Phase 5: Project Setup
Time: ~30 minutes | Goal: Initialize a professional-grade project
What This Phase Is About
Starting a project well saves hours of pain later. Professional projects have:
- Version control from day one
- Code quality tools that catch mistakes
- Automation that verifies things work
- Documentation that helps AI help you
This phase sets all of that up.
What You'll Learn
- GitHub basics — Creating and managing repositories
- Project structure — Folders, files, conventions
- Code quality tools — ESLint and Prettier
- Branch protection — Guardrails that protect you
- GitHub Actions — Automation that checks your work
- CLAUDE.md — Teaching AI about your project
By the End
You'll have:
- [ ] A GitHub repository for your project
- [ ] A React + TypeScript project initialized
- [ ] ESLint and Prettier configured
- [ ] Basic CI/CD with GitHub Actions
- [ ] A CLAUDE.md file ready for AI collaboration
Steps
- GitHub Quickstart
- Project Structure
- Code Quality Tools
- Branch Protection
- GitHub Actions Intro
- CLAUDE.md for Your Project