extremecontexting.com / resources.md

Starter Workspace

Implementation artifact
/resources.md

v0.1

The next discipline is contexted work.

Contexted work gives the model a bounded move, sufficient context, explicit exclusions, a verification contract, and a place to capture what should improve the next cycle.

The Extreme Contexting Starter Workspace is a Claude Code-ready implementation of contexted work. The folder structure is the product. Every folder maps to a step in the loop. Every file has a job. The workspace is not a prompt library — it is a working context system.

Use the method, not necessarily the files

The Starter Workspace is a document-native reference implementation of Extreme Contexting.

If your environment already supports subagents, skills, plan mode, typed memory, sandbox permissions, or custom agent workflows, you may not need every file in this kit. Do not duplicate what your tools already enforce.

Instead, map the Extreme Contexting primitives onto the strongest native features of your environment, and keep only the artifacts that still earn their place.

Some artifacts remain valuable precisely because they solve team-level gaps that native tooling may not fully own yet: repo-shared failure memory, cross-session handoff state, explicit blast-radius labeling, and the promotion ladder from gotcha to rule, validator, or config.

EC primitive Document-native artifact Native / harness equivalent
Move boundary move-card.md Plan mode / subagent scope
Context packet context-packet.md Scoped subagent context
Prompt frame prompts/*.md Skills / slash commands
Verification contract verification-contract.md Reviewer agent / CI / test gate
Protected files Hooks Sandbox / permissions
Cross-session state HANDOFF.md Often still needs explicit artifact
Shared failure memory GOTCHAS.md Often still needs repo-shared artifact
Blast radius Move Card field Should be added to plan templates
Promotion ladder Context Ledger Team discipline / validator / config

Download

Extreme Contexting Starter Workspace — Claude Code Edition v0.1
CLAUDE.md docs/INDEX.md docs/GOTCHAS.md docs/HANDOFF.md docs/MOVES.md docs/SOURCE_INDEX.md moves/active/ capture/ verification/ .claude/hooks/ .claude/commands/ memory-template/ prompts/ scripts/ software-auth example
Download .zip →

v0.1 · Requires jq for hooks · MIT license

What's inside

The workspace contains three layers: a project template you copy into any Claude Code project, a memory template that lives outside your repos, and reusable prompts and scripts.

extreme-contexting-starter-workspace/
├── README.md
├── project-template/  ← copy this into your project root
│   ├── CLAUDE.md  ← P0: project constitution
│   ├── CONVENTIONS.md  ← P3: cross-project conventions
│   ├── docs/
│   │   ├── INDEX.md  ← P1: documentation map
│   │   ├── SOURCE_INDEX.md  ← P1: one-line source file map
│   │   ├── GOTCHAS.md  ← P0: failure memory
│   │   ├── HANDOFF.md  ← P1: session continuity
│   │   ├── MOVES.md  ← P1: move sequences by outcome
│   │   ├── ARCHITECTURE-example.md  ← P1: decision record template
│   │   └── API-CONTRACT-example.md  ← P1: optional API contract
│   ├── moves/active/  ← the cockpit: move-card, context-packet, verification-contract
│   ├── capture/  ← context-ledger, decisions, reusable-rules, failure-patterns
│   ├── verification/
│   └── .claude/
│       ├── settings.json  ← P2: guardrails
│       ├── hooks/  ← P2: enforcement (git-guardrail, protected-files, careful-check)
│       └── commands/  ← P4: update-index, write-handoff, capture-gotcha, review-move
├── memory-template/  ← lives outside any repo
├── prompts/  ← P4: do-only-this-move, careful-mode, discovery-move, and more
├── scripts/  ← P4: deterministic helpers
└── examples/
    ├── software-auth/  ← complete worked example
    ├── editorial-production/  ← coming in v0.2
    └── decision-support/  ← coming in v0.2

Priority model

Not all context is equal. The priority model tells you what to set up first and why. A working CLAUDE.md and GOTCHAS.md is enough to begin.

Priority Purpose Files
P0 — Won't work Project constitution and failure memory CLAUDE.md, docs/GOTCHAS.md
P1 — Degrades Routing, architecture, continuity, sequence docs/INDEX.md, docs/SOURCE_INDEX.md, docs/ARCHITECTURE-*.md, docs/HANDOFF.md, docs/MOVES.md
P2 — Enforce Hooks, guardrails, protected files .claude/settings.json, .claude/hooks/
P3 — Cross-project Shared conventions and persistent memory CONVENTIONS.md, MEMORY/
P4 — Workflows Repeatable slash commands, prompts, scripts .claude/commands/, prompts/, scripts/

How to start

  1. 01 Download and unzip the workspace.
  2. 02 Copy project-template/ into your project root.
  3. 03 Fill in CLAUDE.md — project name, file map, commands, guardrails.
  4. 04 Run chmod +x .claude/hooks/*.sh to make hooks executable.
  5. 05 Install jq if using hooks: jqlang.github.io/jq
  6. 06 Write your first move in moves/active/move-card.md.
  7. 07 Tell Claude: Do only this move.
See the method in action

The examples/software-auth/ folder contains a complete worked example: two completed moves with full records, an active move card, GOTCHAS.md with real entries, and a HANDOFF.md showing mid-project state.

Lineage

This workspace was developed from Extreme Contexting practice and informed by Claude Code configuration patterns documented by Justin Haddock: project constitution, indexed documentation, memory, hooks, and reusable workflows.

Extreme Contexting is tool-agnostic. This workspace is not. It is an implementation of the method for Claude Code.

← 04_toolkit.md