Overture
The setup before the performance. A working framework for getting more out of AI coding tools like Claude Code — so your agent remembers what you're working on, session after session.
Also works with Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, and any tool supporting the Agent Skills standard.
The Problem This Solves
You open Claude Code, do good work, close the session. Next time, it remembers nothing. You re-explain your project, re-state your priorities, re-describe what you were working on. Context lost. Work gets dropped. You become the sole carrier of project state.
Overture fixes that. It gives your agent a structured file — your project's current state, priorities, work queue, and session handoffs — so every session starts where the last one ended.
Evolved through 480+ working sessions across real products with real users and real deadlines. Not theoretical patterns. What survived contact with production work.
What You Need
That's it.
Get Started
Option A: Plugin Install (Claude Code)
In any Claude Code session, run these two commands:
/plugin marketplace add itsmin/overture
/plugin install overture@overture
Then open Claude Code in your project folder and run:
/overture:init
This walks you through setup — it asks about your project and generates everything for you, including a CLAUDE.md file (the file Claude reads every session to know your project) and /session-start and /session-end commands.
Option B: Agent Skills (Any Tool)
Copy the skills/ directory into your project's skills location:
| Tool | Skills Location |
|---|
| Claude Code | .claude/skills/ |
| Codex CLI | .codex/skills/ or .agents/skills/ |
| Gemini CLI | .gemini/skills/ |
| Cursor / Copilot | Workspace skills directory |
Then tell your agent: "Run the overture-init skill to set up this project."
Option C: Manual Setup
Open your AI coding agent in your project directory and say:
"Read the Overture initialization guide at [path/to/overture]/templates/init.md and help me set up this project."
Your agent will:
- Ask about your project — what it is, what you're working on, any conventions
- Generate an operating document at your project root (e.g.,
CLAUDE.md for Claude Code)
- Set up session-start and session-end commands
After Setup
From then on: run /session-start at the beginning of each session, /session-end before closing. That's the core workflow.
If you haven't set up personal preferences that apply across all your projects, ask Claude to help you create a ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — this tells Claude how you like to work, regardless of which project you're in.
Personalizing Overture
As you use the framework across projects, you'll develop preferences — sections you always want, session checks you rely on, conventions that work for you. Instead of reconfiguring each project, you can create a personal profile:
~/.overture/profile.md
When you run init on a new project, Overture checks for this file and applies your preferences automatically. Your profile might include things like:
- Sections to always include (privacy checks, cross-project coordination)
- Session workflow additions (deployment health checks, documentation sync for specific domains)
- A voice reference for consistent tone (
~/.overture/voice.md)
- Conventions you've settled on (PR style, session entry length, work queue structure)
The profile is natural language, not config syntax — describe what you want and init makes it happen.
There's a template to start from at templates/profile.md. Copy it to ~/.overture/profile.md and make it yours.
You don't need a profile to use Overture. Most people start without one and create it after a few projects, once they know what they want to carry forward.
What Just Happened
Claude now has a file it reads at the start of every session. It knows where your project stands, what you're working on, and what to check before diving in. You maintain one file; Claude handles the continuity.
A key thing about this repo: most files here are instructions for Claude, not for you. You don't need to memorize anything. Run the init, answer its questions, and you're set.
Going Deeper
You don't need to read anything else to use the framework. These are here when you want them:
