developerbeginner

Starter coder

The smallest useful coding agent: one Sonnet brain, filesystem access, and a real shell. Skip this one if you want sub-agent dispatch, jump to the Claude Code clone.

lines 37cost ~$0.10 per sessionapp id starter-coder

Install it locally

# save the YAML below as app.yaml in a new folder
digitorn install ./starter-coder

This is a local install: the folder you create is the source. No Hub package to publish first.

What you get

An agent you can chat with from your terminal
Read, write, edit, grep, glob across the workspace
A real shell (bash) for running builds and tests
A capped max file size, so a huge log can't blow the context window

Credentials this template uses

Anthropic Claude

Click each one for the credential setup command, scope guidance, and provider details.

The full YAML, ready to fork

app.yaml

1schema_version: 223app:4  app_id: starter-coder5  name: "Starter coder"6  version: "1.0.0"7  description: "Minimal coding agent."8  category: "developer-tools"910runtime:11  mode: conversation12  entry_agent: main1314modules:15  filesystem:16    config:17      max_file_bytes: 209715218  bash:19    config:20      shell: bash2122agents:23  - id: main24    role: coordinator25    modules: [filesystem, bash]26    brain:27      provider: anthropic28      model: claude-sonnet-529      credential:30        ref: anthropic_main31        scope: per_user32        provider: anthropic33      temperature: 0.234      max_tokens: 819235    system_prompt: |36      You are a focused coding assistant. Read files before editing.37      Run tests after non-trivial changes. Be terse.

How it works

filesystem with a file-size cap

max_file_bytes stops the agent from pulling a huge generated file (a lockfile, a build artifact) into context by accident. Everything else about read/write/edit/grep/glob works exactly like you'd expect.

bash, scoped to the session

The bash module runs real shell commands (tests, builds, git) inside the app's own workspace. shell picks the interpreter; nothing here reaches outside the session's sandbox.

credential block + dev fallback

Production reads the API key from the encrypted vault via the credential block. In local dev, set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and the same YAML just works.

Read the deep dive

How to build a Claude Code clone in YAML

Read article

Newsletter

Get the next post in your inbox.

Engineering notes from the Digitorn team. No marketing, no launch announcements, no "10 prompts that will change your life". Just the things we write that we'd want to read.

Other templates

developerClaude Code clone/templates/claude-code-clone researchDeep research agent/templates/deep-research messagingDiscord helper/templates/discord-helper developerPull request reviewer/templates/pr-reviewer opsWeekly digest reporter/templates/weekly-digest knowledgeDocumentation generator/templates/doc-writer creativeLive React app builder/templates/react-builder knowledgeKnowledge base agent/templates/knowledge-base-agent opsScheduled data pipeline/templates/data-pipeline