The Claude Code / Cowork / Codex workflow for first-time AI builders

Start building with AI. Properly.

You can vibe-code a working app in a weekend. Getting it onto the internet (and keeping it there) is the part nobody teaches. Cairnly is the workflow and prompt pack that walks you through it. VPS, Docker, DNS, deploys, backups. Your AI does the typing. You learn what's actually happening.

One-time payment · Lifetime updates · 30-day refund
Works with Claude Code
Works with Claude Cowork
Works with Codex / Cursor
Stack-agnostic. Any language.
Deploys to any $5/mo VPS

Two chats. One project. Nobody wins.

You're building software with AI but you're not a senior engineer. You don't have a workflow. Every fresh chat starts blind. Every chat trashes a little more of what the last one built.

"I spent the weekend on a feature. Monday morning I asked Claude Code to polish it. It rewrote three files I'd already fixed. I didn't notice until I tried to ship."

... every vibe coder, every week

Cairnly is the Claude Code workflow you've been hacking together alone. A small set of files you drop into your project folder ... AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, CODEX.md, LOG.md, IDEAS.md, MEMORY.md, and more ... that your AI reads at the start of every chat. It learns what's been done, what's queued, and what not to touch. The next chat (Claude, Cowork, Codex, Cursor, ChatGPT, doesn't matter) picks up where the last one left off.

Like a hiking cairn. Stack the stones. The next person finds the trail.

From npm run dev to a real URL.

You can vibe-code a working app in a weekend. Nobody tells you what to do on Monday. Cairnly's prompt pack walks you through it ... and teaches you the stack as you go.

1. Build

The Cairnly workflow keeps your AI agents on the same page across chats. No more rewriting yesterday's work.

2. Ship

Five copy-paste prompts walk you through a real VPS, a Dockerfile, and a domain pointed at your project. Plain English every step.

3. Run it

You end up with an app on a server you actually understand. SSH, backups, rollback. Not a "deploy" button you're scared of.

The "Ship it" prompts don't just do the thing. They explain what a VPS is, why we lock SSH, what a Dockerfile actually does, and why DNS takes a few minutes to update. You finish with a deployed app and the literacy to debug it next time.

The one rule, in four steps.

Don't Trash Your Work. Every change goes through the same four steps, every time. Boring is the point.

i. Preflight

Check the trail

One tiny script. Confirms git is clean and you're on the right branch.

ii. Edit

Take one step

Make one change. Not three. Not five. One. Bundle later, never now.

iii. Log

Stack a stone

Two sentences in LOG.md. What changed. Why. The next chat reads it.

iv. Commit

Mark the trail

git commit. Save the change forever. Future-you thanks present-you.

Your AI reads AGENTS.md before it does anything.

That's where the project rules live. The voice. The "don't touch the auth code" warnings. Claude Code loads it at the start of every chat, so you stop repeating yourself.

CLAUDE.md adds Claude-specific notes. CODEX.md adds Codex-specific notes. Every assistant gets a clear, scoped briefing.

claude-code ~/my-saas (with Cairnly)
$ claude
Claude Code 1.4.2 · session: new
 
SessionStart: bin/preflight.sh
Loaded AGENTS.md (project rules)
Loaded CLAUDE.md (Claude-specific notes)
Loaded LOG.md · last entry: 12 hrs ago
Loaded IDEAS.md · 3 items tagged "next"
 
can you clean up the checkout flow
 
I see checkout.ts and payment.ts were touched yesterday.
LOG.md says the migration to Stripe v2 is mid-flight.
Want me to finish the v2 migration, or just tidy what's there?
 
$

LOG.md is the marker.
The next chat reads it cold.

Date. What. Why. Two or three sentences. That's the cairn. Six weeks from now you'll open the project and ask "why did I do it this way?" The log answers.

IDEAS.md holds the backlog with status tags. MEMORY.md holds the gotchas. Every cross-chat conflict has a place to land before it becomes a bug.

LOG.md

## 2026-05-12 ... Stripe v2 migration started

What. Replaced legacy PaymentIntent calls in checkout.ts with the new PaymentLink API. Old code commented out, not deleted.

Why. v1 was throwing 402s for half of EU traffic. v2 handles 3DS in-flow.

Gotchas. payment.ts still references the v1 webhook signature. Don't ship until that's swapped.

## 2026-05-11 ... Login page typography fix

What. Increased body line-height from 1.3 to 1.5 on /login.

