The Command Kit.

Get the repo on GitHub →   Read the doctrine →

What it is

The Command Kit is a markdown-first, action-oriented, git-versioned knowledge base — engineered so a human and an AI can both read it fluently. It’s where you (the captain) and your AI agents share a brain: strategy, decisions, knowledge, intent. Plain markdown, opinionated structure, scalable with you.

It’s not a SaaS. It’s a kit you install in seconds. Clone it, drop it in your home directory, and it becomes the context layer for every AI session you run. Cancel Claude tomorrow, switch to a different model — the kit still works. Tool-agnostic by design.

It personalizes itself to you

One of the things that makes the Command Kit different: it ships with a personalization tool that asks you a few questions about your business and re-shapes the kit’s structure for how you actually work — while preserving the parts that need to stay structured for the AI to use them well. You don’t configure it manually. The kit adapts to you, then keeps learning.

The result: a kit that reads like your business from day one, not a generic starter template.

What's inside

~/command/
├── CLAUDE.md           # The schema. Tells your AI how this folder works.
├── index.md            # Machine-maintained catalog of wiki entries
├── log.md              # Append-only activity log
│
├── raw/                # IMMUTABLE source material (PDFs, transcripts, datasets)
├── wiki/               # LLM-COMPILED knowledge (entity pages)
│   ├── ventures/       # One page per business or project
│   ├── clients/        # One page per client
│   ├── people/         # One page per person
│   └── concepts/       # Cross-cutting topics
│
├── missions/           # Linear issue navigation
├── calendar/           # Daily notes, journal
├── atlas/              # Maps of Content (MOCs)
├── templates/          # Recurring patterns
│
├── ventures/           # Code + ops (git repos, deployable software)
├── clients/            # Client project files
├── tools/              # Reusable scripts
└── archive/            # Deprecated, completed, one-off

Every folder has a job. Nothing is decorative. The structure was hammered out across years of running multiple businesses simultaneously, and it's opinionated for a reason: when you don't have to think about where a piece of information goes, you can spend that energy on what it actually is.

How to install

git clone https://github.com/shipwithmax/command ~/command
cd ~/command
claude

That's it. Open the folder in Claude Code (or Cursor, or any AI tool that respects CLAUDE.md). Claude reads the schema and immediately understands the layout. Drop your first document into raw/ and ask Claude to summarize it into a wiki entry. You're running.

For the full setup walkthrough, see the setup lesson (coming soon).

How it gets better

The escalation ladder, from free to deepest:

1. Free, this page: Clone the repo. Use it forever.
2. Free, the doctrine: Read the Command Kit doctrine for the operating principles. Read the Captain's Flywheel for the methodology it runs inside.
3. Free, the lesson: Watch the YouTube lesson + grab the toolkit (CLAUDE.md template, starter wiki entries, first-week prompts).
4. Paid, the Blueprint: The Command Blueprint is the deep, code-level walkthrough, how to customize the folder for an agency, a SaaS, a content business, a hospitality business. Includes the tactical playbook and 4 weeks of support.
5. Paid, Fractional CMO: From $6K/month. Embedded marketing leadership that deploys AI agents across your marketing performance, social content, lifecycle (email + SMS), and ops (martech stack, self-hosted databases and dashboards) — with the Command Kit as the spine.

The captain's stack we run with it

The Command Kit is tool-agnostic. These are what we actually use. Each is recommended; some carry an affiliate link clearly marked.

Need a different setup? Read the Command Kit doctrine for what the folder actually requires (it's just markdown — every modern AI tool can read it).

FAQ

Why is this free?

Because the operating model only works if a lot of captains run it. We make money on the deeper work — community, blueprints, and Fractional CMO engagements where we embed and deploy agents. The folder itself is the foundation we want everyone building on. Free is strategic.

What's the license?

MIT. Use it commercially, fork it, modify it, ship products on top of it. Just don't sue us if it doesn't make you rich. Standard open-source.

Do I need Claude Code?

No. Any AI tool that reads CLAUDE.md works (Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, etc.). We use Claude Code because it's where the methodology was developed and it's the most context-faithful tool we've tested. But the folder is just markdown. Tool-agnostic.

Can I fork and customize?

Yes, that's the point. Fork on GitHub, customize the CLAUDE.md schema for your context, add or remove top-level folders. We expect captains to make this their own. The original repo stays as the canonical starter.

Where does paid value start?

The free folder is genuinely useful, many captains will never need more. The paid value starts at the Command Blueprint, which is the deep walkthrough on customizing the folder for specific business types, with code-level detail and tactical playbooks bundled together. The Skool community + Blueprints tier is where you get the ongoing support and the network of other captains running their own.

Does it work with Obsidian?

Beautifully. Obsidian + Claude is genuinely overpowered for human-AI collaboration on knowledge work. We recommend it.