ai-os-init

name

ai-os-init

description

Scaffolds an "AI Operating System" project structure into any project, non-destructively — adds only missing pieces, never removes or overwrites anything that already exists. Creates: CLAUDE.md (memory layer), docs/architecture.md + docs/decisions/ + docs/runbooks/ (documentation), tools/scripts/ and tools/prompts/ (utilities), and .claude/ with two example skills (new-adr, clean-tests), six hooks (guard-secrets, branch-guard, auto-format, typecheck, n+1-guard, audit-log), and a read-only docs-auditor subagent — all wired via .claude/settings.json. Requires only Python 3 and bash; no external dependencies. Use when asked to "init Claude Code project structure", "scaffold the AI-OS layers", "add CLAUDE.md hooks subagents to this project", "set up the Claude Code layers", "initialize ai-os", "add the AI operating system structure", "scaffold this project for Claude Code", or "add skills hooks agents here". Safe to re-run — idempotent. Not for non–Claude-Code agents (it scaffolds Claude Code's .claude/ layer) and not a code generator — it sets up project structure, not application code.

ai-os-init

Scaffolds the five-layer AI Operating System structure into any project directory. Non-destructive by design: existing files are never touched, hook entries are never duplicated, source trees are never imposed.

No dependencies — needs only Python 3 and bash, both already present on any machine running Claude Code. The hooks that call formatters or type checkers (ruff, prettier, tsc, mypy, …) degrade silently when those tools aren't installed, so nothing ever breaks.

The Five Layers It Wires Up

#	Layer	What gets created
01	Memory	CLAUDE.md — always-loaded project map, conventions, links
02	Knowledge	.claude/skills/new-adr/ + .claude/skills/clean-tests/ — on-demand skills
03	Guardrails	.claude/hooks/ — six PreToolUse/PostToolUse hooks (see below)
04	Delegation	.claude/agents/docs-auditor.md — read-only docs drift subagent
05	Docs	docs/ architecture + decisions (ADR log) + runbooks

Hooks installed (wired into .claude/settings.json)

Hook	Event	What it does
guard-secrets.sh	PreToolUse (Edit/Write)	Blocks writes to secret-looking files (.env, keys, credentials)
branch-guard.sh	PreToolUse (Bash)	Blocks force-push and direct commit/push to protected branches; runs CI before push
auto-format.sh	PostToolUse (Edit/Write)	Formats the edited file (ruff/black/prettier/gofmt/rustfmt), best-effort
typecheck.sh	PostToolUse (Edit/Write)	Surfaces type errors (tsc/mypy) if the project is configured for them
n+1-guard.sh	PostToolUse (Edit/Write)	Warns on likely N+1 query patterns (DB call inside a loop)
audit-log.sh	PostToolUse (Bash)	Silently appends every bash command to .claude/command-audit.log

Two of these change git/agent behaviour out of the box: branch-guard.sh will block commits on main/master/develop/staging/production and force pushes, and audit-log.sh logs every command. Tell your team these are active, or drop the hooks you don't want from templates/.claude/hooks/ before sharing.

How to Run

Tell Claude to run the scaffold on the current project:

python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/ai-os-init/scaffold.py"
# or for a specific path:
python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/ai-os-init/scaffold.py" /path/to/project

Report the created/skipped/merged summary to the user.

Non-Destructive Contract

• File exists → skip it, report it as "already present"
• File missing → create it from the template
• .claude/settings.json → load and merge; append each hook entry only if a hook with the same command isn't already there — then write back preserving all existing keys
• CLAUDE.md exists → leave it byte-identical; note which recommended sections are absent so the user can fill them in
• No src/ imposed — if the project has src/, lib/, or app/ but no nested CLAUDE.md, suggest adding one; never create source dirs

What to Do After Scaffolding

After running, guide the user through:

1. Fill in CLAUDE.md — project name, conventions, key commands
2. Fill in docs/architecture.md — tech stack, components, data flow
3. Try new-adr: say "create an ADR about [decision]"
4. Try clean-tests: say "clean up the tests"
5. Try docs-auditor: say "audit the docs"
6. guard-secrets is already active — it blocks writes to secret-looking files

Template Source

All templates live alongside this skill in templates/. To customise what gets created in future projects, fork the repo and edit the templates there (editing the installed plugin cache directly gets overwritten on the next update).