This is the example project that I use for new Common Lisp projects. It’s as minimal as possible and will enable you to have both a package for your code and a package for your tests.

• Clone this repository.
• Run the setup.sh script with ./setup.sh. This will ask you for your new project name and set up all the files for you. Make sure you supply your name without the cl- prefix. In the end, it will also ask you if you want a fresh Git repository.

• Load the .asd files for both packages by visiting them and pressing C-c C-k.
• Start the REPL, I’m using Sly.
• Run (ql:quickload :cl-example) and (ql:quickload :cl-example.test). You could also do (require :cl-example) but that will not download any required dependencies.
• That’s it!

The example project is based on the projects from Steve Losh.