Codeigniter4 App And API Skills For Claude Code

Claude Code Skills: CodeIgniter 4

A trio of Claude Code skills for building with CodeIgniter 4. Designed to give Claude a solid, accurate understanding of the CI4 framework — including Shield authentication.

• ci4 — Core CI4 framework: MVC conventions, routing, controllers, models, query builder, views, migrations, filters, Spark CLI.
• ci4-api — Building robust REST APIs with CI4: response envelopes, versioning, token auth, validation, rate limiting, CORS, and webhooks.
• ci4-shield — Shield authentication & authorization: session auth, access tokens, HMAC, JWT, groups, permissions, email activation, 2FA, magic links.
• ci4-advanced — Covers advanced CI4 techniques for working outside app/: runtime addNamespace(), namespace-isolated migrations/seeds/commands, Registrars, module auto-discovery, service overrides, runtime config mutation, event bootstrap, and dynamic route inclusion.

Each skill has a lean SKILL.md (~200-350 lines) that loads automatically, plus a references/ directory with comprehensive deep-dive docs that are pulled on demand — keeping context usage efficient.

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Installation

Clone this repo directly into your Claude Code skills directory:

git clone https://github.com/enlivenapp/Codeigniter4-App-and-API-Skills-for-Claude-Code.git ~/.claude/skills/codeigniter4

Or if you already have other skills and want to add just these:

cd ~/.claude/skills
git clone https://github.com/enlivenapp/Codeigniter4-App-and-API-Skills-for-Claude-Code.git
cp -r Codeigniter4-App-and-API-Skills-for-Claude-Code/ci4 .
cp -r Codeigniter4-App-and-API-Skills-for-Claude-Code/ci4-api .
cp -r Codeigniter4-App-and-API-Skills-for-Claude-Code/ci4-shield .
cp -r Codeigniter4-App-and-API-Skills-for-Claude-Code/ci4-advanced .

Restart Claude Code. The skills are now available. Claude will automatically activate the relevant skill when it detects CI4-related work or loading via /ci4-{name}.

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What's Included

ci4 (12 reference docs)

Reference	Coverage
routing.md	Groups, placeholders, named routes, resource routes, CLI routes
controllers.md	ResourceController, request data, file uploads, validation, redirects
models.md	CRUD, soft deletes, pagination, scopes, callbacks, entities
query-builder.md	SELECT, WHERE, JOIN, batch ops, subqueries, transactions
views.md	Layouts, sections, partials, view cells, caching
filters.md	Creating, registering, global filters, arguments
database.md	Migrations, seeds, forge, field types
validation.md	All built-in rules, custom rules, file upload validation
services-helpers.md	Services, helpers, caching, email, sessions, encryption, HTTP client
spark-cli.md	All spark commands, generators, custom commands
testing.md	PHPUnit, feature tests, database tests, mocking
gotchas.md	Critical pitfalls, CI4 vs Laravel comparison

ci4-api (6 reference docs)

Reference	Coverage
base-controller.md	BaseApiController, response helpers, auth helpers
authentication.md	Login/register/logout endpoints, token lifecycle, filters
webhooks.md	Receiving (Stripe, GitHub), sending, signature verification
rate-limiting.md	Throttle filter, per-route limits, inline throttling
cors.md	CORS filter, preflight, production config
error-handling.md	Status code guide, error envelope, global exception handler

ci4-shield (8 reference docs)

Reference	Coverage
configuration.md	Auth.php, AuthGroups.php, password validators, JWT config
session-auth.md	Login/logout flow, remember me, checking auth state
token-auth.md	Access tokens, HMAC tokens, JWT, scopes, mobile login
groups-permissions.md	Groups, permissions, matrix, wildcards, direct permissions
user-model.md	User entity, UserModel, extending, CRUD, banning, force reset
filters.md	All Shield filters, route protection, filter order, chain filter
actions.md	Email activation, Email 2FA, magic links, password handling
events-customization.md	Events, custom views, extending controllers, routes, testing

ci4-advanced (4 reference docs)

Reference	Coverage
external-subsystems.md	How to run CI4's built-in subsystems (migrations, seeds, commands, View Cells, filters, validation) from code outside app/.
registrar-and-discovery.md	A Registrar is a class that merges configuration values into CI4 config objects at instantiation time. Any registered namespace can ship one.
runtime-config.md	Registrar pattern, Config/Modules.php auto-discovery
runtime-namespaces.md	Mutating shared config instances, event bootstrap, dynamic routes

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Resources

• CodeIgniter 4 User Guide
• CodeIgniter 4 Installation
• CodeIgniter Shield Docs
• CodeIgniter 4 on GitHub
• CodeIgniter Shield on GitHub