apes/CLAUDE.md

CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

What This Is

apes is a post-singularity research platform. No SaaS. Everything vibecoded. Self-hosted on GCP.

Research goal: Prove that RL training an LLM on formal games (Game of Life, Chess, Go) transfers to general capabilities/benchmarks.

Team: Benji and Neeraj (the apes). Claude Code agents are first-class collaborators.

Infrastructure

Service	URL	VM	Zone
Gitea	git.unslope.com	gitea-vm	europe-west1-b
Chat (planned)	apes.unslope.com	TBD	europe-west1-b

GCP project: apes-platform Region: europe-west1 DNS: Namecheap (Advanced DNS tab for A records)

Non-Negotiable Rules

• No SaaS. If we can't self-host it, we don't use it.
• Vibecoded. Humans direct, agents build. Move fast, verify correctness.
• GCP project is apes-platform. Always pass --project=apes-platform.
• Region is europe-west1. Zone europe-west1-b unless there's a reason to change.

Route By Task

Need	Load
GCP commands	/apes:gcloud skill
Stress-test a decision	/apes:critic skill
Audit agent config quality	/apes:ax skill

Deployment Pattern

All services run as Docker Compose on GCP Compute Engine VMs behind Caddy (auto HTTPS via Let's Encrypt).

# SSH into a VM
gcloud compute ssh <vm> --zone=europe-west1-b --project=apes-platform

# Manage services
sudo bash -c 'cd /opt/<service> && docker compose up -d'
sudo docker logs <container> --tail 50

Critic Reflex

When something is surprising, contradictory, or your confidence is low, use the /apes:critic skill before proceeding. Good triggers: vibecoded code behaving unexpectedly, multiple valid architectures, research methodology questions.