I built an RPG that teaches Claude Code by making you actually use it

A developer built claude-quest, an open-source text RPG that runs inside a real Claude Code session to teach the CLI from zero to hero. The game uses real sandbox directories and checks actual config files, hooks, and tool calls to grade progress, with missions across four tiers. It is a playable alpha with a handful of example missions, and the developer invites contributions of new missions.

Most tool documentation teaches by just telling you things. You read a page about /model , or hooks, or subagents, nod along, and forget it by the time you'd actually need it. I wanted something closer to how people actually learn a CLI, by using it, with something checking whether you did the thing right or not. So I built claude-quest , a text RPG that runs entirely inside a real claude session and teaches the Claude Code CLI zero to hero. This is basically GameShell https://github.com/phyver/GameShell 's philosophy applied to Claude Code. GameShell teaches Unix shell commands by dropping you into a real shell wrapped in a themed fake filesystem, and grading your progress by checking real shell/filesystem state instead of asking you to self report or answer a quiz question. claude-quest does the same thing, except the "filesystem" is a real Claude Code environment. missions live in real sandbox directories, and progress is checked by inspecting what you actually did, config files you wrote, hooks that fired, tool calls that happened. There's no separate app, no fancy terminal UI, none of that. You say "let's play claude quest" inside a normal claude session, and Claude itself becomes the game master. It reads real output from the engine and narrates on top of it, something like this: js lets play claude quest The Gatehall You've just been let through the outer gate. The tower keeps no secrets from those who bother to read the walls... Mission: First Contact Tier 1, Artifact Create a CLAUDE.md file in this sandbox recording how to run the project's tests. Let me know when you're done and I'll check it. done CLAUDE.md records how to run the tests. Claude Code will know next time. MISSION STATUS: complete What you actually learned: Claude Code reads a file named CLAUDE.md in your project root automatically, at the start of every session... that's it, that's the whole interface. it's just a chat, with real commands running underneath it and real files getting checked. nothing gets rendered, nothing gets animated, it's plain text the way claude sessions already look. Every mission is one of four tiers, and the grading gets less mechanical the further you go: CLAUDE.md , a config and the engine checks the file itself. claude session and do the thing switch models, compact, check cost . the engine checks what landed afterward like .claude/settings.json , never what you said in the session. claude CLI.None of these ask you to type an answer into a prompt, they ask you to leave a trace and then the engine checks the trace. Inside any claude session: /plugin marketplace add susheem-k/claude-quest /plugin install claude-quest@claude-quest Then just say "let's play claude quest." Progress saves to ~/.claude-quest/ , so it doesn't really matter which project your in when you pick it back up. This is a playable alpha, not a finished game. The full loop already works characters, saves, hints, grading for all four tiers but the campaign doesn't cover everything Claude Code can do yet. Right now there's only a handful of example missions, one or two per tier, across five arcs. More missions are getting added. And since this is open source, that part doesn't have to be just me. If there's a Claude Code feature you wish more people knew how to use, a command, a hook, a workflow you had to learn the hard way, I'd genuinely like to turn it into a mission. The mission format is just a directory with a goal, a hint, and a check.js the design doc https://github.com/susheem-k/claude-quest/blob/main/docs/DESIGN.md has the exact file contract for it , so adding one doesn't require touching the engine at all. Open an issue https://github.com/susheem-k/claude-quest/issues with a mission idea, or just send a PR with one built already, both are welcome. if you try it and it teaches you something, a star on the repo genuinely helps, it's how other people find it.