Your First Session

What Claude says when you open a project

If the project has memory files loaded, the session starts with:

Project context loaded | Stack: Next.js + TypeScript | Phase: In progress | Next: dashboard route
Memory files are ready. Standards not yet loaded — will auto-load before first code edit.

If this is the workspace root (no specific project open), Claude shows a project chooser instead:

Which project are you working on?
  1. my-app
  2. api-service

Reply with the number or name to load that project's context.

Starting a new project

Say:

new project

Claude runs /new-project: asks you a few questions about the stack and purpose, creates memory files in your vault, sets up git, and writes the initial context.

Loading an existing project

Open the project folder in Claude Code. If the project has memory files (set up with /new-project previously), they load automatically at session start.

To switch projects without reopening Claude Code: say "switch project".

The status line

The Claude Code status bar shows live session stats when the toolkit is installed: directory, model, context usage %, and the 5-hour rate limit counter. This comes from ~/.claude/statusline-command.js.

What happens on the first code edit

Before writing any code, Claude auto-loads the standards for your stack. You'll see:

Standards loaded: universal (architecture, security, git, testing, documentation, error-handling, debugging, code-review, observability) + typescript-nextjs

This happens once per session. After that, all edits proceed without prompting.