quickstart-keeper

A living, transportable project knowledge layer for Claude Code — memory that ships with your repo on GitHub.

quickstart-keeper keeps a concise QUICKSTART.md at the root of every project (plus a quickstart/ folder for deep dives on complex areas). Claude reads it first in every session, so it — and any human who clones the repo — instantly knows the structure, the build commands, how to version, how to deploy, and the non-obvious gotchas. No more paying the same "explore the whole codebase" token cost over and over.

TL;DR: It's like Claude Code memory, but committed to GitHub — portable across machines and teammates, intentionally tiny, and built to save tokens, time, and effort on every session.

✨ Features

	Feature	What you get
🧭	Session awareness	`QUICKSTART.md` is read before any project work — instant context
🌱	Self-creating	Missing? It explores the repo and writes a concise one for you
🔀	One-time Git decision	Asks once per project: commit it (ship it) or `.gitignore` it (local). Remembers your answer
♻️	Self-updating	New build step, renamed file, changed procedure? It updates `QUICKSTART.md` in the same change — and prunes stale lines
🔎	Deep-dive files	Complex flow? It spins off `quickstart/<name>.md` and links it, so you edit a function without re-reading the codebase
🐙	Travels with the code	Committed to GitHub — every clone and teammate gets the knowledge

🗺️ How it works

flowchart TD
    A([New Claude Code session]) --> B{QUICKSTART.md exists?}
    B -- No --> C[Explore repo: layout, build, version, deploy]
    C --> D[Write concise QUICKSTART.md]
    D --> E{First run in this project?}
    B -- Yes --> R[Read it FIRST - instant context]
    E -- Yes --> Q[Ask ONCE: commit to GitHub or gitignore?]
    Q --> S[Apply choice + store marker in front-matter]
    S --> R
    R --> W[Do the actual work]
    W --> U{Did something a future dev needs to know?}
    U -- Yes --> V[Update QUICKSTART.md in the SAME change + prune]
    U -- "Complex area?" --> X[Spin off quickstart/name.md and link it]
    V --> Z([Commit - knowledge ships with the code])
    X --> Z

Plain-English version:

session start ──▶ read QUICKSTART.md ──▶ understand project in seconds
                       │ (missing?) ──▶ build it from the repo, ask the one-time Git question
work happens  ──▶ change a build step / file / procedure
                       └──▶ update QUICKSTART.md same change ──▶ commit ──▶ ships on GitHub
complex flow  ──▶ quickstart/<name>.md deep dive, linked from the index

📦 Install

quickstart-keeper is a standard Claude Code skill — just drop the folder where Claude Code looks for skills.

Option A — Global (available in every project)

# macOS / Linux
git clone https://github.com/inventabotnow/quickstart-keeper.git \
  ~/.claude/skills/quickstart-keeper

# Windows (PowerShell)
git clone https://github.com/inventabotnow/quickstart-keeper.git `
  "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\skills\quickstart-keeper"

Option B — Per project (ships the skill itself with one repo)

git clone https://github.com/inventabotnow/quickstart-keeper.git \
  .claude/skills/quickstart-keeper

That's it — Claude Code auto-discovers SKILL.md. Start a session and ask Claude to work on the project; the skill activates on its own.

Optional — the `/quickstart` slash command

Want a one-keystroke trigger? Copy commands/quickstart.md into your commands folder and type /quickstart any time:

# global (every project)            macOS / Linux
cp commands/quickstart.md ~/.claude/commands/quickstart.md
# per project
mkdir -p .claude/commands && cp commands/quickstart.md .claude/commands/quickstart.md

# Windows PowerShell — global
Copy-Item commands\quickstart.md "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\commands\quickstart.md"

/quickstart is smart about state:

QUICKSTART.md exists → reads it (and the relevant deep dive) and summarizes — no re-asking.
It's missing → bootstraps it: explores the repo, asks the one-time commit/ignore question, writes the concise index.
/quickstart update → refreshes stale lines and spins off a deep dive if an area got complex.
/quickstart <topic> → focuses the read/summary on that area.

Optional add-on 1 — Auto-load QUICKSTART.md every session (SessionStart hook)

A skill is invoked on demand. To make QUICKSTART.md appear automatically at the start of every session, add a SessionStart hook to your project .claude/settings.json. The hook's stdout is injected into the session as context.

// .claude/settings.json
{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "node -e \"try{process.stdout.write('\\n===== QUICKSTART.md (read me first) =====\\n'+require('fs').readFileSync('QUICKSTART.md','utf8'))}catch(e){}\""
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Why node -e? It's the one command that behaves identically on Windows, macOS, and Linux and silently does nothing if the file is absent.

Shell alternatives (pick one matching your OS if you'd rather not use Node):

# macOS / Linux / Git Bash
cat QUICKSTART.md 2>/dev/null

# Windows PowerShell hook command
"powershell -NoProfile -Command \"if (Test-Path QUICKSTART.md) { Get-Content QUICKSTART.md -Raw }\""

Trade-off: the hook costs a few hundred tokens at session start in exchange for never having to re-explore the project. On large QUICKSTART.md files you may prefer to skip the hook and rely on the skill reading it on demand. Ready-to-paste copies live in hooks/.

Optional add-on 2 — Tell the agent to read it first (CLAUDE.md snippet)

Add this to your project's CLAUDE.md (belt-and-suspenders with the hook):

## Project context
- Always read `QUICKSTART.md` at the repo root **before** doing any work. It is the concise,
  authoritative map of structure, build/run/test/version/deploy commands, and gotchas.
- For complex areas, follow its links into `quickstart/<name>.md` instead of re-reading source.
- When you change a build step, rename a key file, or alter a procedure, update `QUICKSTART.md`
  in the same change and prune stale lines. Never put secrets in it.

Copy in hooks/CLAUDE.snippet.md.

▶️ Usage

You rarely call it directly — the skill's description makes Claude invoke it automatically when you:

Start working on a project ("let's add a feature to this app").
Ask about structure ("how is this repo laid out?", "where's the entry point?").
Do build/version/release tasks ("bump the version and release", "how do I deploy this?").
Finish a change that future sessions need to know about.

You can also nudge it explicitly: "update QUICKSTART for the new build step" or "create a quickstart deep dive for the auth flow."

📄 Example output

A generated QUICKSTART.md — see examples/QUICKSTART.md:

---
quickstart-keeper: v1
git: committed
created: 2026-06-23
---

# QUICKSTART — Acme Shop

> One-line: Next.js storefront with a Stripe checkout. Read this before working.

## Stack
- TypeScript, Next.js 14 (App Router), pnpm, Node 20

## Layout
- [app/](app/) — routes & server actions
- [lib/](lib/) — payments, db, auth helpers
- [app/api/webhooks/stripe/route.ts](app/api/webhooks/stripe/route.ts) — Stripe webhook entry

## Commands
- Install: `pnpm i`   ·   Dev: `pnpm dev`   ·   Test: `pnpm test`
- Build: `pnpm build`   ·   Lint: `pnpm lint`

## Version & release
- SemVer in package.json; release on git tag `v*` → CI publishes to Vercel.

## Gotchas
- Stripe webhook needs the raw body — don't add a JSON body parser to that route.

## Deep dives
- [checkout-flow](quickstart/checkout-flow.md) — spans 4 files + webhook ordering

And a deep dive — examples/quickstart/checkout-flow.md.

❓ FAQ

How is this different from Claude Code memory?

	quickstart-keeper	Claude Code memory
Lives in	your repo (`QUICKSTART.md`, `quickstart/`)	a machine-local memory folder
Travels via	Git / GitHub — every clone & teammate gets it	bound to one machine/user
Audience	the AI and every human dev	mostly the AI on that machine
Optimized for	conciseness + cutting repeated AI exploration cost	personal recall
Versioned	yes, with the code (diffs, review, history)	no

Use quickstart-keeper for knowledge that should ship with the codebase. Keep using memory for personal, machine-local, cross-project notes you don't want committed.

Will it commit secrets?

No. The skill is instructed never to copy secret values into QUICKSTART files — it references file names like .env.example instead of real values.

What if I don't want it on GitHub?

On its first run in a project it asks you once. Choose (b) Keep it local and it adds QUICKSTART.md + quickstart/ to .gitignore. It remembers your choice and won't ask again.

Won't QUICKSTART.md grow into bloat?

It's designed against that: one fact per line, ~60-line soft cap, and the skill prunes stale lines and pushes detail into quickstart/<name>.md deep dives rather than letting the index grow.

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📁 Repo layout

quickstart-keeper/
├── SKILL.md                          # the skill definition (frontmatter + behavior)
├── README.md                         # this file
├── LICENSE                           # MIT
├── assets/
│   └── banner.svg                    # README banner
├── commands/
│   └── quickstart.md                 # the /quickstart slash command
├── hooks/
│   ├── settings.json                 # ready-to-paste SessionStart hook
│   └── CLAUDE.snippet.md             # ready-to-paste CLAUDE.md snippet
└── examples/
    ├── QUICKSTART.md                 # sample generated index
    └── quickstart/
        └── checkout-flow.md          # sample deep-dive

📜 License

MIT — see LICENSE.

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quickstart-keeper

A living, transportable project knowledge layer for Claude Code — memory that ships with your repo on GitHub.

✨ Features

🗺️ How it works

📦 Install

Option A — Global (available in every project)

Option B — Per project (ships the skill itself with one repo)

Optional — the `/quickstart` slash command

▶️ Usage

📄 Example output

❓ FAQ

🎬 Editing videos with AI? Try Zippyclip

📁 Repo layout

📜 License

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
assets		assets
commands		commands
examples		examples
hooks		hooks
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
PUBLISH.md		PUBLISH.md
README.md		README.md
SKILL.md		SKILL.md

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quickstart-keeper

A living, transportable project knowledge layer for Claude Code — memory that ships with your repo on GitHub.

✨ Features

🗺️ How it works

📦 Install

Option A — Global (available in every project)

Option B — Per project (ships the skill itself with one repo)

Optional — the /quickstart slash command

▶️ Usage

📄 Example output

❓ FAQ

🎬 Editing videos with AI? Try Zippyclip

📁 Repo layout

📜 License

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Optional — the `/quickstart` slash command