project-setup

Project Setup

Guide the author through setting up their creative writing project. The goal is a working CLAUDE.md and directory structure that all agents read for project-specific conventions, plus initial style files if writing samples are available.

Learn About the Project

Ask about:

• What kind of project: novel, short story collection, serial?
• How far along: starting fresh, or existing chapters and worldbuilding?
• Single POV or multiple? Linear or non-linear timeline? How much worldbuilding?
• Where do they keep their writing? What's the existing layout?

Writing Samples and Style

Ask about writing samples: these are the foundation for style analysis:

• Do they have sample chapters or scenes already written?
• Do they have writing from other projects that captures the voice they want?
• Are there published works they want to draw style inspiration from?
• Voice goals: close third, omniscient, first person? Formal, colloquial?

Collect whatever they have. Save samples to kb/samples/ so they're available for future style analysis. If they have enough material, offer to analyze their style using the /creative-writing-craft methodology: read the samples, identify the voice dimensions, and produce initial style files in kb/styles/.

If they're starting fresh with no samples, capture their voice goals in CLAUDE.md so style files can be created from early drafts.

Propose and Iterate

Based on what you learn, draft a CLAUDE.md section and show it to the author. Cover:

• Project overview: what the project is, one paragraph
• Author's space: where the author keeps their writing and how it's organized
• KB structure: what subdirectories exist under kb/ and what they're for. Suggest based on project complexity:
  • Simple (short story, single POV): characters/, canon/, styles/, root vocab.md
  • Medium (novel, few POVs): add timeline/
  • Complex (series, large world): add world/, issues/, and domain vocab files such as world/vocab.md
• Voice and style: what style files exist, what samples they're derived from, voice goals not yet captured
• Conventions: anything project-specific: naming patterns, chapter numbering, POV tagging, spoiler handling
• Shared vocabulary: early canonical terms, aliases, invented words, genre terms with project-specific meanings, and terms the author wants agents to avoid or distinguish

Present the draft and let the author adjust. Iterate until they're satisfied.

Create the Files

Once approved:

1. Write or update CLAUDE.md with the agreed content
2. Create the kb/ directories referenced in CLAUDE.md
3. Create kb/vocab.md when the project has named concepts agents must use consistently; create domain vocab files when a domain already has enough distinct terms
4. Create work/ with standard subdirectories (outline/, drafts/, critique-reports/, brainstorm/)
5. Save any writing samples to kb/samples/
6. If samples were provided and the author wants style analysis, produce initial style files in kb/styles/

Existing Projects

If CLAUDE.md already has creative writing conventions, read it first and suggest updates rather than overwriting.