Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to madison-hutson/claude-project-scaffolding. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/madison-hutson/claude-project-scaffolding/main/CLAUDE.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/madison-hutson/claude-project-scaffoldingWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/madison-hutson/claude-project-scaffolding/claude-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/madison-hutson/claude-project-scaffolding/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/madison-hutson/claude-project-scaffolding/claude-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/madison-hutson/claude-project-scaffolding/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/madison-hutson/claude-project-scaffolding/claude-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.01738 | $0.01738 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00869 | $0.00869 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00348 | $0.00348 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00174 | $0.00174 |
Grade A, and why
claude-project-scaffolding CLAUDE.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 11d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 171 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
CLAUDE.md
STOP — READ THIS FIRST
Before ANY action in this session:
- Read this entire file
- Read docs/CONTRIBUTING.md
- Acknowledge the rules that apply
Do not proceed until you've done this.
Your failure mode: You optimize for completion. This drives you to batch—do many things, report success. Resist this. Do less. Verify more. When something breaks, understand first. A fix you don't understand is a timebomb.
Before actions that could fail: State what you expect. After: compare to reality. (See
docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md#prediction-protocol)Before changing working code: Run
git log -1 --oneline <file>andgit diff HEAD -- <file>first. If the code was working before, understand WHY before touching it. Revert fast if your fix doesn't work on first try.
First Session?
See docs/BOOTSTRAP.md for initial project setup (Git, quality gates, tooling).
Return here after bootstrap is complete.
The 13 Rules
Context Management
| # | Rule | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | READ docs/ files at session start AND after compaction | docs/ARCHITECTURE.md, docs/CONTRIBUTING.md |
| 2 | RE-READ this file when: after compaction, conversation is long, you're uncertain, or before any refactor | - |
| 3 | RECALL relevant docs before specialized tasks (testing, integrations, migrations) | See rule references below |
Never Break Production
| # | Rule | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | NEVER ship refactors without diffing every endpoint/function against original | docs/LESSONS-LEARNED.md |
| 5 | NEVER exceed 300 lines per file - splits must improve architecture, not just move code | docs/CONTRIBUTING.md#splits-must-improve-architecture |
| 6 | NEVER bypass data source rules defined in architecture | docs/ARCHITECTURE.md#data-sources |
| 7 | NEVER widen test assertions to make failing tests pass - fix inputs or code instead | docs/LESSONS-LEARNED.md |
Always Do
| # | Rule | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | ALWAYS run full test suite before declaring work complete | docs/CONTRIBUTING.md#testing |
| 9 | ALWAYS update docs BEFORE committing: CHANGELOG, TASKS, LESSONS-LEARNED if applicable | docs/CONTRIBUTING.md#before-committing |
| 10 | ALWAYS use shared utilities for common behaviors | docs/CONTRIBUTING.md#shared-patterns |
| 11 | ALWAYS verify dates are current year before writing timestamps | - |
| 12 | CHECKPOINT = git commit (not just TASKS.md) - commit before starting new features |
docs/CONTRIBUTING.md#session-discipline |
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 11d ago First seen · 171 lines · 1,738 tokens per session scan A bd812f1483ac
claude-project-scaffolding CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository madison-hutson/claude-project-scaffolding (18 stars, last pushed 8mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,738 tokens to every session, about $0.0087 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.
Other instructions, from other repositories
next.js AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for vercel/next.js, covering next.js development guide, codebase structure, monorepo overview, core package: packages/next and other important packages.
codex AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for openai/codex, covering rust/codex-rs, the codex-core crate, code review rules, crate api surface and model visible context.
vscode buildNext.instructions.md
Working notes and architecture documentation for the new esbuild-based build system in build/next. Use when making changes to the new build pipeline (transpile/bundle commands, NLS plugin, source-map handling, resource copying, or self-hosting watch tasks).
spec-kit AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for github/spec-kit, covering agents.md, about spec kit and specify, quickstart — add a new integration in 5 steps, integration architecture and integrationmanifest — file tracking.
vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.md
Instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code oss third-party-notices pipeline, architecture, pipeline flow in ci, applying the notice (cutover) and fallback chain (never fail the build).
langchain AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for langchain-ai/langchain, covering global development guidelines for the langchain monorepo, corridor security analysis, project architecture and context, monorepo structure and development tools & commands.