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Claude Code

Claude Code is Shaktiman's primary integration. Basic setup takes four steps in Getting Started → Claude Code Setup. This page covers the next layer: telling Claude when to reach for Shaktiman, subagent delegation, and troubleshooting the connection.

A CLAUDE.md template​

Drop this into your project's root-level CLAUDE.md so every Claude Code session knows about Shaktiman:

## MCP Tools (via shaktimand)

Shaktiman is a pre-built code index that reduces context usage during exploration.
Use it to narrow down before reading files — not as a replacement for Grep or Glob.

| Task | Tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Orient in unfamiliar codebase | `mcp__shaktiman__summary` | Codebase snapshot without reading files |
| Find code related to a concept | `mcp__shaktiman__search` | Ranked discovery — read only the top hits |
| Understand a topic across files | `mcp__shaktiman__context` | Token-budgeted chunks instead of reading many files |
| Find where a symbol is defined | `mcp__shaktiman__symbols` | Definition + signature without reading the file |
| Trace callers/callees | `mcp__shaktiman__dependencies` | Full call chain in one call |
| See what changed recently | `mcp__shaktiman__diff` | Symbol-level change tracking |
| Find exact string or regex | Grep | Shaktiman ranks by relevance, not pattern match |
| Find files by name/extension | Glob | Shaktiman indexes content, not filenames |
| Read a specific known file | Read | Direct file access |

### Discovery workflow

1. `mcp__shaktiman__summary` → orient (size, languages, health)
2. `mcp__shaktiman__search` → narrow to relevant files
3. `Read` → read only the files that matter
4. `Edit` → make changes

A longer template with subagent guidance is in docs/reference/sample_claude.md.

Subagent delegation​

Subagents launched via the Agent tool do not inherit the parent session's CLAUDE.md. If you want a subagent to use Shaktiman during exploration, tell it in the prompt:

Use mcp__shaktiman__search, mcp__shaktiman__symbols, and mcp__shaktiman__dependencies for code discovery before reading files. All tools exclude test files by default — use scope: "test" when looking for test code. Use Grep for exact string / regex matching. Use Glob for finding files by name.

Without this, subagents default to Grep / Glob / Read loops and you lose the token-efficiency win.

When Claude Code reaches for built-in tools instead​

Claude is trained to prefer the most specific tool for the job. You'll see:

  • Grep for exact-string and regex queries.
  • Glob for filename patterns (*.yaml, src/**/index.ts).
  • Read when a specific file path is known.
  • mcp__shaktiman__search for conceptual queries.

This is the right behaviour — don't override it. The CLAUDE.md above lists the decision rule.

Multiple Claude Code windows​

Open as many sessions as you like. Each spawns its own shaktimand; they coordinate via the leader/proxy mechanism described in Multi-instance concurrency. No manual coordination needed.

Where the setup and config details live​

This page deliberately doesn't duplicate the install recipe or the config reference. Head to: