Create R Package

Scaffold a fully configured R package with modern tooling and best practices.

When to Use

• Starting a new R package from scratch
• Converting loose R scripts into a package
• Setting up a package skeleton for collaborative development

Inputs

• Required: Package name (lowercase, no special characters except

  .

  )
• Required: One-line description of the package purpose
• Optional: License type (default: MIT)
• Optional: Author information (name, email, ORCID)
• Optional: Whether to initialize renv (default: yes)

Procedure

Step 1: Create Package Skeleton

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

Expected: Directory created with

DESCRIPTION

,

NAMESPACE

,

R/

, and

man/

subdirectories.

On failure: Ensure usethis is installed (

install.packages("usethis")

). Check that the directory does not already exist.

Step 2: Configure DESCRIPTION

Edit

DESCRIPTION

with 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

Expected: Valid DESCRIPTION that passes

R CMD check

with no metadata warnings.

On failure: If

R CMD check

warns about DESCRIPTION fields, verify that

Title

is in Title Case,

Description

is more than one sentence, and

Authors@R

uses valid

person()

syntax.

Step 3: Set Up Infrastructure

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")

Expected: LICENSE, README.md, NEWS.md,

tests/

directory,

.git/

initialized, and

.github/workflows/

created.

On failure: If any

usethis::use_*()

function fails, install the missing dependency and rerun. If

.git/

already exists,

use_git()

will skip initialization.

Step 4: Create Development Configuration

Create

.Rprofile

:

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

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

Create

.Renviron.example

:

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

Create

.Rbuildignore

entries:

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

Expected:

.Rprofile

,

.Renviron.example

, and

.Rbuildignore

are created. Development files are excluded from the built package.

On failure: If

.Rprofile

causes errors on startup, check for syntax issues. Ensure

requireNamespace()

guards prevent failures when optional packages are missing.

Step 5: Initialize renv

renv::init()

Expected:

renv/

directory and

renv.lock

created. Project-local library is active.

On failure: Install renv with

install.packages("renv")

. If renv hangs during initialization, check network connectivity or set

options(timeout = 600)

.

Step 6: Create Package Documentation File

Create

R/packagename-package.R

:

#' @keywords internal
"_PACKAGE"

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

Expected:

R/packagename-package.R

exists with the

"_PACKAGE"

sentinel. Running

devtools::document()

generates package-level help.

On failure: Ensure the filename matches the pattern

R/<packagename>-package.R

. The

"_PACKAGE"

string must be a standalone expression, not inside a function.

Step 7: Create CLAUDE.md

Create

CLAUDE.md

in the project root with project-specific instructions for AI assistants.

Expected:

CLAUDE.md

exists in the project root with project-specific editing conventions, build commands, and architecture notes.

On failure: If unsure what to include, start with the package name, a one-line description, common dev commands (

devtools::check()

,

devtools::test()

), and any non-obvious conventions.

Validation

• devtools::check()

  returns 0 errors, 0 warnings
• Package structure matches expected layout

• .Rprofile

  loads without errors

• renv::status()

  shows no issues
• Git repository initialized with appropriate

  .gitignore

• GitHub Actions workflow file present

Common Pitfalls

• Package name conflicts: Check CRAN with

  available::available("packagename")

  before committing to a name
• Missing .Rbuildignore entries: Development files (

  .Rprofile

  ,

  .Renviron

  ,

  renv/

  ) must be excluded from the built package
• Forgetting Encoding: Always include

  Encoding: UTF-8

  in DESCRIPTION
• RoxygenNote mismatch: The version in DESCRIPTION must match your 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()

Related Skills

• write-roxygen-docs

  - document the functions you create

• write-testthat-tests

  - add tests for your package

• setup-github-actions-ci

  - detailed CI/CD configuration

• manage-renv-dependencies

  - manage package dependencies

• write-claude-md

  - create effective AI assistant instructions