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/, man/.

On failure: Ensure usethis is installed (install.packages("usethis")). Check that the directory doesn't 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.

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, .github/workflows/ created.

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$

Step 5: Initialize renv

renv::init()

Expected: renv/ directory and renv.lock created.

On failure: Install renv (install.packages("renv")). If renv hangs, check network connectivity.

Step 6: Create Package Documentation File

Create R/packagename-package.R:

#' @keywords internal
"_PACKAGE"

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

Step 7: Create CLAUDE.md

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

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