Why. User feedback: "too tight, hard to read on iPhone SE."

Everything in the box.

The Cairnly skeleton, a bootstrap script, a 13-prompt pack (build + ship), the Quick Start PDF, and five bonus field guides. $30 once.

The skeleton

The core project files plus the pre-flight script and Claude / Codex config. Drag into any folder.

Quick Start PDF

Step-by-step setup guide. No Terminal commands. Walks you from "zip on desktop" to "AI working in 5 minutes." Print and stick on the wall.

Five bonus field guides in the box

Plain-English PDFs for the stuff first-time AI builders hit: Git, Terminal, Markdown, AI Chat, and Ship It (VPS, Docker, DNS). Each one self-contained, printable.

13-prompt pack in the box

13 ready-to-paste prompts in PROMPTS.md. Build: Onboard, Plan, Step, Log, Catch-up, Decide, Review, Resolve. Ship: Pick a VPS, Lock down the box, Containerise, Point a domain, Deploy and roll back.

Lifetime updates

Claude Code, Codex, Cowork keep changing. Cairnly keeps up. Forever, included.

Direct line to the founder

Reply to your Stripe receipt. It hits my inbox. I read everything ... feedback, bugs, weird edge cases.

Who Cairnly is for.

Built for you if…

  • You ship code with AI but you're not a senior engineer.
  • You've lost work because two chats overwrote each other.
  • You're a solo founder, indie creator, or "vibe coder."
  • You run a small team (1–3) with multiple AI agents on one repo.
  • You're tired of re-explaining your project to every fresh chat.

Skip it if…

  • You're a senior engineer with a workflow already.
  • You only use AI for autocomplete, not whole-project work.
  • You want a magic "fix all my bugs" button. Cairnly is a workflow, not a wand.
  • You'd rather build your own AGENTS.md from scratch. Go for it.

Questions you'd ask before clicking buy.

My AI keeps overwriting my code. Will Cairnly actually fix it?

Yes, and the fix is mechanical, not magical. AI agents overwrite each other's work because each chat starts blind ... it has no idea what the last chat did. Cairnly's project files (especially LOG.md and MEMORY.md) are the shared memory between chats. Your AI reads them on startup. The next chat picks up exactly where the last one stopped. Claude rewriting files becomes Claude reading files first, then writing carefully.

Will this work with Claude Code / Claude Cowork / Codex / Cursor / ChatGPT?

Yes ... all of them. The files are plain markdown. Any AI that reads context (every modern coding assistant) benefits. Claude Code and Claude Cowork get an extra boost because the bundled .claude/settings.json auto-runs the preflight script at session start. Codex, Cursor, and ChatGPT users just paste the bootstrap prompt at the start of each session. Core workflow is tool-agnostic.

Why isn't there a free tier?

Because the audience isn't "give me a GitHub repo and I'll figure it out." It's "I need someone who's been here to set this up for me." Free dilutes the positioning. The $30 buys the setup, the Quick Start PDF, the prompt pack, lifetime updates, and a direct line to me when you hit weirdness.

What if I don't know git yet?

You'll be fine. The bootstrap script can run git init for you. The Quick Start PDF (included in your download) walks you through the few git commands you need. No prior git knowledge required, but Cairnly assumes you'll learn the absolute basics (add, commit) along the way. They're worth knowing.

Is this just a checklist?

No. Checklists rely on you remembering them. Cairnly is files your AI reads at the start of every chat, plus a preflight script that runs every time. The workflow is built into the project folder.

Can I retrofit Cairnly into an existing project?

Yes. The bootstrap script doesn't touch your code. It only adds the Cairnly files alongside what's already there. You can start logging from today and your AI gets smarter on the next chat.

30-day refund?

If Cairnly doesn't work for you in your first 30 days, reply to your Stripe receipt and I'll refund you. No forms. No "explain why" prompts. Just a refund.

Stack your first stone.

$30 once. No subscription. No trial. Be using it tonight.

US$30
one-time payment
Buy Cairnly
  • The Cairnly skeleton + bootstrap script
  • Bootstrap prompt pack (8 prompts in PROMPTS.md)
  • Quick Start PDF (printable, no-Terminal setup guide)
  • Four bonus field guides: Git, Terminal, Markdown, AI Chat (24 pages)
  • Lifetime updates
  • Direct founder access (reply to receipt)
  • 30-day refund, no questions