AI Claude Code Steps

I have been using Claude Code to help me develop software projects. I have found that using Claude Code can help me be more productive. However, I have also found that using Claude Code can be challenging if I do not have a clear plan, and an environment and structure setup for my project.

I have created this project to share the steps that I follow.

Some of the reasons I like Claude Code

• Provide the "plan mode" which allows me to more easily have plans created, reviewed, and saved prior to execution.
• Provides support for running commands in the background.
• Provides support for "custom slash commands" which allows me to create routine repetive commands in prompt files.
• It is easy to switch in and and out of plan mode, background mode, and edits mode.

Tips

1. The success of your project is highly correlated to the planning you do upfront. You should plan to have good and concise documentation in the project and in the default ~/.claude directory.
2. Make use of custom slash commands for repetitive tasks, like creating a component implementation plan and executing it.
3. Do NOT fully trust Claude Code to pick frameworks, and main libraries for your project. It is best to do upfront exploration of libraries, frameworks, and tools to add to the project design/TECHNOLOGY_STACK.md file.
4. Do NOT fully trust Claude Code to fully design your components. It is best to do a high level description of the main components and place them in the design/COMPONENTS.md file.
5. If possible provide the model with some existing code. This will help the LLM to:
   • match your coding style
   • find code patterns
   • find libraries and packages you use
6. Include LLMs.txt documentation in the project:
   • llms.txt
7. Ask the model to plan and think first
8. Provide good prompts. Below are some examples:
   • You are an expert software developer...

Step 1: Scaffold Project

I start with a well-defined scaffolded project that makes proper use of source code structures, and build/dependency management tools. I use poetry to scaffold Python projects, and gradle to scaffold Java/Kotlin projects.

Step 2: CLAUDE.md, CLAUDE_JAVA.md and CLAUDE_PYTHON.md

I have created CLAUDE.md, CLAUDE_JAVA.md, and CLAUDE_PYTHON.md files that I store in my ~ /.claude directory locally.

Step 3: Custom Slash Commands

I have created custom slash commands here that I store in my ~/.claude/commands directory locally.

Step 4: Think About the Project

Now it is the time to think about where you are going with the project. What are you trying to build? What is the problem you are trying to solve? What are the requirements? What are the constraints? What are the assumptions? What are the risks? What are the dependencies? What are the milestones? What are the deliverables? What are the success criteria?

Ste 5: Document Project Description in README.md

At this stage, I write a high-level project description, goals, and assumption in the introductory section of the project README.md file.

Step 6: Create a Project design/TECH_STACK.md File

I create a design/TECHNOLOGY_STACK.md file in the project. In this file, I describe the main libraries, frameworks, and tools for my project. This file will be used by Claude Code to help in making a plan to implement each component.

Step 7: Create a Project design/COMPONENTS.md File

I create a design/COMPONENTS.md file in the project. In this file, I describe the high-level of each component I envision for the. Notice that by component I mean a class, or a set of related classes that work together to provide a specific functionality in the system.

This file will be used by Claude Code when making an implementation plan.

Step 8: Component Implementation Plan and Execution

At this stage, I use the custom slash command component-plan along with the name of the component found in the design/COMPONENTS.md file. Then, I review and make any change suggestions to the implementation plan that Claude Code created. After I accept the plan, I ensure the plan is stored in teh projects tasks folder, and I approve the execution of the plan.

I do this stage for each component found in the design/COMPONENTS.md file. I then validate the tests are passing, and make any suggestions of new tests/changes if necessary.

Step 9: Git Commit

Once I feel satisfied with the implementation of the component, I do a git commit with a message that describes what was done.

Step 10: Iterate

I now iterate over Steps 7, 8, 9, and 10 until I feel the project is complete.

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Author: Rubens Gomes