Claude Code changed how I build software. Not because the model got smarter, but because it gave Claude persistent context: a working directory, a file system, and a file called CLAUDE.md that tells it how to behave across sessions.
The problem? Most people skip that file. Or write a few lines that say "be helpful" and call it done. Then they wonder why Claude wanders off-task, forgets conventions, or hallucinates capabilities it doesn't have.
I built four free tools to fix that. Each one handles a different part of getting Claude Code set up correctly. No login required, no word limits, no upsell.
Quick background: what Claude Code actually needs
Claude Code reads a CLAUDE.md file from your project root every time it starts a session. This file is your persistent system prompt. It tells Claude who it is, what tools it has, what rules to follow, and how to communicate.
Without it, you get default assistant behavior. Fine for answering questions. Bad for building anything real.
If you're building agents or adding capabilities beyond basic coding, you also need SKILL.md files. These define specific skills your agent can perform, with triggers, inputs, outputs, and error handling. Think of them as structured function definitions that Claude can load on demand.
I wrote a longer piece on what CLAUDE.md is and how to write one if you want the full breakdown. Here I'll focus on the tools.
Tool 1: CLAUDE.md Writer
The CLAUDE.md Writer generates a complete CLAUDE.md file from a plain-language description of your project.
You describe what you're building, what tools or APIs your agent has access to, and any rules it should follow. The writer produces a structured file covering all seven sections that high-scoring CLAUDE.md files share: identity, capabilities, communication protocol, memory rules, task approach, iron laws, and examples.
Here's what that looks like in practice. You type something like:
I'm building a customer support bot for a SaaS product. It has access to our Zendesk API and can read tickets but can't modify billing. It should always escalate security issues immediately.
You get back a structured CLAUDE.md with specific sections for each of those constraints, plus memory rules and communication patterns you probably hadn't thought of yet.
The output is a starting point. Edit it. The best CLAUDE.md files I've seen went through three or four rounds of revision after the initial generation.
Tool 2: CLAUDE.md Auditor
Already have a CLAUDE.md? The CLAUDE.md Auditor scores it.
Paste your file in, and the auditor checks it against those same seven dimensions. You get a numeric score plus specific suggestions for what's missing or weak. A score above 70 usually means solid agent behavior. Below 50 means critical pieces are absent.
Most files I've audited fail on two things: no explicit memory rules (so Claude stores things inconsistently or not at all) and vague iron laws ("be professional" instead of "never share user X's data with user Y"). The auditor catches both.
One pattern I keep seeing: developers write great capability sections but skip the "what you cannot do" list entirely. Claude fills that gap with assumptions. Sometimes correct assumptions. Sometimes not. The auditor flags this.
Tool 3: SKILL.md Generator
Once your CLAUDE.md is solid, you might want to add skills. A skill is a structured capability definition that Claude can invoke when triggered.
The SKILL.md Generator turns a plain description into a properly formatted SKILL.md file. You describe what the skill does, and it produces the full structure: metadata, trigger conditions, input/output specs, the execution process, error recovery, and quality criteria.
Example: I described a "humanize AI text" skill in about 40 words. The generator produced a 300-line SKILL.md with eight processing passes, a vocabulary tier list, statistical checks, and three worked examples. (That skill is now open-source on GitHub, if you want to see what a finished SKILL.md looks like in the wild.)
The key value here is structure. Writing a SKILL.md from scratch means remembering all the sections, getting the YAML frontmatter right, and thinking through error cases. The generator handles the scaffolding so you can focus on the actual logic.
Tool 4: SKILL.md Linter
The SKILL.md Linter checks existing SKILL.md files for structural problems.
It catches missing sections, malformed YAML frontmatter, triggers without examples, processes without error recovery, and quality criteria that are too vague to actually test against. Think of it as ESLint for skill definitions.
I built this after my third skill broke in production because the error recovery section said "handle gracefully" instead of defining what graceful handling actually meant. Claude interpreted "handle gracefully" as "silently continue," which is not what I wanted when a database query returned zero results.
The linter would have caught that. Specific error recovery > vague error recovery. Every time.
Bonus: AI Chat with 13 modes
These four tools run inside AI Chat, which has 13 specialized modes including code generation, research, writing, and analysis. If you need to test your CLAUDE.md or SKILL.md against real queries before deploying, the chat interface is a fast way to do that.
Who these tools are for
If you're using Claude Code for anything beyond one-off questions, you need a CLAUDE.md file. Period. These tools make writing and maintaining that file faster.
If you're building agents with custom capabilities, you need SKILL.md files too. The generator and linter handle the structural work so you can focus on what the skill actually does.
All four tools are free, run in the browser, and require no account. I built them because I needed them myself. Every article on helloandy.net, including this one, was processed through tools that started as SKILL.md files.
helloandy.net provides free tools for AI agent developers and AI writers. No account required.