Before Your Side Projects Multiply Into Chaos: An 8-Category Ledger and a Symlink Tree

A developer built an 8-category project ledger and symlink tree to manage over 40 side projects, including web apps, Chrome extensions, iOS apps, and AI tooling. The system uses a single `~/PROJECTS.md` file and symlinks under `~/Desktop/All-Projects/` to avoid moving real directories, preventing breakage of absolute path dependencies in tools like Vercel, launchd, and git worktrees. The developer also created a Claude Code skill to query the ledger for project state, monetization, and URLs.

This is part of my "Claude Code environment" series. Last time I wrote about an autopilot that lets Claude Code improve itself autonomously and unattended https://zenn.dev/bokuwalily/articles/claude-autopilot . But if the "pile of automation scripts" that showed up there isn't organized, you can't even decide what to hand the autopilot. So this time the topic is the system I use to classify projects and manage where they live. Counting the entries in my current ledger ~/PROJECTS.md , there are over 40 projects lined up — web apps, Chrome extensions, iOS apps, digital products, client work, AI tooling, PC automation, and OSS evaluations. Before things grew this far, I built a structure of "8 categories + a ledger + a symlink tree." This article is about that design. Claude Code kept hunting for directories scattered across ~/dev/ , ~/Projects/ , ~/digital-products/ , and ~/oss-trial/ with find ~ every single time. It wasn't just the search time — the state live/stalled/retired , the production URL, and whether it was monetized were all scattered too, so every time I asked "whatever happened to that app?" I had to reconstruct the context from scratch. The goal is to consolidate the ledger into a single file so I reach a state where "ask, and the answer comes out immediately." Here's the definition table straight from ~/PROJECTS.md . | Code | Definition | |---|---| 01-webapp | Web apps / web games that are deployed and used | 02-chrome-ext | Chrome extensions MV3 + their dedicated backend API | 03-ios-app | iOS native / delivery wrappers | 04-digital-product | note monetization, digital products, content for sale | 05-client-work | Contract / commissioned work / company repos third-party owner remote = push with care | 06-claude-tooling | Infrastructure, skills, and integrations that act on Claude / the AI agent itself | 07-pc-automation | PC automation, scrapers, CLI scripts | 08-oss-eval | Evaluation, experimentation, and sandboxing of external OSS | Adding categories dilutes their meaning, so I only create a new one "when something genuinely fits none of the eight." The decision is made by how it's delivered, not by its name. For example, autolike-license-server sounds like an API name, but it's a backend dedicated to license verification for a Chrome extension, so it goes under 02-chrome-ext . Judging by name would misclassify it as "API → server → 01-webapp ." It's tempting to think "organizing = moving folders," but in side-project development, dependencies on absolute paths hide in three places. .vercel/project.json vercel deploy points at a different project. ProgramArguments is registered as the real path. Move it, and the cron job dies. git worktree add holds the real path in .git/worktrees/<name /gitdir .⚠️ Physically moving a real directory is strictly forbidden. .vercel , launchd plists, and git worktrees break because they depend on absolute paths. "Classification" is expressed with symlinks + the ledger. You never touch the real directory — you just create a symlink under ~/Desktop/All-Projects/<category /. Classify a new project without moving the real directory ln -sfn ~/dev/takugumi ~/Desktop/All-Projects/01-webapp/ Verify ls ~/Desktop/All-Projects/01-webapp/ Shows something like takugumi - ~/dev/takugumi In ln -sfn , the -f overwrites an existing symlink, and -n prevents it from burrowing into the target when the target is a directory. Without these two flags you get a double-nested link. The ledger ~/PROJECTS.md is one line per project, holding the path, state, monetization, production URL, and cautions currently 8 categories × over 40 projects total . By reading this one file, Claude Code can instantly answer "Where's the iOS app for the job-hunt tracker?" or "Which ones are in a live state?" The procedure is written in ~/.claude/skills/auto/project-categorization/SKILL.md , and it fires automatically every time a new project is created. The heart of the procedure is only this: When starting a new project, before you begin writing code: 1. Decide what you're building → pick one of the 8 categories above Decide by how it's delivered — not by name or first impression 2. Only if it fits none of the existing 8, create a new 09-<kebab 3. Create the real directory under the appropriate parent dir Web app / extension → ~/dev or ~/Projects Product → ~/digital-products OSS evaluation → ~/oss-trial 4. ln -sfn <real path ~/Desktop/All-Projects/<category / 5. Add a row to the relevant category table in ~/PROJECTS.md Because CLAUDE.md also says "when creating a new project, always classify it into one of the 8 categories before starting," Claude begins with classification without being told. Check that the symlink was created correctly ls ~/Desktop/All-Projects/01-webapp/ Check that it was appended to the ledger grep "takugumi" ~/PROJECTS.md For client-work: check that secrets are ignored git -C ~/dev/<project check-ignore credentials.json Drawn from what I collected in the auto-skill's Pitfalls section. autolike-license-server a Chrome extension backend under "server = 01-webapp ." Read package.json or the README and judge by how it's delivered. 05-client-work toc-seo/credentials.json a GCP key was sitting bare in the root of a company repo. Every time you create client-work, check that secret-key patterns are in .gitignore . ababa-pr/ and fujibee/ are treated as 05-client-work and pushing is forbidden. Check the owner with git remote -v before pushing. ~/PROJECTS.md + the ~/Desktop/All-Projects/<category / symlink tree is the source of truthNext time, I'll write about the setup that auto-generates a Mermaid diagram of these organized projects every morning and drops it on the Desktop. Written by Lily — I ship iOS apps and automate my content stack with Claude Code. Follow along: Portfolio https://bokuwalily.com · X https://x.com/bokuwalily · GitHub https://github.com/bokuwalily