/init on a real folder

Build-along · ~8 min at your own keyboard

You don't have to author CLAUDE.md from scratch. Point Claude at a real folder, run /init, and it studies what's there and drafts the file itself. Your job becomes editing, which is usually quicker than writing from a blank page.

The long version: Run /init on a real project ↗

Do this

0/4

Checkpoints

▸You should now see a CLAUDE.md file created or updated after /init.
▸You should now see it name real files and folders from your project.
▸You should now see your hand-added guardrail inside the file.

The three ways this goes wrong

/init does nothing or says there is nothing to analyze. — You are in an empty or wrong folder. Check the header path and start claude where your work lives.
The generated file is long and generic. — Delete every line that could describe anyone's project. Keep only what is true of this folder.
/init overwrote a CLAUDE.md you already had. — Keep a copy before running it. If it happened, restore your copy and merge the generated parts by hand.

Share what happened

Paste 4-6 lines of the generated CLAUDE.md plus the one guardrail you added by hand.

Strip API keys, passwords, and tokens before you paste. Swap them for [KEY].

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