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Beyond Single-User Coding

Claude Code is powerful for individual developers. But what happens when your entire team wants to use it? How do you maintain consistency, share context, and avoid agents stepping on each other's work?

This guide covers the DevOps patterns we've seen work at scale—from two-person startups to engineering teams of fifty.

The Multi-Agent Challenge

When multiple engineers use Claude Code on the same codebase, you face several challenges:

Context Fragmentation: Each agent session starts fresh. One engineer's improvements don't carry over to another's session.
Merge Conflicts: Two agents editing the same file simultaneously will create conflicts.
Inconsistent Patterns: Without shared guidelines, agents might implement the same feature differently.
Resource Contention: API rate limits and token budgets need management.

Let's solve each of these.

Shared Context with CLAUDE.md

The CLAUDE.md file is your team's shared brain. It lives in your repository root and gets loaded into every Claude Code session.

Essential Sections

# CLAUDE.md

## Project Overview
This is [Project Name], a [brief description].
Tech stack: Next.js 14, TypeScript, Tailwind, PostgreSQL, Prisma.

## Architecture Decisions
- We use Server Components by default. Client components only when needed.
- API routes follow RESTful conventions: /api/[resource]/[id]
- State management: Server state with React Query, local state with useState

## Code Standards
- All functions must have JSDoc comments
- Use named exports, not default exports
- Error handling: use Result<T, E> pattern from @/lib/result

## File Organization
- /src/app - Next.js app router pages
- /src/components - React components (one component per file)
- /src/lib - Utility functions and shared logic
- /src/server - Server-only code (database, auth)

## Common Commands
- `pnpm dev` - Start development server
- `pnpm test` - Run tests
- `pnpm lint` - Run ESLint
- `pnpm db:migrate` - Run database migrations

## Active Work
Current sprint focus: User authentication refactor
Do NOT modify: /src/legacy/* (scheduled for deprecation)

## Team Conventions
- Branch naming: feature/[ticket-id]-short-description
- Commit format: type(scope): message (conventional commits)
- PR template is in .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md

Keep It Updated

Your CLAUDE.md should evolve with your project. Add to it when:

You make an architecture decision
You adopt a new pattern
Something causes repeated confusion

# Add a git hook to remind about CLAUDE.md updates
# .git/hooks/pre-commit
#!/bin/bash
if git diff --cached --name-only | grep -q "^src/"; then
  echo "Reminder: Does CLAUDE.md need updating?"
fi

Parallel Agent Coordination

When multiple engineers work simultaneously, you need coordination strategies.

Git-Based Workflow

The simplest pattern: treat agents like human developers.

1. Create feature branch
2. Agent works on branch
3. Open PR for review
4. Merge after approval

Configure Claude Code to always work on branches:

// .claude/settings.json
{
  "git": {
    "requireBranch": true,
    "branchPrefix": "claude/",
    "autoCommit": false
  }
}

Task Assignment

For larger teams, assign non-overlapping tasks:

## Current Assignments (Update before starting work)

| Engineer | Agent Task | Files | Status |
|----------|------------|-------|--------|
| Alice | Auth refactor | /src/auth/* | In Progress |
| Bob | API optimization | /src/api/users/* | In Progress |
| Carol | UI components | /src/components/forms/* | In Progress |

⚠️ Check this table before asking Claude to modify files.
If there's a conflict, coordinate on Slack first.

Locking Mechanism

For critical sections, implement file-level locks:

// scripts/lock-files.ts
import { writeFileSync, existsSync, unlinkSync } from 'fs';

const LOCK_FILE = '.claude-locks.json';

interface Lock {
  file: string;
  owner: string;
  timestamp: number;
  expires: number;
}

export function acquireLock(file: string, owner: string): boolean {
  const locks = getLocks();
  const now = Date.now();

  // Clean expired locks
  const activeLocks = locks.filter(l => l.expires > now);

  // Check if file is locked
  if (activeLocks.some(l => l.file === file)) {
    return false;
  }

  // Acquire lock (1 hour expiry)
  activeLocks.push({
    file,
    owner,
    timestamp: now,
    expires: now + 3600000
  });

  writeFileSync(LOCK_FILE, JSON.stringify(activeLocks, null, 2));
  return true;
}

export function releaseLock(file: string, owner: string): void {
  const locks = getLocks().filter(
    l => !(l.file === file && l.owner === owner)
  );
  writeFileSync(LOCK_FILE, JSON.stringify(locks, null, 2));
}

Add to your workflow:

# Before Claude session
node scripts/lock-files.js acquire "src/auth/*" "alice@company.com"

# After Claude session
node scripts/lock-files.js release "src/auth/*" "alice@company.com"

Code Review Automation

Claude Code can assist with code reviews, but needs guardrails.

