Is one Claude Code session enough for a small project, or do I need the whole crew?

One Claude Code session is enough for a small project, and Tares lets you plan and build it there with tares factory session. The session is bound to a Tares project, so your shared AGENTS.md and memory apply and its record lands on the project. If the plan turns out big, the session offers the full spec and the hand-over to the crew instead.

How it works

tares factory session opens Claude Code with the Tares plugin, bound to a project. A plain claude has no Tares tools, so start project sessions this way. The command has three forms:

• A new idea: the session asks a few questions, writes a short spec and a ticket list on Tares, then builds it right there.
• A planned project: the session reads the project’s starting prompt and works the ready tickets.
• No argument: you pick an existing project or start something new.

The crew is a different mode. It is an orchestrator, a reviewer and builders (plus a releaser if you ask for one), all running as Claude Code sessions on your machine. Builders are started per milestone and repo of a project. The reviewer reviews every pull request to a fixed bar, and nothing merges until it passes and CI is green. You talk only to the orchestrator.

Both modes keep the record on Tares: the plan, the tickets and their stages, and your answers. A single session gives you the same project record without the crew’s moving parts.

Set it up

1. Check what you need: Claude Code signed in, gh signed in with write access to the repos, plus git, jq and curl. A single session uses your Claude Code login, with no separate model API key.

2. Install the CLI and start Tares locally, or sign in to a workspace with tares login:

   uv tool install tares     # or: brew install glassflow/tap/tares
   tares up                  # console on http://127.0.0.1:8787

3. Start the session from the repo the project builds on, with your idea in quotes:

   tares factory session "<idea>"      # plan a small project and build it right there

4. Answer the few questions. The session writes a short spec and a ticket list on Tares, then builds the tickets.

5. Come back to the project later with the project name:

   tares factory session <project>     # work on a planned project

6. Run tares factory doctor if something seems off. It checks everything the crew needs and tells you when the Tares plugin version differs from the one your tares package ships.

When you want the crew instead, the full path is on Build a software factory with Claude Code. In short, you run tares factory crew up once, plan with tares factory spec, and answer questions with tares factory crew attach orchestrator.

What you get

• Less setup for small work. You plan and build in one session, with no crew to bring up and no stations to watch.
• The same Tares record. Your shared AGENTS.md and memory apply, and the session’s record lands on the project.
• A built-in signal for growth. If the plan turns out big, the session offers the full spec and the hand-over to the crew, so you do not have to guess up front.
• A way to move work between modes. Pointing tares factory session at a project the crew has makes it ask whether to take it over. Say yes and the crew stops: its builders push what they have and write their progress, and your session carries on from their branches and pull requests. Say no and the crew keeps the project.
• Tickets where you want them. A single-session project can keep its tickets in Linear or GitHub Issues. Sessions change them with their own tools, and Tares only reads them.

When something else fits

Choose the crew when the project is several pull requests long and you want it taken from plan to merged without driving it one prompt at a time. The crew gives you things a single session does not:

• A reviewer that holds every pull request to a fixed bar, and merges only after it passes and CI is green.
• Builders working in parallel, one per milestone and repo, up to the number you allow.
• One crew serving many projects at once, while one project waiting for you does not stop the others.
• Questions from every project reaching you in one place, the orchestrator, with progress on the Crew page.
• Sessions that restart on their own, because a watch brings back any station that stops and the record stays on Tares.

The practical rule: start with tares factory session for a small project. When the session says the plan is big, say yes to the full spec and the hand-over to the crew. You can also plan with tares factory spec from the start if you already know the project is large. The crew runs on one machine, on your own Claude Code login, against your own GitHub repos, and it needs Claude Code on a plan that allows background sessions.

A single session is also a good fit when you want to stay hands-on and read every step yourself.

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