How do I limit what a Claude Code crew can touch while it does test coverage in a monorepo?

Tares gives you five levers over a Claude Code crew: the repos your gh login can write to, the merge setting, the reviewer bar, halting the crew, and leaving the releaser off. Together they bound where a crew working on test coverage in a monorepo can push, what merges and what ships. Set the merge, release and builder answers on the first run of tares factory crew up.

How it works

The software factory for Claude Code is a crew of Claude Code sessions on your machine: an orchestrator, a reviewer and builders. Each lever limits a different part of what the crew can do.

• Your gh login. Builders push and open pull requests with your gh login, so the repos that login can write to are the repos the crew can change. For a test coverage project in a monorepo, that is the monorepo and nothing else you give it access to.
• Tares access to GitHub. Tares reads the pull request, CI and merge state of every ticket with its own access. On Tares Cloud you choose the repos under Connect GitHub. On a local Tares you add a token or App under Settings > GitHub.
• The merge setting. A builder merges its pull request only after the reviewer passes it and CI is green. On the first run you choose whether the crew merges on its own after that (recommended) or waits for your yes. A single project can also wait for your yes before every merge, even when the rest of the crew merges on its own.
• The reviewer bar. The reviewer reviews every pull request to a fixed bar and posts its verdict on the pull request. You can also have a second model check every commit, which needs the Codex CLI.
• Halting. tares factory crew halt with a reason stops merges, pushes and new sessions until you run tares factory crew resume.
• The releaser. It exists only if you ask for one. Without it, tickets end at merged on main, so nothing is tagged or deployed.

Builders are started one per milestone and repo of a project, up to the number you allow, so the builder count is another bound on how much runs at once.

Set it up

1. Sign in to gh with an account whose write access covers only the repos the crew should change. Check that Claude Code is signed in and that git, jq and curl are installed.

   gh auth login

2. Give Tares access to GitHub for the same repos: Connect GitHub on Tares Cloud, or Settings > GitHub on a local Tares. See Get started for the full setup order, including tares up and the MCP endpoint on a local Tares.

3. Bring up the crew and answer the settings it asks on the first run.

   tares factory crew up

   For a cautious test coverage run:

   • Choose that the crew waits for your yes instead of merging on its own.
   • Say no to releasing.
   • Turn on the second model that checks every commit, if you have the Codex CLI.
   • Keep the number of builders running at once low.

   The answers are kept on Tares.

4. Plan the project. The plan becomes milestones with acceptance checks and tickets with a working doc each, so write the coverage goal into the idea.

   tares factory spec "what you want to build"

   Say yes when it asks whether to hand the project to the crew.

5. Follow what the crew is doing, and answer its questions in the orchestrator’s session.

   tares factory crew status
   tares factory projects
   tares factory crew attach orchestrator

6. If something looks wrong, stop the crew with a reason, then resume when you are ready.

   tares factory crew halt "<reason>"
   tares factory crew resume

   Run tares factory doctor to check everything the crew needs.

What you get

• The crew can push and open pull requests only in repos your gh login can write to.
• Every pull request is reviewed to a fixed bar, and nothing merges until the reviewer passes it and CI is green.
• With the wait-for-yes setting, you approve each merge yourself. You can set this for a single project while the rest of the crew merges on its own.
• A halt stops merges, pushes and new sessions at once, and tares factory crew resume lets the crew carry on.
• With no releaser, work stops at merged on main.
• Tares keeps the plan, tickets, reviews, assumptions and your answers, so a halted or restarted crew carries on where it stopped.
• The orchestrator is the only session you talk to, and it brings you the questions that need you.

When something else fits

• If you want one change built in your own Claude Code session instead of by a crew, use tares factory session. It works on a project right in your session, still on Tares.
• If you want to stop everything rather than pause merges and pushes, tares factory crew down stops every station. Tares keeps the projects, tickets and answers.

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