Delegate to claude code

Delegate to Claude Code

Claude Code (claude -p via call_claude_code.py) is a powerful agent on this machine. It has browser automation (Playwright), MCP servers, credential access, and ~600 skills — treat it as a superset of what I can do alone. When I hit limits (browser, credentials, MCP tools, complex multi-file work), I call Claude Code. No need to ask Felix — Claude Code on this machine has everything Felix had.

When to delegate (✅)

• Multi-file feature implementation — reads, plans, edits, verifies across files
• Debugging — hypothesizes, instruments, fixes, re-verifies from stack trace
• Architecture / codebase exploration — maps subsystems with file:line citations
• TDD — failing test → green → coverage
• Refactoring — cross-cutting changes with verification
• Code review / PR analysis — reads diffs, checks for issues
• Project scaffolding / boilerplate — configs, migrations, CI
• Research — web search + synthesis
• Long-running autonomous tasks — sub-delegates, parallelizes, self-corrects, MCP
• Security audits — 600+ specialized skills
• Browser automation — Playwright, login, scrape logged-in pages
• Logged-in extraction/inventory jobs — map course/community pages, collect links/resources/transcripts, and produce machine-readable JSON plus reports when Hermes needs browser/CDP help
• MCP tools — Stripe, Shopify, Figma, Gmail, Cloudflare, Chrome DevTools
• Media-generation MCP recovery — if Hermes-native Kie/Nano Banana/Higgsfield paths are blocked by credits/auth/tooling, delegate a self-contained provider task to Claude Code and require exact returned file paths, provider used, and verification metadata; do not fall back to programmatic placeholders when the user requested real AI visuals
• GitHub PR workflow — gh, create PRs, review, merge
• Image reading — PNG/JPG screenshots, PDFs inline

When NOT to delegate (❌)

• Simple tasks I can do in 1-2 tool calls
• Production deploys / DNS / OAuth (needs operator OK)
• Sending messages to external platforms
• Money / financial operations (hard-blocked without direct OK)
• Visual design / brand voice without samples
• Cross-session memory (use Hermes memory tool)
• Massive 100+ file refactors in one shot (break into milestones)

Call pattern

from call_claude_code import call_claude_code, ClaudeCodeError
output = call_claude_code(TASK_PROMPT, timeout=300, cwd="/path/to/repo")

Prompt format

GOAL: <one sentence — what "done" looks like>
CONTEXT: <repo path, branch, why, what's been tried>
CONSTRAINTS: <don't touch X, must keep Y backward compat>
INPUTS: <specific files, line numbers, error messages>
ACCEPTANCE: <tests pass, endpoint returns Z>
OUT-OF-SCOPE: <things NOT to do>
OUTPUT: <"summary" or "open a PR" or "JSON with fields X,Y">

Sweet spot: 150–400 words — medium detail beats terse or verbose.

For structured output

Return JSON with keys: {status, files_changed[], next_steps[], blockers[]}
Respond with ONLY valid JSON inside a fenced code block.

Pitfalls

• Python 3.9 — don't use str | None type hints in code for this machine
• Claude Code does NOT see the current conversation — every prompt must be self-contained
• Default timeout 300s; lower for quick queries, higher for agentic tasks
• If invoking /Users/pharma6/ai-team/call_claude_code.py directly as a script, its __main__ test path does not pass your desired task timeout. For long browser/inventory jobs, import the helper and call call_claude_code(prompt, timeout=550, cwd='/Users/pharma6/ai-team') from a short Python snippet instead of relying on the script wrapper.
• Claude Code sub-delegates by default — fine, it manages context well
• For extraction/inventory jobs, require durable artifacts instead of prose only: JSON inventories, downloaded/transcribed files when possible, a final markdown report, and exact paths. After Claude Code returns, Hermes must verify the files/counts locally before reporting success to Purse.
• For multi-artifact builds (scripts + repo scaffolds + cron/job setup), use the JSON-output contract and verification pattern in references/multi-artifact-delegation-20260612.md: exact paths, commands run, counts, validation result, blockers, next steps; then re-run validators locally before finalizing.