Foundation Companion

Foundation Companion walks you through Jake Van Clief's 11 Foundation lessons from his Skool community by having you build each concept in Claude Code as you go. Instead of reading, you do.

For Clief Notes Skool forum members who've tried the Foundation lessons and want a more hands-on walkthrough.

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New V2: play it as a game first (no install)

Prefer to learn by doing before touching a terminal? There's now a browser-based version — a simulated desktop that walks you through the same 11 lessons video-game style. No install, no account, no network: open v2/index.html in your browser and press Start. When you finish, download your workspace as real files and come back here to run the real thing.

A teaching assistant guides every step, and the instructions anchor right next to whatever you should do next — so you're never hunting for what the game means:

Later lessons add a fully scripted Claude Code (simulated) window, so you practice prompting against a realistic workspace before running the real Claude Code:

Everything you build maps 1:1 to real files. Full details in v2/README.md.

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Continue on with the full workflow

V2 is just the addon, V1 below is the full workflow taking the tutor into Claude yourself and working in a real environment.

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What you'll walk away with

Two things, in your own words:

• The three-layer architecture: what the Map, the Rooms, and the Tools are and why it's structured that way.
• The five-part prompting framework: Identity, Task, Context, Constraints, and Output Format — what each part does and which one to reach for when your output is off.

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What you need first

• A Claude Pro or Max account (free tier won't cover Claude Code).
• Claude Code installed on your machine.

If you don't have Claude Code yet, the install steps are below.

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Install steps

macOS

1. Download Claude Code from claude.ai/download. Choose the macOS version.
2. Open the installer and follow the prompts.
3. Sign in with your Anthropic account when Claude Code launches.
4. Verify it worked: open Terminal and type claude --version. If you see a version number, you're good.

If claude isn't found after install, close Terminal completely and reopen it.

Windows

Before you download anything, check your system architecture.

1. Open Settings → System → About.
2. Look for "System type." It will say something like "64-bit operating system, x64-based processor" or "ARM-based processor."
3. Note which one you have — x64 or ARM64. You need the matching installer. Installing the wrong one causes problems that are hard to diagnose.

Then:

4. Download Claude Code from claude.ai/download. Choose the version that matches your architecture.
5. Run the installer and follow the prompts.
6. Sign in with your Anthropic account when Claude Code launches.
7. Verify it worked: open PowerShell or Command Prompt and type claude --version. If you see a version number, you're good.

Why the architecture check matters: x64 and ARM64 are different processor types. The wrong installer may appear to work but will fail in subtle ways. Always check before downloading.

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How to open this repo in Claude Code

First, get the repo. Either clone it with git (git clone https://github.com/donroy26/Clief-Notes-Foundations-Tutor.git) or download the ZIP from GitHub and unzip it somewhere you can find it.

Then open it. Pick whichever of these matches how you work:

Claude Desktop app

1. Open Claude Desktop.
2. Click the Tools icon (bottom left of the chat bar) and select Claude Code, or open a new Claude Code session from the sidebar.
3. Use the folder icon to open the Foundation Companion folder.
4. Say "hi" or "let's go."

VS Code

1. Open VS Code.
2. File → Open Folder, then select the Foundation Companion folder.
3. Open the Claude Code panel (the sidebar icon or Ctrl+Shift+P → Claude Code).
4. Say "hi" or "let's go."

Terminal

1. cd into the Foundation Companion folder.
2. Type claude and press Enter.
3. Say "hi" or "let's go."

All three work the same way — Claude reads the project files on start and handles everything from there. You don't need to open any other files or do any setup.

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Time estimate

11 lessons across 3 sessions, because the curriculum includes session-restart points after certain lessons. Starting fresh is part of the learning — not a bug.

Session	Lessons	Rough time
Session 1	Lessons 1–2	45–60 minutes
Session 2	Lessons 3–5	60–90 minutes
Session 3	Lessons 6–11	90–120 minutes

These are real estimates, not aspirational ones. The build steps take time. That's the point.

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License

Free to use under MIT License. See the LICENSE file.