Why pay $29 when the starter repo is free and I could write a CLAUDE.md myself?

You can, and plenty of people should. The free starter is a complete setup, MIT licensed, and it is generic on purpose — you fill in your own commands, your own traps, your own skill. The $29 buys the reading: a CLAUDE.md written from your actual repo, an allowlist built from the commands it actually runs, and every one of those commands run in your repo and passed before the pull request opens.

What is the real difference between Setup Lite $29 and Setup Sprint $99?

Lite is one repo, one skill, the permission allowlist and a CLAUDE.md, back as a pull request in 24 hours. Sprint is 3–5 skills, hooks, up to 3 MCP servers wired, a one-page runbook and an ACCEPTANCE.md, in 48 hours. If what bothers you is that Claude does not know your repo, buy Lite. If it asks before every command and nothing runs after it edits, that is Sprint.

I already have a CLAUDE.md and it is still fighting me. Which one do I buy?

Neither, probably. That is the Claude Code Surface Audit at $79: a written audit of the CLAUDE.md and settings you already have, a contradiction map and an exact fix list, in 48 hours. Buying another setup on top of a setup that is fighting you usually adds a second source of truth rather than removing the first.

Do it yourself, Setup Lite $29, or Setup Sprint $99?

Q: How long does doing it myself actually take?

An afternoon of reading for the first repo, honestly. The files themselves take minutes to copy. What takes the time is deciding which of your commands are safe to allowlist, which annoyance is worth a skill, and then finding out that a command you wrote down does not actually work from a clean checkout.

Three ways to get Claude Code configured for a real repo. One of them is free and is the right answer for a lot of people, so it goes first.

Last updated: 2026-09-21

The whole thing in one table

	Do it yourself	Setup Lite	Setup Sprint
Price	Free, MIT	$29 one time	$99 one time
What you get	A worked `CLAUDE.md`, a permission allowlist with both an allow and a deny list, three skills and a formatter hook — generic, for you to fill in	A `CLAUDE.md` with your commands, the allowlist built from what your repo actually runs, and one skill	All of Lite, plus hooks, 3–5 skills, up to 3 MCP servers wired, a one-page runbook and an `ACCEPTANCE.md`
How it arrives	You clone a public repo and copy files in	A pull request you read and merge. Never a push to your default branch	Same: a pull request you read and merge
Your time	An afternoon of reading, per repo	Three form fields, then reviewing a PR	Same three fields, plus naming the MCP servers you want
Clock	Now	24 hours from a complete intake	48 hours from a complete intake
Who does the reading	You	We do, from your code. Every command written down was run in your repo first	Same, across more surface

Clocks run from a complete intake, not from the Stripe receipt. “Not sure” is a complete answer to any intake field — working the rest out of your code is the job you are paying for, not a prerequisite.

Do it yourself when…

You have one repo, you like reading configuration, and an afternoon is cheaper than $29 to you
You want to see what a finished setup even looks like before paying anyone — that is the honest use of the starter, and we would rather you had it than nothing
Your stack is unusual enough that you would end up rewriting most of what anyone handed you
You are learning Claude Code on purpose. Writing your own allowlist teaches you more than merging ours

Clone the free starter repo Three free plugins

Also free and not gated behind an email: a full audit we published of our own starter repo, and a guide to writing skills that gives away the part people get wrong.

Setup Lite $29 when…

The problem is that Claude does not know your repo — it re-learns the stack every session and guesses at your commands
You would rather review a pull request than spend the afternoon
You want one skill for the thing you repeat every week, written so you can run it by name
You want the setup to live in git where the rest of the team gets it

What it is not: not hooks, not MCP servers, not 3–5 skills. If you already know you want those, skip a rung — a scope change is a new order, not a revision round.

Setup Lite $29

Setup Sprint $99 when…

Claude asks permission before every command and you have stopped reading the prompts, which is the dangerous state
Nothing runs after it edits — no formatter, no test, no reminder. That is hooks
You want MCP servers wired properly, with credentials in environment variables rather than in a file you might commit
Someone new joins next month and you want a runbook that gets them going in about fifteen minutes

Setup Sprint $99

When none of these three is the right buy

You already have a setup and it is fighting you. Adding another setup on top usually creates a second source of truth instead of removing the first. That is the Claude Code Surface Audit at $79: a written audit of the CLAUDE.md and settings you already have, a contradiction map, an exact fix list, 48 hours.

You do not have a repo yet. Then none of this is the right buy and we will say so rather than stretch it. Take the free starter, build something with it, and come back when there is a repo to set up.

You want a tool built rather than a repo configured. That is a different line of work: MCP Basic $199 for one tool, or Build Packet $399 for a server or a Worker. Configuration will not get you there. Side by side: Setup Sprint vs MCP Basic.

You are not sure Claude Code is for you at all. Read the plain-language guide first. It costs nothing and it talks a fair number of people out of buying, which is the point.

Questions people ask before choosing

Why pay $29 when the starter repo is free?

You should not, if you enjoy the reading. The free starter is a complete, working setup and it is generic on purpose — you fill in your own commands, your own traps, your own skill. The $29 buys the reading instead: a CLAUDE.md written from your actual repo, an allowlist built from the commands it actually runs, and every one of those commands run in your repo and passed before the pull request opens. That check is the $29.

What is the real difference between Lite and Sprint?

Lite is one repo, one skill, the allowlist, 24 hours. Sprint is 3–5 skills, hooks, up to 3 MCP servers wired, a one-page runbook and an ACCEPTANCE.md, 48 hours. Rule of thumb: if the complaint is “it does not know my repo”, buy Lite. If it is “it asks before every command and nothing runs after it edits”, that is Sprint.

How long does doing it myself actually take?

An afternoon for the first repo, honestly — and far less for the second, because by then you have made the decisions. Copying the files takes minutes. The time goes on deciding which commands are safe to allowlist, which annoyance deserves a skill, and discovering that a command you wrote down does not run from a clean checkout.

Can I start with Lite and upgrade later?

Yes, and nothing expires — neither rung is a trial. The honest caveat: a scope change is a new order rather than a revision round, so if you already know you want hooks or an MCP server, buying Sprint once costs less than buying both.

What access do you need, and do you touch my main branch?

Collaborator access to a branch, and nothing else. The deliverable is a pull request you review, never a push to your default branch. We never ask for an API key or a .env, and if one arrives by accident we tell you to rotate it and keep it out of the work.

Is a person involved, or is it all AI?

Both, and we would rather say so. AI tools including Claude produce the work, and a person reads every deliverable before it ships — including checking that every command written into the CLAUDE.md was run in your repo and passed.

Whichever rung you just picked

This page names a price sixteen times and until now gave you nowhere to act on it. Here are all three, in the order they are argued above — nothing below is a trial and nothing expires.

Doing it yourself costs an afternoon and $0: kit-claude-code-starter is a complete working setup, MIT, no email wall. If the reading sounds like a good evening, start there and close this tab — that is a real answer, not a consolation one.

Buy Setup Lite — $29 Buy Setup Sprint — $99 See every price and scope

Buying the wrong rung is recoverable and we would rather say how: a scope change is a new order, not a revision round, so if you already know you want hooks or an MCP server wired, buying Sprint once costs less than buying Lite and then Sprint.