create-r-package - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: create-r-package locale: caveman-ultra source_locale: en source_commit: 82c77053 translator: "Julius Brussee homage — caveman" translation_date: "2026-04-19" description: > Scaffold a new R package with complete structure including DESCRIPTION, NAMESPACE, testthat, roxygen2, renv, Git, GitHub Actions CI, and development configuration files (.Rprofile, .Renviron.example, CLAUDE.md). Follows usethis conventions and tidyverse style. Use when starting a new R package from scratch, converting loose R scripts into a structured package, or setting up a package skeleton for collaborative development. license: MIT allowed-tools: Read Write Edit Bash Grep Glob metadata: author: Philipp Thoss version: "1.0" domain: r-packages complexity: basic language: R tags: r, package, usethis, scaffold, setup

Create R Package

Scaffold full R pkg w/ modern tools + best practices.

Use When

New R pkg from scratch
Loose R scripts → pkg
Pkg skeleton for collab dev

In

Required: Pkg name (lowercase, no special except .)
Required: 1-line desc
Optional: License (def: MIT)
Optional: Author (name, email, ORCID)
Optional: Init renv (def: yes)

Do

Step 1: Skeleton

usethis::create_package("packagename")
setwd("packagename")

Got: Dir w/ DESCRIPTION, NAMESPACE, R/, man/.

If err: Install usethis (install.packages("usethis")). Dir must not exist.

Step 2: DESCRIPTION

Edit w/ accurate metadata:

Package: packagename
Title: What the Package Does (Title Case)
Version: 0.1.0
Authors@R:
    person("First", "Last", , "email@example.com", role = c("aut", "cre"),
           comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0000-0000-0000"))
Description: One paragraph describing what the package does. Must be more
    than one sentence. Avoid starting with "This package".
License: MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding: UTF-8
Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
RoxygenNote: 7.3.2
URL: https://github.com/username/packagename
BugReports: https://github.com/username/packagename/issues

Got: Valid DESCRIPTION, R CMD check no metadata warns.

If err: Warns → Title Case, Description >1 sentence, Authors@R valid person().

Step 3: Infra

usethis::use_mit_license()
usethis::use_readme_md()
usethis::use_news_md()
usethis::use_testthat(edition = 3)
usethis::use_git()
usethis::use_github_action("check-standard")

Got: LICENSE, README.md, NEWS.md, tests/, .git/, .github/workflows/.

If err: use_*() fail → install missing dep + rerun. .git/ exists → use_git() skips.

Step 4: Dev Config

.Rprofile:

if (file.exists("renv/activate.R")) {
  source("renv/activate.R")
}

if (requireNamespace("mcptools", quietly = TRUE)) {
  mcptools::mcp_session()
}

.Renviron.example:

RSTUDIO_PANDOC="C:/Program Files/RStudio/resources/app/bin/quarto/bin/tools"
# GITHUB_PAT=your_github_token_here

.Rbuildignore:

^\.Rprofile$
^\.Renviron$
^\.Renviron\.example$
^renv$
^renv\.lock$
^CLAUDE\.md$
^\.github$
^.*\.Rproj$

Got: .Rprofile, .Renviron.example, .Rbuildignore created. Dev files excluded from build.

If err: .Rprofile startup err → check syntax. requireNamespace() guards → prevent fail on missing pkgs.

Step 5: Init renv

renv::init()

Got: renv/ + renv.lock. Local lib active.

If err: Install renv (install.packages("renv")). Hang → check network / options(timeout = 600).

Step 6: Pkg Doc File

R/packagename-package.R:

#' @keywords internal
"_PACKAGE"

## usethis namespace: start
## usethis namespace: end
NULL

Got: File w/ "_PACKAGE" sentinel. devtools::document() → pkg-level help.

If err: Filename = R/<packagename>-package.R. "_PACKAGE" standalone, not in fn.

Step 7: CLAUDE.md

Create CLAUDE.md in root w/ proj-specific instructions for AI.

Got: CLAUDE.md in root w/ conventions + build cmds + arch notes.

If err: Unsure → pkg name, 1-line desc, dev cmds (devtools::check(), devtools::test()), non-obvious conventions.

Check

devtools::check() → 0 err, 0 warn
Struct matches layout
.Rprofile loads no err
renv::status() OK
Git init + .gitignore
GH Actions workflow present

Traps

Name conflicts: Check CRAN available::available("packagename") pre-commit
Missing .Rbuildignore: Dev files (.Rprofile, .Renviron, renv/) must be excluded
Forgot Encoding: Always Encoding: UTF-8 in DESCRIPTION
RoxygenNote mismatch: Ver in DESCRIPTION = installed roxygen2

Examples

# Minimal creation
usethis::create_package("myanalysis")

# Full setup in one session
usethis::create_package("myanalysis")
usethis::use_mit_license()
usethis::use_testthat(edition = 3)
usethis::use_readme_md()
usethis::use_git()
usethis::use_github_action("check-standard")
renv::init()

→

write-roxygen-docs — doc fns
write-testthat-tests — add tests
setup-github-actions-ci — CI/CD config
manage-renv-dependencies — deps mgmt
write-claude-md — AI instr