Claude Code Structure That Survived Multiple Real Projects

What Worked After Multiple Projects

A developer on r/ClaudeAI shared their Claude Code structure that didn't break after implementing it across 2-3 real projects. This setup held up once they added multiple skills, MCP servers, and agents, moving beyond simple demos.

Key Structural Decisions

• Use CLAUDE MD: Skipping CLAUDE MD early on led to inconsistent results. Once they defined conventions, testing rules, and naming standards, outputs became more predictable.
• Split skills by intent: Organizing skills as code-review/, security-audit/, text-writer/ worked better than dumping logic into one place. This made activation cleaner.
• Implement hooks: Not using hooks initially was a mistake. PreToolUse and PostToolUse hooks helped catch bad commands and messy outputs, and were useful for small automations.
• Separate agents: The single-agent approach didn't scale well. Having dedicated reviewer, writer, and auditor agents proved more predictable.
• Manage context usage: When context usage goes too high, quality drops. Keeping it under approximately 60% made a noticeable difference.
• Separate concerns: Mixing config, skills, and runtime logic made debugging painful. Keeping these separated made everything easier to reason about.

MCP Integration

MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration with GitHub, Postgres, and filesystem access changed how Claude behaves completely. According to the developer, this is where the setup stopped feeling like a toy and started behaving more like a development assistant rather than just prompt → output.

The developer notes they're still figuring out the cleanest way to structure agents, but this setup is currently working well for projects that grow beyond simple demos.