mesh-catalog/modules/claude-code/README.md

claude-code

The operator's agent on a machine (novox/hq design 36): its package, its machine-wide managed configuration, and the consumer side of the Anthropic licence manager (design 39, ADR 0183).

What it owns

Two directories, declared, so the mesh refuses a second module owning either:

• /etc/claude-code, the agent's machine-wide managed directory, root's, 0755.
• ~/.claude under the operator account's home, the operator's, 0700. The module owns the directory — that it exists, who owns it, its mode — and of what is inside only what it writes. Everything else in it (memory, history, projects, local settings, a person's own rules and skills) is the person's and is never read or written (hq ADR 0182). Unassigned, the module leaves the directory: the host removes a directory only when it is empty.

What it writes

Under the agent's managed directory, /etc/claude-code, owned whole by this module and rewritten whenever the node's tool runtime collects the module's tools:

file	holds
managed-mcp.json	the tool servers every session loads: the mesh's console as mesh, and the servers set in this module's mcp_servers setting. Exclusive: a server not listed here does not load — not one added with claude mcp add, not a project's .mcp.json, not a plugin's
managed-settings.json	the keys set in this module's managed_settings setting, under the mesh's own: the repositories' attribution convention, the claude.ai connectors kept beside the managed servers, and the key-helper while the node holds an API-key licence
CLAUDE.md	how a session on this mesh works, this node's name and role, the conventions

Under the operator's home, only ~/.claude/.credentials.json, and only when the licence manager hands this node a subscription token. Nothing else under the home is read or written.

Over NATS

Everything between this module and the rest of the mesh is NATS, in three kinds: an event says that something happened and carries no secret, because a stream keeps it; a request carries a token, because nothing keeps it (hq design 32 §10); and state is the current value of something every node must see, a node that joins later included — kept, so it carries no secret either (hq ADR 0201).

what	how
what this node holds	the module's holdings state, one key for this node — the account, the kind, fingerprints and expiries, never a token — written at start and whenever the credentials file changes (hq ADR 0206)
a person ran /login here	the credentials file gains a refresh token this module never writes; its next report shows it, and the licence manager asks claude_code_grant for it, giving its key — the one time a refresh token leaves the node, for the manager to adopt by refreshing it
what this node should hold	the licence manager's bindings state, this node's key; on a newer generation this module asks anthropic-licence-manager.current for its token, sealed to the key it sends, and writes it access-token-only — so the agent here never refreshes. A node that was off reads its key when it is back
an MCP server registered through this module	a key in the module's servers state — all.<server> for every node, <node>.<server> for one; every node watches it and renders what applies to it, a node's own entry over the one for every node. A node that joins later, or was off, reads the whole current set at start; unregistering is a delete. An entry with a secret in its env or headers is refused by the runtime

Tools

claude_code_status, claude_code_render, claude_code_pull, claude_code_grant (for the licence manager), claude_code_mcp_list, claude_code_mcp_register (this node by default; nodes: "all" or a list for more — called for this node alone, its answer names the other nodes running claude-code), claude_code_mcp_unregister.

Settings

Per node or for the whole mesh, through mesh-controller.settings module=claude-code:

• role — what this node is, in a few words; shown to every session.
• mcp_servers — extra tool servers, set by the operator for the mesh or a node, beside the ones registered through the tools; keyed by name, in the vendor's .mcp.json entry shape ({"type":"http","url":…} or {"type":"stdio","command":…,"args":[…]}). The name mesh is the module's own and cannot be set. Put a person's own servers here, or they stop loading.
• managed_settings — keys of the agent's managed settings, in the vendor's settings.json shape: permissions (allow, ask, deny), autoMode (environment, allow, soft_deny), env, hooks and so on. Managed settings outrank every other scope, so a rule here holds in every session on the node. The mesh's own keys (attribution, allowAllClaudeAiMcps, apiKeyHelper) are laid last and cannot be set. A setting layer is replaced whole: setting managed_settings without role or mcp_servers clears those in that layer.

On a machine that carried the predecessor

Remove these by hand, once; the mesh removes nothing it did not make (ADR 0182):

• ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md
• ~/.claude/rules/00-hal-mesh.md, ~/.claude/rules/conventions.md
• ~/.claude/skills/cleanup/, ~/.claude/skills/hal-switch-license/
• the hand-made console entry in ~/.claude.json under mcpServers — it is ignored now anyway

Escalation

Writing /etc/claude-code needs root. The runtime runs as the operator account, and the module uses that account's passwordless sudo; on a machine without it, claude_code_render says so and nothing is written.

Code

Go, one binary (cmd/claude-code) the node's runtime launches. Tested with go test ./...; the managed instruction file is held to the TypeScript renderer it replaced (testdata/rendered-by-typescript.json), and the sealed box is the licence manager's own format.