Make every NEW project obey, forever

Lesson 6 of 7 · Module 01 · Set Up Your Command Center

The command center only works if every project is in it. The day you forget to add one, you have an orphan: a project running outside the shared memory, contradicting everything else. So you make adding a project impossible to forget.

You do it two ways at once, and together they close the gap.

The first is the global rule from lesson 4. It already lives in your ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, which means every Claude session, in every project, reads it on the way in. Buried in that rule is one line that does the heavy lifting: if the current project is not listed in PROJECTS.md, register it by running command-center/bin/cc-register.sh. So the first time you open a session in a brand-new folder, Claude notices the project is missing from the registry and self-registers it before doing anything else. You don't have to remember. The rule remembers for you.

The second is the script itself: cc-register.sh, which prompt 01 already wrote into your command-center/bin/. This is the part that does the work. Point it at any project folder and it does three things. It appends the Command Center block to that project's CLAUDE.md, so that project now carries the contract. It adds a row to PROJECTS.md so the project shows up in the registry. And it creates today's log file so there's a place to record the session.

The detail that makes it safe: the script is idempotent. Run it once, run it ten times, same result. If the block is already in the CLAUDE.md, it skips it. If the project is already in PROJECTS.md, it doesn't add a duplicate row. So Claude self-registering on session start never doubles anything up, and you can run it by hand anytime to repair a project without fear.

Prompt 05 is the clean way to start a project on purpose. You paste it, Claude asks for the folder name and a one-line purpose, creates the folder, writes a starter CLAUDE.md, runs cc-register.sh, fixes the registry row so it isn't left as a placeholder, and (if it's a code project) inits git. From minute one, the new project is a citizen of the command center instead of a thing you bolt on later and half-forget.

That is the whole point of this module in one sentence: structure that propagates itself, so the system you built today still holds when you have twenty projects you haven't thought about in months.

Grab prompt 05 from the Prompts Pack and use it the next time you spin something up.

Next lesson: where this goes from here, and the honest version of what is and isn't built yet.

Jerry

Video script

Target runtime: 85-105 seconds spoken. Talking head with on-screen text cues.

On screen: Lesson 6 : Every new project obeys, forever

VO: The command center only works if every project is in it. The day you forget to add one, you've got an orphan. A project running outside the shared memory, contradicting everything else. So you make adding a project impossible to forget.

On screen: two-up : GLOBAL RULE / cc-register.sh

VO: You do it two ways at once, and together they close the gap.

On screen: ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md : "if not in PROJECTS.md, register it"

VO: First, the global rule from lesson 4. It already lives in your global Claude file, so every session, in every project, reads it on the way in. And one line does the heavy lifting: if this project isn't in the registry, register it.

On screen: new folder opens, Claude self-registers before doing anything

VO: So the first time you open a session in a brand-new folder, Claude notices the project is missing and self-registers it before doing any work. You don't remember. The rule remembers for you.

On screen: cc-register.sh : three actions

VO: Second, the script that does the work. cc-register.sh. Point it at any folder and it does three things. Adds the Command Center block to that project's CLAUDE.md. Adds a row to PROJECTS.md. Creates today's log file.

On screen: IDEMPOTENT : run it once, run it ten times, same result

VO: And it's idempotent. Run it once or ten times, same result. If the block's already there, it skips it. No duplicate rows. So Claude self-registering on start never doubles anything up.

On screen: prompt 05 : name, purpose, starter CLAUDE.md, git init

VO: Prompt 05 is the clean way to start a project on purpose. You paste it, Claude asks for the folder name and a one-line purpose, writes a starter CLAUDE.md, runs the script, fixes the registry row, and inits git if it's code.

On screen: structure that propagates itself

VO: That's this whole module in one sentence. Structure that propagates itself. So the system still holds when you've got twenty projects you haven't thought about in months.

On screen: Next : where this goes from here

VO: Grab prompt 05 from the Prompts Pack. Next lesson, the honest version of where this goes from here.

← Lesson 5: Run multiple sessions without collisions (the message bus)Lesson 7: Where this goes next →