Project Docs Template

Agent-ready project documentation template with START/STATE/TODO/DONE, workflows, lightweight tooling, and LLM-friendly project memory.

This repository contains a compact documentation scaffold for projects that are maintained with LLM agents. The template focuses on clear project state, session handoff, task history, decision records, workflows, and small local utilities without turning the project into a heavy operating system.

What Is Included

• CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md for agent instructions
• START.md and STATE.md for session bootstrap and current state
• TODO.md and DONE.md with optional archival tooling
• DECISIONS.md, PATTERNS.md, CHANGELOG.md, and HEADER-RULES.md
• Optional FULL-profile routers: WORKFLOWS.md, TOOLS.md, GLOSSARY.md
• Local helpers in _tools/, including init-project, doc-lint, todo-archive, and workflows-sync

The actual template files live in template/.

Quick Start

Clone this repository and instantiate a project profile:

git clone https://github.com/ellmos-ai/project-docs-template.git
cd project-docs-template
python template/_tools/init-project --target ../my-project --name MyProject --profile STANDARD

Available profiles:

• MINIMAL: 7 root files plus essential tools
• STANDARD: 12 root files plus essential tools
• FULL: 16 root files plus workflow, tool, GitHub, and glossary scaffolding

You can also copy files manually from template/ if you only need selected pieces.

Design Principles

• Every file has a distinct job.
• Session handoff is explicit and short.
• Maintenance burden matters more than having every possible document.
• Routers such as WORKFLOWS.md and TOOLS.md point to details elsewhere.
• Completed tasks can be archived automatically instead of bloating TODO.md.

See template/TEMPLATE.md for the full rationale and file-by-file explanation.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.

This project is an unpaid open-source donation. Liability is limited to intent and gross negligence under Section 521 of the German Civil Code. Use at your own risk. No warranty, maintenance guarantee, availability guarantee, or fitness-for-purpose guarantee is provided.