Give Claude Code some guidelines

[labkey-jeckels]

Rationale

Claude Code initializes based on inspection of config files. It also benefits from clear guidance on our patterns.

Changes

• Commit auto-generated file to cache and share it
• Add some LabKey-specific conventions

[labkey-jeckels]

@labkey-martyp do you have other guidelines that you're using locally?

[labkey-martyp]

@labkey-jeckels I have a lot of guidelines but they're mostly for React development and a few for selenium development. I currently have them as skills though so they don't clutter the context when not needed. I was planning on opening a PR with them after a little more review.

[labkey-jeckels]

@labkey-jeckels I have a lot of guidelines but they're mostly for React development and a few for selenium development. I currently have them as skills though so they don't clutter the context when not needed. I was planning on opening a PR with them after a little more review.

OK. Does your main CLAUDE.md look similar? Would that make sense to merge ahead of more focused guidelines/skills?

[labkey-martyp]

Yeah I think this is a fine starting point. Mine is a little customized to the work I was working on and to running claude code on windows. Some other things I have in mine that we could add here:

• How to run selenium test suites and individual tests from CLI. This is good when using selenium tests in feedback loops.
• How to run npm tests. This is pretty consistent across our react builds now. Also good for feedback loops.
• Always ask before adding, removing, or updating third-party library dependencies.
• Module Structure- directory/file tree. Helps claude find files and where to make changes.
• Guidance on comments. Claude can be overzealous with code comments. Comments that explain why something is done, not redundant comments with variable names, not comments that explain how something was changed in the development process.

Happy to help on these but I need to clean it up a little before committing for everyone.

[labkey-jeckels]

Yeah I think this is a fine starting point. Mine is a little customized to the work I was working on and to running claude code on windows. Some other things I have in mine that we could add here:

• How to run selenium test suites and individual tests from CLI. This is good when using selenium tests in feedback loops.
• How to run npm tests. This is pretty consistent across our react builds now. Also good for feedback loops.
• Always ask before adding, removing, or updating third-party library dependencies.
• Module Structure- directory/file tree. Helps claude find files and where to make changes.
• Guidance on comments. Claude can be overzealous with code comments. Comments that explain why something is done, not redundant comments with variable names, not comments that explain how something was changed in the development process.

Happy to help on these but I need to clean it up a little before committing for everyone.

OK, sounds good. I can review PRs when you're ready to start adding your guidelines.