claude-starter-kit

Starter template repo for all your Claude Code needs

About

This is a starter template repository designed to provide a complete development environment for Claude-Code with pre-configured MCP servers and tools for AI-powered, collaborative, development workflows. The defaults are intentionally minimal, containing only configuration templates for three primary systems: Claude Code, Serena, and Task Master. Users can opt-in to additional claude-code features like skills, plugins, hooks, sub-agents, and so on.

[!NOTE] This configuration also focuses on collaborative development workflows where multiple developers are working on the same code-base, which is one of the reasons why most of claude- and mcp-related settings are local-scoped (i.e. most claude settings will be in .claude/settings.local.json so they can be shared with the entire dev team, and not in user-scoped ~/claude/settings.json, which are harder to share with others.)

For this same reason, most of the claude/mcp configuration files are not git-ignored, but instead committed to the repo.

Features

• 🤖 Four Pre-Configured MCP Servers

  • Context7: Up-to-date library documentation and code examples
  • Serena: Semantic code analysis with LSP integration for intelligent navigation
  • Task Master: AI-powered task management and workflow orchestration
  • Pal: Multi-model AI integration for debugging, code review, and planning

• ⚙️ Automated Template Cleanup

  • GitHub Actions workflow for one-click repository initialization
  • Configurable inputs for language detection and Task Master settings
  • Automatic cleanup of template-specific files for a clean starting point

• 📋 50+ Task Master Slash Commands

  • Pre-configured hierarchical command structure under /project:tm/
  • Commands for task management, complexity analysis, PRD parsing, and workflows
  • Complete command reference in .claude/TM_COMMANDS_GUIDE.md

• 🔍 Intelligent Code Navigation

  • Serena's symbol-based code analysis for efficient exploration
  • Token-efficient reading with overview and targeted symbol queries
  • Reference tracking and semantic understanding across your codebase

• 📝 Configuration Templates

  • Ready-to-use templates for .serena/, .taskmaster/, and .claude/ directories
  • Placeholder-based customization with repository-specific values
  • Permission configuration for tool access control

• 📚 Comprehensive Documentation

  • Project-level CLAUDE.md with integration guidance
  • Task Master integration guide with 400+ lines of best practices
  • Complete workflow specification and command references

Requirements

You will need the following on your workstation:

Tools

• npm
• uv

API Keys

• Context7 API key
• Gemini API key for pal-mcp-server. You don't need to use gemini and can configure pal with any other provider/models. See pal getting started docs for more details.

Claude claude.json mcp settings

You need to have mcpServers present and configured in your ~/.claude.json.

[!NOTE] The reason we put them in the user's claude.json configuration, instead of repo local settings, is to prevent committing API keys, which some MCP servers might require.

These configs are also generic enough that they can be re-used across every project, and hence is better placed in user's settings.

Here's an example mcpServers object that you can use as a reference:

{
  "context7": {
    "type": "http",
    "url": "https://mcp.context7.com/mcp",
    "headers": {
      "CONTEXT7_API_KEY": "YOUR_CONTEXT7_API_KEY"
    }
  },
  "serena": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": [
      "--from",
      "git+https://github.com/oraios/serena",
      "serena",
      "start-mcp-server",
      "--context",
      "ide-assistant",
      "--project",
      "."
    ],
    "env": {}
  },
  "task-master-ai": {
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "-y",
      "--package=task-master-ai",
      "task-master-ai"
    ],
    "headers": {}
  },
  "pal": {
    "command": "sh",
    "args": [
      "-c",
      "$HOME/.local/bin/uvx --from git+https://github.com/BeehiveInnovations/pal-mcp-server.git pal-mcp-server"
    ],
    "env": {
      "PATH": "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:~/.local/bin",
      # see https://github.com/BeehiveInnovations/pal-mcp-server/blob/main/docs/configu

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