When to use
- Setting up new journalism projects
- Onboarding collaborators to existing projects
- Documenting project-specific quirks and gotchas
- Creating context for AI assistants working on your code
What's included
Deletion test
Guidelines for cutting obvious information. If an experienced journalist already knows it, delete it.
6 project templates
Editorial tools, event websites, publications, research projects, content pipelines, and digital archives.
Voice guidelines
Direct, terse notes. No marketing language. No "Welcome to..." introductions.
Good vs. bad examples
Side-by-side comparisons of verbose documentation vs. tribal knowledge only.
What belongs in CLAUDE.md
| Include | Don't include |
|---|---|
| Project-specific quirks | How journalism works generally |
| YOUR naming conventions | Standard file organization |
| Commands with YOUR flags | Generic commands like "npm install" |
| Non-obvious architecture | Framework documentation |
| Common mistakes in THIS project | General best practices |
Template selector
editorial-tool.md
Newsroom tools, fact-checkers, AI assistants
event-website.md
Conferences, workshops, campaign sites
publication.md
Newsletters, podcasts, ongoing content series
research-project.md
Investigations, data journalism with defined scope
content-pipeline.md
CMS workflows, publishing automation
digital-archive.md
Historical collections, document repositories
Length guideline
A good CLAUDE.md is 50-150 lines. If it's longer, you're explaining too much. If it's shorter, you might be missing critical quirks.
The best CLAUDE.md files are written by people who've been burned by the quirks they're documenting.
Installation
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jamditis/claude-skills-journalism.git
# Copy the skill to your Claude config
cp -r claude-skills-journalism/project-memory ~/.claude/skills/
Or download just this skill from the GitHub repository.