What do I need installed and signed in before a crew can work in a monorepo?

Before a Tares crew can work in a monorepo, you need Claude Code signed in on a plan that allows background sessions, and gh signed in with write access to the repos. You also need git, jq and curl. The Codex CLI is optional and adds a second model that checks every commit. The stations use your Claude Code login, so there is no separate model API key.

How it works

The software factory for Claude Code runs a crew of Claude Code sessions in the background on your machine: an orchestrator, a reviewer and builders. Each prerequisite maps to something the crew does.

• Claude Code, signed in, on a plan that allows background sessions. Every station is a Claude Code session, and it runs on your Claude Code login.
• gh, signed in with write access. Builders push branches and open pull requests with your gh login, so it needs write access to every repo the crew works in.
• git, jq and curl. These are the basic tools the crew’s sessions expect on your machine.
• Optional: the Codex CLI. If you want a second model to check every commit, install it. tares factory crew up asks whether a second model checks every commit.

Tares itself keeps the plan, the tickets, every review and your answers. It reads the pull request, CI and merge state of each ticket on its own, so it needs its own access to GitHub on top of your gh login. You can run Tares next to the crew or use Tares Cloud. The Get started page covers the whole flow.

Set it up

Work through these steps in order. Skip the ones that do not apply to your setup.

1. Check that Claude Code is signed in on a plan that allows background sessions. Sign in to gh with write access to the repos the crew works in, and make sure git, jq and curl are installed. If you want the second-model check, install the Codex CLI too.

   gh auth login

2. Install the CLI.

   uv tool install tares     # or: brew install glassflow/tap/tares

3. On a local Tares, start it.

   tares up

4. Still on a local Tares, open a second terminal and start the MCP endpoint every crew session shares. Stations reach Tares only through this endpoint, so crew up and spec stop and tell you when it does not answer. If auth is on, start it with TARES_AUTH_TOKEN set to your token.

   tares mcp --transport streamable-http

5. On Tares Cloud, sign in instead. Pick your workspace in the browser and choose Connect. There is no MCP endpoint to start.

   tares login

6. Give Tares access to GitHub. On Tares Cloud, choose Connect GitHub in your workspace settings and pick the repos. On a local Tares, add a GitHub token or App under Settings > GitHub.

7. Bring up the crew. The first run offers to open Claude Code in ~/factory so you can trust the folder once. It then asks how far the crew may go: whether it merges on its own after review and green CI or waits for your yes, whether it releases, whether a second model checks every commit, and how many builders run at once.

   tares factory crew up

8. Check everything the crew needs. The command prints a line for each item and, for each problem, the command that fixes it.

   tares factory doctor

9. Plan the project from the repo it builds on, or from a folder that holds its repos.

   tares factory spec "what you want to build"

What you get

• A crew that starts without a separate model API key, because it runs on your Claude Code login.
• Builders that can push branches and open pull requests, because gh has write access to the repos.
• A Tares that tracks the pull request, CI and merge state of every ticket, because it has its own GitHub access.
• An optional second model that checks every commit, if you installed the Codex CLI and said yes in the crew up questions.
• A single tares factory doctor run that shows which key the stations use, flags a TARES_AUTH_TOKEN that overrides your saved login, and lists any missing language servers with the commands to install them.
• A background watch, started by crew up, that brings back any station that stops.

When something else fits

• If you want to work on one project in your own Claude Code session instead of a crew, use tares factory session. It still needs Claude Code, and gh access if the session pushes work.
• If you do not have a Claude Code plan that allows background sessions, the crew cannot run, because every station is a Claude Code session.

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