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Tutorial 1: Your First Orchestre Project

Overview

Now that you've seen how to generate a custom implementation tutorial, let's dive deeper into how Orchestre works by creating a project from scratch. This tutorial focuses on understanding Orchestre's context intelligence and memory system—the secret sauce that makes your AI truly understand your project.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this tutorial, you will:

  • [ ] Create a new project using Orchestre templates
  • [ ] Understand how Orchestre's memory system provides context
  • [ ] See how AI discovers and adapts to your patterns
  • [ ] Experience the difference context makes in AI output
  • [ ] Build a working application with context-aware assistance

Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial, you should:

  • Have Orchestre installed and configured in Claude Code's MCP settings
  • Have Node.js 18+ installed
  • Have basic familiarity with web development

Duration

Estimated time: 30 minutes


Step 1: Create Your First Project

Let's create a simple blog application to understand how Orchestre's context system works. We'll use this as a learning playground.

Action

In Claude Code, type:

/orchestre:create (MCP) cloudflare-hono my-blog

Note: If you already created a project from your implementation tutorial, you can explore that instead!

Understanding

This prompt:

  • Invokes the initialize_project MCP tool directly
  • Selects the Cloudflare Hono template (great for APIs)
  • Creates a complete project structure
  • Sets up distributed memory system (CLAUDE.md files)
  • No file installation needed - prompts work immediately!

Result

You should see:

  • Project created in my-blog/ directory
  • Dependencies installed
  • Memory files created (CLAUDE.md and .orchestre/CLAUDE.md)
  • Initial git repository created
  • Ready to use with all Orchestre prompts available

Step 2: Explore the Memory System

Let's understand Orchestre's distributed memory architecture.

Action

bash
cd my-blog
ls -la

Understanding

Your project includes:

my-blog/
├── src/              # Source code
├── CLAUDE.md         # Root project memory
├── .orchestre/       # Orchestration workspace
│   ├── CLAUDE.md     # Orchestration-specific memory
│   ├── knowledge/    # Discovered patterns
│   ├── plans/        # Generated plans
│   └── memory-templates/ # Documentation templates
├── package.json      # Node.js dependencies
└── wrangler.toml     # Cloudflare configuration

The Memory System

Orchestre uses a distributed memory system:

  1. Root CLAUDE.md - Main project context that Claude Code reads automatically
  2. .orchestre/CLAUDE.md - Orchestration-specific knowledge and state
  3. Feature-specific CLAUDE.md files - Context colocated with code

Explore CLAUDE.md

Open and read CLAUDE.md. This is where the magic happens—it's your project's "brain" that helps AI understand your specific context.

bash
# Open in your editor
code CLAUDE.md

What You'll Find

The CLAUDE.md file contains:

  • Project overview and purpose
  • Architecture decisions
  • API patterns and conventions
  • Development guidelines
  • A living document that grows with your project

Step 3: Plan Your Blog Features

Now let's use Orchestre's intelligent planning prompt.

Action

Simply type in Claude Code:

/orchestre:orchestrate (MCP) Build a simple blog API with:
- Article CRUD operations
- Categories and tags
- Author profiles
- Comment system
- Search functionality

Understanding

This prompt:

  • First discovers your project context by reading CLAUDE.md files
  • Analyzes requirements using the Gemini-powered tool
  • Adapts the plan to Cloudflare Hono patterns it finds
  • Updates memory with planning insights
  • Creates a truly contextual plan

Result

Orchestre will:

  1. Discover Context - Read your project's memory files
  2. Analyze Complexity - Understand the full scope
  3. Generate Adaptive Plan - Tailored to your specific setup
  4. Update Memory - Save insights to .orchestre/plans/
  5. Suggest Next Steps - Context-aware commands to execute

Step 4: Implement the First Feature

Let's implement the article management system using context-aware execution.

