craft-claudemd

A Claude Code skill that generates or updates highly effective CLAUDE.md files following research-backed best practices.

What it does

• Creates new CLAUDE.md files by auto-detecting your project's tools, frameworks, and conventions
• Updates existing CLAUDE.md files by diagnosing bloat, redundancy, and anti-patterns
• Works at any level: home (~/.claude/CLAUDE.md), project root, parent, or child directory
• Enforces line budgets, cuts what Claude can figure out on its own, and suggests @imports for progressive disclosure

Installation

Global install (recommended - available in all projects)

git clone https://github.com/GautamSrikrishna/craft-claudemd.git
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/craft-claudemd
cp -r craft-claudemd/SKILL.md craft-claudemd/references ~/.claude/skills/craft-claudemd/

Project-level install (available only in one project)

git clone https://github.com/GautamSrikrishna/craft-claudemd.git
mkdir -p /path/to/your/project/.claude/skills/craft-claudemd
cp -r craft-claudemd/SKILL.md craft-claudemd/references /path/to/your/project/.claude/skills/craft-claudemd/

Verify installation

Start a new Claude Code session and run:

/craft-claudemd

You should see Claude begin the CLAUDE.md creation workflow.

Usage

The skill triggers automatically when you ask Claude to:

• "Create a CLAUDE.md for this project"
• "Improve my CLAUDE.md"
• "My CLAUDE.md is too long"
• "Set up Claude Code for this repo"

Or invoke it manually with /craft-claudemd.

What's included

craft-claudemd/
├── SKILL.md                    # Core workflow (CREATE/UPDATE modes)
└── references/
    ├── best-practices.md       # Do's, don'ts, anti-patterns, instruction budget
    ├── location-guide.md       # What belongs at each CLAUDE.md location
    └── templates.md            # Starter templates by project type

Uninstall

For a global install:

rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/craft-claudemd

For a project-level install:

rm -rf /path/to/your/project/.claude/skills/craft-claudemd