Scaffold Your Project

sn init gives you the canonical layout

The scaffolded CLAUDE.md already contains the canonical rules for working with the sn CLI: schema-first manifest authoring, idempotent upserts, skill-before-steps invocation, and the execute → validate → test lifecycle. You can extend it with your instance's naming conventions and scope — don't replace it.

sn init --dry-run prints the full file plan without writing anything. Useful if you want to see what a template gives you before committing to it.

The four templates from lightest to heaviest:

minimal — just CLAUDE.md, sn.config.ts, .gitignore. Best when you're bolting sn onto an existing repo.
feature — single-manifest starter with manifest.ts and a spec at the root.
app — one project, multiple manifests under manifests/. The default.
monorepo — packages/ layout for teams shipping multiple apps with shared specs and a shared vault.

Tasks

Scaffold a minimal project. `minimal` gives you just the essentials — CLAUDE.md, sn.config.ts, and .gitignore.

sn init --template minimal --name my-sn-project ./my-sn-project

✓ Scaffolded my-sn-project at ./my-sn-project (4 files)

Next steps:

cd ./my-sn-project

sn instance add default --url <host> --user <u> --pass - --default

# then describe a feature to Claude and let it generate a manifest

Check what was written.

cd my-sn-project && ls -la

.gitignore

CLAUDE.md

sn.config.ts

# (plus .sn-cache/ and friends the CLI writes on first run)

Next Level

Setting Up Claude

Point Claude Code at your scaffolded project