run /init so that Claude Code analyses your code base and then populates your memory bank system files as per CLAUDE.md` instructions.
4. Optional step highly recommended: Install Visual Studio Code (beginners YouTube video guide and here) and Claude Code VSC Extension.
5. Optional step highly recommended: Sign up for Github.com account and install Git for Visual Studio Code. Checkout YouTube guides here and here.
6. CLAUDE.md updated to instruct models to use faster tools so for macOS: brew install ripgrep fd jq
7. Optional step to setup Claude Code, Codex GPT-5, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Vercel CLI, Cloudflare Wrangler, Amazon AWS CLI, all in a single isolated Visual Studio Code dev container running Debian 12. Allowing you to run YOLO modes for Claude Code with dangerously_skip_permissions enabled and Codex CLI with sandbox_mode = danger-full-access etc.
8. Claude Code via Claude Desktop apps use Git Worktrees. You may need to create a .worktreeinclude file as outlined here.
9. If you use Cloudflare and ClerkOS platforms in your apps, you can keep either CLAUDE-cloudflare.md or CLAUDE-cloudflare-mini.md supplementary reference docs and update CLAUDE.md referencing either file to help AI understand Cloudflare and ClerkOS platforum documentation and products. Edit documentation templates as needed i.e. if you do not use ClerkOS platform, you can remove those sections.
10. If you use Convex database in your apps, you can use CLAUDE-convex.md supplementary reference docs for building Next.js and React apps with Convex backend deployed on Cloudflare Pages.
11. Useful read Advent of Claude: 31 Days of Claude Code by Ado Kukic from Anthropic.
12. Useful Claude Code with Claude Opus 4.5 YouTube video by Alex Finn and Claude Code YouTube video by Matt Maher.
13. Configure Claude Code with Z.AI to get higher token usage quotas and get access to Z.AI GLM-4.7 LLM models within Claude Code.
14. For folks intending to use Claude LLM models with OpenClaw, read this first for security, deployment and cost optimizations https://github.com/centminmod/explain-openclaw.

CLAUDE.md Memory Bank system

CLAUDE.md uses a memory bank system of files for Claude Code to better retain context over many chat sessions. Example of Claude Code thinking output when I ask it to update memory bank after a successful task completion and git commit:

> update memory bank

∴ Thinking…

  The user wants me to update the memory bank files. I should update the relevant CLAUDE-*.md files to reflect the v0.1.6 changes and current state. Let me check
   which memory bank files exist and update them.

∴ Thinking…

  I need to continue updating the memory bank files. I'll update:
  1. CLAUDE-patterns.md - Add export path handling pattern (Pattern 22)
  2. CLAUDE-decisions.md - Add ADR-017 for Phoneme API migration and ADR-018 for export path handling
  3. CLAUDE-troubleshooting.md - Add new issues and solutions for v0.1.6

∴ Thinking…

  The memory bank files have been modified but not committed. The v0.1.6 release was already committed and tagged, but the memory bank documentation updates are
  still uncommitted. Let me provide a summary of the completed work and offer to commit these documentation changes.

⏺ Summary: v0.1.6 Release Complete ✅

  Memory Bank Updates Complete:
  - CLAUDE-activeContext.md - v0.1.6 session context
  - CLAUDE-patterns.md - Added patterns 22-24 (Export Path, Format Detection, API Migration)
  - CLAUDE-decisions.md - Added ADR-017 & ADR-018
  - CLAUDE-troubleshooting.md - Added 4 new issue/fix entries

  v0.1.6 Fixes Applied:
  1. Export to absolute paths (e.g., --export /tmp/test.wav)
  2. Format detection from filename extension (prevents .mp3.wav)
  3. Phoneme API migrated to /dev/phonemize
  4. Test scripts updated for --export "" syntax

  Test Results: All 29 tests passing

  The memory bank documentation updates are ready to commit. Would you like me to commit them

CLAUDE.md Templates

This repo provides 3 modernized CLAUDE.md templates following official Anthropic best practices:

| Template | Lines | Philosophy | Best For | |----------|-------|------------|----------| | CLAUDE-template-1.md | ~101 | Compact self-contained + memory resilience | Quick starts, small projects | | CLAUDE-template-2.md | ~153 | Memory bank headline + dual memory | Existing memory bank users | | CLAUDE-template-3.md | ~105 | Progressive disclosure native | Teams, max context efficiency |

The current CLAUDE.md uses the Template 3 format. All templates include:

• Dual-memory architecture (git-shared CLAUDE-*.md + machine-local auto memory for resilience)
• Progressive disclosure (memory bank files read on-demand, not auto-loaded)
• Standalone behavioral rules (no dependency on ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md)

Migrating an existing CLAUDE.md? See CLAUDE-migrate-to-new-template.md — paste it as a prompt and Claude Code will migrate your content to your chosen template format.

Tip: HTML comments (<!-- -->) in CLAUDE.md are stripped from context at runtime and cost zero tokens. The templates use them for guidance notes — you can add your own without impacting Claude's context window.

Companion rules file: Template 3 requires [.claude/rules/core-rules.md](.cla