Action

Type this prompt:

/orchestre:execute-task (MCP) Create article CRUD API with validation

Understanding

Watch as this prompt:

  • First explores your codebase to understand patterns
  • Discovers Cloudflare Hono conventions in your template
  • Creates consistent database schema
  • Implements API endpoints following found patterns
  • Adds validation matching your project style
  • Updates CLAUDE.md with implementation decisions

The Discovery Process

The prompt doesn't assume - it discovers:

  1. Reads existing code structure
  2. Identifies naming conventions
  3. Finds validation patterns
  4. Adapts to your specific setup

Result

New files created following discovered patterns:

  • src/routes/articles.ts - API endpoints
  • src/models/article.ts - Data model
  • src/validators/article.ts - Input validation
  • Updated CLAUDE.md with new API documentation

Step 5: Review Your Code

Let's use multi-LLM review for diverse perspectives.

Action

Type:

/orchestre:review (MCP)

Understanding

This powerful prompt:

  • Discovers recent changes in your codebase
  • Sends relevant code to multiple AI models via MCP tool
  • Gets diverse perspectives (security, performance, patterns)
  • Builds consensus on improvements
  • Updates review results to .orchestre/reviews/
  • Provides actionable, context-aware feedback

Result

You'll receive:

  • Security analysis from one perspective
  • Performance suggestions from another
  • Code quality feedback with consensus
  • Architectural recommendations
  • All saved to memory for future reference

Step 6: Add Another Feature

Let's add comments - watch how Orchestre learns from your patterns.

Action

/orchestre:execute-task (MCP) Add nested comment system with moderation

Understanding

Notice how this prompt:

  • Reads the article implementation you just created
  • Learns from your code style and patterns
  • Reuses your validation approach
  • Maintains consistency automatically
  • Integrates seamlessly with existing APIs
  • Documents the relationships in memory

Step 7: Test Your API

Let's verify everything works.

Action

bash
# Start the development server
npm run dev

# In another terminal:
curl http://localhost:8787/api/articles

Understanding

The Cloudflare Hono template includes:

  • Hot reloading
  • Type safety
  • Edge runtime simulation
  • API documentation

Step 8: Update Project Memory

Let's capture what we've learned in the distributed memory system.

Action

/learn Implemented blog API with articles and comments. 
Key patterns: RESTful design, nested resources, input validation.
Next steps: Add authentication and search.

Understanding

This prompt:

  • Analyzes your recent work
  • Extracts key patterns and decisions
  • Updates multiple CLAUDE.md files appropriately
  • Creates knowledge entries in .orchestre/knowledge/
  • Ensures future prompts understand your project evolution

Memory Integration

The memory system ensures:

  • Claude Code remembers your patterns across sessions
  • Each feature builds on previous knowledge
  • Team members can understand decisions
  • AI assistance improves over time

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Issue: "MCP tool not found" error

  • Solution: Ensure Orchestre is configured in Claude Code's MCP settings
  • Check that the MCP server is running: type /mcp in Claude Code

Issue: Prompts not discovering context

  • Solution: Ensure you're in the project directory with CLAUDE.md files
  • The prompts need to find memory files to work effectively

Issue: API not starting

  • Solution: Check npm install completed successfully
  • Verify all dependencies are installed

Summary

Congratulations! In this tutorial, you:

  • ✅ Created your first Orchestre project with prompt-based workflow
  • ✅ Experienced context discovery and adaptation
  • ✅ Used multi-LLM code review for diverse perspectives
  • ✅ Built a working API that learns from your patterns
  • ✅ Integrated with the distributed memory system

Key Takeaways

  1. Prompts Available Immediately: No file installation needed - just type and go
  2. Discovery Over Prescription: Prompts explore and adapt to your project
  3. Memory-Driven Development: CLAUDE.md files create persistent context
  4. Pattern Learning: Each feature builds on discovered patterns
  5. True AI Collaboration: Claude thinks about your specific project

Next Steps

Challenge

Try this discovery-based prompt:

/orchestre:execute-task (MCP) Analyze the current API and add full-text search that matches our patterns

Notice how it first discovers your implementation before adding the feature!

Resources

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