v0 to Claude Code: Ship Your AI-Generated UI Without Rewriting It

You opened v0, typed a prompt, and watched a real UI appear. You iterated, tweaked, and shipped. That's not a toy workflow — that's legitimate product velocity.

But now you're hitting the wall. You want a custom API route. You want git history. You want to add a feature that v0's prompt interface can't quite reach. The good news: everything you built in v0 is exportable, readable, and ready for Claude Code to pick up exactly where you left off.

This guide walks you through the migration step by step — no rewriting, no guilt about how you started, and no slowdown.

Before and After: What Actually Changes

The migration isn't a transformation of your code — it's a transformation of your workflow. Your components stay. Your Tailwind stays. What changes is where you iterate.

Prerequisite Checklist: What to Have Ready

Before you start, confirm you have these in place. The migration goes much smoother when none of these are blockers mid-way through.

• A v0 project with at least one published/exported UI (the export button is in the top-right of the v0 editor)
• Node.js 18+ installed locally (node -v to check)
• Claude Code installed: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
• An Anthropic API key (set as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in your environment)
• Git initialized and a GitHub/GitLab repo ready (or create one after export)
• Vercel CLI if you want to preserve your existing deployment: npm i -g vercel

Step-by-Step Migration Guide

Follow these steps in order. Each one sets up the next — skipping ahead usually means backtracking.

Step 1: Export Your v0 Project

In the v0 editor, click the export button (top-right, looks like a download arrow). Choose "Next.js" as the framework. v0 generates a zip containing your component files as clean TSX with Tailwind and shadcn/ui imports.

Unzip into a new directory. You'll see a structure like this:

my-app/
├── app/
│   ├── page.tsx          # Your main page
│   └── layout.tsx        # Root layout
├── components/
│   ├── hero.tsx          # v0-generated components
│   ├── pricing.tsx
│   └── ui/               # shadcn/ui primitives
├── public/
├── tailwind.config.ts
└── package.json

Run npm install && npm run dev and confirm it loads at localhost:3000 before moving on.

Step 2: Initialize Git

cd my-app
git init
echo "node_modules/
.next/
.env.local" > .gitignore
git add .
git commit -m "initial: export from v0"

Push to GitHub. This is your safety net — every change from here is recoverable.

Step 3: Create a CLAUDE.md File

This is the highest-leverage 10 minutes of the entire migration. Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md at the root of your project to understand context before every session.

# CLAUDE.md

## Project Overview
This is a Next.js 14 app originally built in v0 by Vercel.
UI uses shadcn/ui components with Tailwind CSS.

## Component Inventory
- components/hero.tsx — landing page hero with CTA
- components/pricing.tsx — 3-tier pricing grid
- components/navbar.tsx — sticky nav with mobile menu

## Conventions
- All components use 'use client' only when needed
- Tailwind only (no CSS modules)
- shadcn/ui for all interactive primitives (Button, Card, Dialog)
- Page data is currently hardcoded; backend TBD

## Current TODO
- Add contact form with email submission
- Connect pricing to Stripe checkout
- Add blog section

The more specific you are here, the less you need to re-explain context in every Claude Code session. According to Anthropic's Claude Code documentation, projects with a well-maintained CLAUDE.md see significantly fewer correction loops per session.

Step 4: Open Claude Code and Orient It

Launch Claude Code from your project root:

claude

Start with an orientation prompt rather than jumping straight to a feature request:

"Read CLAUDE.md and then scan the components/ directory.
Summarize what each component does and how they're connected.
Don't make any changes yet."

This gives Claude Code a working model of your codebase before it touches anything. It also reveals any inconsistencies in your v0 export (missing imports, unused props) before they become bugs.

Step 5: Ship Your First Feature

Pick the smallest feature from your TODO list. This is your proof-of-concept that the new workflow is working. Example:

"Add a contact form to components/contact.tsx.
Use shadcn/ui Form, Input, and Textarea components.
On submit, POST to /api/contact.
Add the API route at app/api/contact/route.ts — log the submission for now."

Claude Code will create both files, wire up the form submission, and handle types. Review the diff, test it locally, then commit:

git add components/contact.tsx app/api/contact/route.ts
git commit -m "feat: add contact form with API route"

How Does the v0 Workflow Map to Claude Code?

The v0 to Claude Code skill bridge translates your existing prompting instincts into terminal commands and slash interactions — same thinking, different interface.

Your v0 muscle memory is actually an asset here. You already know how to describe UI changes precisely. That skill transfers directly.

Side-by-Side: Prompting in v0 vs. Claude Code

The language you use barely changes. The destination of the output does.

"Make the hero section have a
gradient background from purple
to blue, and make the CTA button
larger with rounded-full styling"

"In components/hero.tsx, update
the background to a purple-to-blue
gradient. Make the CTA button use
rounded-full and increase to text-lg"

"Create an about page with
team bios and a mission statement"

→ Copy output
→ Create app/about/page.tsx
→ Paste content
→ Fix import paths manually

"Create app/about/page.tsx with
team bios and mission statement.
Match the style from app/page.tsx
and reuse the existing Card component"

→ Done. File created with correct imports.

Troubleshooting Common Migration Issues

Most migration friction falls into three categories. Here's how to resolve each quickly.

npx shadcn@latest add button card dialog input textarea

When Should You Stay in v0 vs. Graduate to Claude Code?

Staying in v0 is the right call when you're still in pure UI exploration mode — trying five different hero layouts, experimenting with color palettes, or showing quick mockups to stakeholders. v0 is genuinely faster for that phase.

Migrate to Claude Code when any of the following become true:

• You need to add a backend route, database call, or authentication
• You want to version control your UI (git history, branches, rollbacks)
• You're copy-pasting from v0 more than twice per feature
• You need to customize beyond what Tailwind + shadcn provides
• You want to run tests, CI/CD, or automate deployments
• You're working with a collaborator who needs to review code

The 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey found that 76% of solo developers who adopted AI coding assistants (including Claude Code and GitHub Copilot) reported shipping features faster after a 2-week ramp-up period — even compared to no-code/low-code tools they previously used.

Key Takeaways

• Your v0 code is already production-quality TSX — export it and run it locally without rewriting anything.
• CLAUDE.md is your highest-leverage investment — 10 minutes writing it saves hours of repeated context across sessions.
• Orientation before iteration — ask Claude Code to summarize your codebase before asking it to change anything.
• Map your v0 instincts directly — same prompting language, different destination (files instead of clipboard).
• Stay in v0 for exploration, graduate to Claude Code for ownership — there's no rule that says you can't use both.
• Your first feature proves the workflow — pick the smallest thing on your TODO list and ship it on day one to build confidence in the new setup.