Introducing Preclaude: supercharge your Claude Code in 30 seconds

The problem with Claude Code

Claude Code is brilliant. It's genuinely transformative for how we build software. But every time you start a new session, you're back to square one.

You're repeating the same prompts. Explaining your tech stack preferences again. Manually running builds and tests. Writing out instructions for how you want commit messages formatted. Describing your code review checklist. Again.

For the past few months, I've been building one product every week as part of a 52-product challenge. At that pace, this repetition becomes suffocating. You can't afford to spend 30 minutes of every session just getting Claude up to speed.

So I built something to fix it.

What is Preclaude?

Preclaude is a pre-configured toolkit for Claude Code that gives you production-ready workflows from a one-line install:

curl -fsSL https://preclaude.com/install | bash

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That's it. Thirty seconds later, you have:

26 slash commands covering your entire development workflow
16 specialist agents with deep expertise in specific domains
Ralph – an autonomous builder that takes your PRD and builds your product story by story
Battle-tested defaults for security, permissions, and code quality

It's free, open source (MIT license), and maintained by the team at Precode.

The 26 commands that replaced my clipboard

Every developer has their own clipboard of prompts they paste into AI tools. Mine had grown to 47 different snippets. Code review checklist. Test generation prompt. Commit message format. Security audit criteria.

I turned them into commands:

Development workflow

/commit – Generates conventional commit messages from your staged changes. No more "fix stuff" commits.
/pr – Creates pull requests with auto-generated descriptions that actually explain what changed.
/review – Comprehensive code review covering correctness, security, performance, and maintainability.
/test – Generates unit, integration, or E2E tests for your code.
/debug – Paste an error, get a fix with explanation.
/status – Quick health check: git status, lint errors, type errors, test failures.

Project management

/kickoff – Initialises new projects with CLAUDE.md and proper tooling setup.
/prd – Generates comprehensive technical PRDs from your ideas.
/implement – Full feature implementation from a PRD or specification.
/handoff – Creates session continuity notes for your next session.
/stakeholder – Generates daily or weekly progress reports.
/project-complete – End-of-project documentation suite.

Code quality

/polish – Match your UI to a design reference (Figma, screenshot).
/refactor – Extract components, improve types, split files.
/migrate – Handle database, Next.js, or dependency migrations.
/deps – Check outdated packages, security vulnerabilities, bundle size.
/seo – Audit meta tags, Open Graph, sitemaps.
/analytics – Set up PostHog, Google Analytics, or Plausible.

Research and content

/research – Deep competitor and market research.
/copy – Audit, improve, or generate persuasive copy.
/marketing – Generate launch content from your features.
/learn – Analyse session and propose CLAUDE.md updates.

Autonomous building

/full-build – Complete workflow from idea to working code.
/prd-json – Convert PRD to atomic implementation tasks.
/build – Run Ralph's autonomous loop.
/deploy-check – Pre-deployment verification checklist.

Each command saves 10+ minutes per use. When you're building at pace, that compounds fast.

16 specialist agents that bring domain expertise

Generic AI responses are fine for simple tasks. But when you're debugging a database query performance issue, you need someone who thinks like a database architect.

That's what the specialist agents do. Invoke them with @agent-name and they bring focused expertise:

@frontend-developer – React 19, Next.js 15, TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn/ui
@backend-developer – Node.js, Python, APIs, authentication, databases
@database-architect – Schema design, migrations, query optimisation
@devops-engineer – CI/CD, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, cloud infrastructure
@security-auditor – OWASP guidelines, vulnerability analysis, security reviews
@test-engineer – Unit, integration, E2E testing, mocking strategies
@performance-engineer – Core Web Vitals, bundle analysis, caching strategies
@code-reviewer – PR reviews, best practices, code quality standards

We've also got mobile specialists:

@expo-developer – React Native, Expo SDK, EAS builds
@ios-developer – Swift, SwiftUI, Core Data, App Store guidelines
@android-developer – Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Room, Play Store requirements

And product people:

@ui-designer – Design systems, accessibility, animations
@ux-researcher – User research, flows, wireframes, usability testing
@product-analyst – PRDs, user stories, requirements gathering
@technical-writer – Documentation, READMEs, API docs
@copywriter – Landing pages, email sequences, ads, conversion copy

Think of them as your on-demand team. Need security advice? @security-auditor. Building a mobile app? @expo-developer. Writing launch copy? @copywriter.

Ralph: the autonomous builder that changed everything

This is the real game-changer. Ralph is an autonomous builder that takes your PRD and builds your product story by story.

Here's how it works:

Run /full-build "your product idea"
Ralph asks 8 questions about your product (features, tech stack, auth needs, etc.)
Generates a comprehensive technical PRD
Converts the PRD into atomic user stories
Implements one story at a time
Runs typecheck, lint, and tests after each story
Commits if passing, moves to next story
Continues until all stories are complete

I've watched Ralph build entire features while I make coffee. It's not perfect – you'll need to review and refine – but it gets you 80% of the way there without manual intervention.

Credit to Geoffrey Huntley who created the Ralph Wiggum plugin that powers the core loop. I've wrapped it with my workflow, but the autonomous building is his brilliant work.

Why we built this

At Precode, we run 5-Day UX Sprints and MVP Sprints for clients. We're a small team shipping at pace. Every hour counts.

Claude Code is powerful, but it's raw. Every session started with the same 15 minutes of setup. Explaining our stack. Describing our commit message format. Setting expectations for code review.

For the 52-product challenge, that became impossible. I needed a system that worked instantly. No setup. No repeated prompts. Just production-ready workflows from the first command.

Preclaude is that system. We use it daily. For client work. For internal projects. For the products I'm building each week.

The biggest lesson? Consistent workflows beat heroics every time. You don't need perfection. You need deployed. Preclaude bakes that philosophy in.

How it compares to DIY setup

You can absolutely set up Claude Code yourself. But here's what that looks like:

DIY setup:

Hours configuring commands and agents
Building each workflow from scratch
Maintaining your own prompts and templates
Troubleshooting permission issues
No autonomous building out of the box

Preclaude:

One-line install (30 seconds)
26 pre-built, battle-tested commands
16 specialist agents with deep expertise
Ralph autonomous builder included
Community-maintained and updated
Sensible security defaults

If you're building one project, DIY might work. If you're building at pace, Preclaude saves hours per week.

Real workflow examples

Starting a new project

/full-build "Invoice tracker for freelancers"

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Ralph interviews you about features, tech stack, and requirements. Generates PRD. Breaks it into stories. Builds it autonomously. You review and refine.

Code review before PR

git add .
/review
# Fix any blockers
/commit
/pr

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Clean PR with conventional commit message and auto-generated description.

Improving landing page copy

/copy audit
# Review scores and suggestions
/copy improve landing-page.tsx
# Apply changes

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Your copy gets sharper, more persuasive, more conversion-focused.

Daily standup report

/stakeholder daily

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Professional progress update with commits, changes, and blockers. Share with your team.

Customisation and control

Preclaude works instantly, but you're not locked into our defaults.

Edit ~/.preclaude/CLAUDE.md to set:

Your code style preferences
Communication style
Default tech stack
Response format

Edit ~/.preclaude/settings.local.json to configure:

Allowed commands
Denied operations
Plugin settings

Want to add your own commands? Drop markdown files in ~/.preclaude/commands/. Your custom commands live alongside ours.

What's next

Preclaude is open source and actively maintained. On the roadmap:

More specialist agents (ML, DevRel, Data)
Community command marketplace
IDE integrations (VS Code extension)
Better Ralph monitoring and controls

Star the repo to follow along: github.com/weareprecode/preclaude

Try it now

Install takes 30 seconds:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/weareprecode/preclaude/main/install-remote.sh | bash

Restart Claude Code. Type /status to verify everything's working.

Free. Open source. MIT license.

Visit preclaude.com for documentation and examples.

What would you build if you could ship a product every week?