Pre-Review Checks

Run automated checks before human review:

# .github/workflows/claude-review.yml
name: Claude Review Assist

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize]

jobs:
  review:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Get changed files
        id: files
        run: |
          echo "files=$(git diff --name-only ${{ github.event.pull_request.base.sha }} ${{ github.sha }} | tr '\n' ' ')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

      - name: Run Claude Review
        env:
          ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
        run: |
          # Generate review comments for changed files
          node scripts/claude-review.js ${{ steps.files.outputs.files }}

      - name: Post Review
        uses: actions/github-script@v7
        with:
          script: |
            const review = require('./claude-review-output.json');
            await github.rest.pulls.createReview({
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              pull_number: context.issue.number,
              event: 'COMMENT',
              comments: review.comments
            });

Review Prompt Template

// scripts/claude-review.js
const reviewPrompt = `
You are reviewing code changes for a pull request.

Context from CLAUDE.md:
${claudeMdContent}

Changed files:
${changedFiles.map(f => `### ${f.path}\n\`\`\`\n${f.diff}\n\`\`\``).join('\n\n')}

Review for:
1. Bugs or logic errors
2. Security vulnerabilities
3. Deviations from project conventions (see CLAUDE.md)
4. Missing error handling
5. Performance concerns

Format your response as JSON:
{
  "comments": [
    {
      "path": "file path",
      "line": line number,
      "body": "your comment"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "brief overall assessment"
}

Be specific. Reference project conventions when applicable.
Only comment on actual issues, not style preferences already handled by linters.
`;

CI/CD Integration

Integrate Claude Code into your deployment pipeline.

Automated Testing with Claude

# .github/workflows/test-generation.yml
name: Test Coverage Boost

on:
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - 'src/**/*.ts'

jobs:
  generate-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Check coverage
        id: coverage
        run: |
          pnpm test:coverage
          COVERAGE=$(cat coverage/coverage-summary.json | jq '.total.lines.pct')
          echo "coverage=$COVERAGE" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

      - name: Generate missing tests
        if: steps.coverage.outputs.coverage < 80
        run: |
          # Identify uncovered files
          UNCOVERED=$(node scripts/find-uncovered.js)

          # Generate tests with Claude
          for file in $UNCOVERED; do
            claude-code --headless \
              --prompt "Generate comprehensive tests for $file following our testing conventions" \
              --output "$(dirname $file)/__tests__/$(basename $file .ts).test.ts"
          done

      - name: Commit generated tests
        run: |
          git config user.name "Claude Bot"
          git config user.email "claude@company.com"
          git add -A
          git commit -m "test: add generated tests for coverage" || exit 0
          git push

Documentation Generation

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/generate-docs.sh

# Generate API documentation
claude-code --headless \
  --context "src/app/api/**/*.ts" \
  --prompt "Generate OpenAPI documentation for all API routes" \
  --output "docs/api.yaml"

# Generate component documentation
claude-code --headless \
  --context "src/components/**/*.tsx" \
  --prompt "Generate Storybook stories for components missing them" \
  --output "src/stories/"

Rate Limiting and Cost Management

API usage adds up quickly with multiple agents.

Token Budgets

Set per-engineer budgets:

// lib/claude-budget.ts
interface Budget {
  daily: number;
  monthly: number;
}

const BUDGETS: Record<string, Budget> = {
  engineer: { daily: 100000, monthly: 2000000 },
  senior: { daily: 200000, monthly: 5000000 },
  lead: { daily: 500000, monthly: 10000000 },
};

export async function checkBudget(userId: string, role: string): Promise<boolean> {
  const usage = await getUsage(userId);
  const budget = BUDGETS[role];

  return usage.daily < budget.daily && usage.monthly < budget.monthly;
}

Request Queueing

Prevent rate limit errors with a queue:

// lib/claude-queue.ts
import PQueue from 'p-queue';

// Max 50 requests per minute to Anthropic API
const queue = new PQueue({
  intervalCap: 50,
  interval: 60000,
  carryoverConcurrencyCount: true,
});

export async function queuedRequest<T>(
  fn: () => Promise<T>
): Promise<T> {
  return queue.add(fn);
}

Usage Dashboard

Track team usage:

-- Track token usage by user and session
CREATE TABLE claude_usage (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
  user_id TEXT NOT NULL,
  session_id TEXT NOT NULL,
  input_tokens INTEGER NOT NULL,
  output_tokens INTEGER NOT NULL,
  cost_usd DECIMAL(10, 4) NOT NULL,
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

-- Daily usage view
CREATE VIEW daily_usage AS
SELECT
  user_id,
  DATE(created_at) as date,
  SUM(input_tokens) as total_input,
  SUM(output_tokens) as total_output,
  SUM(cost_usd) as total_cost
FROM claude_usage
GROUP BY user_id, DATE(created_at);

Best Practices Summary

Do:

Keep CLAUDE.md updated - It's your team's shared context
Use feature branches - Avoid direct commits to main
Review agent output - Claude is a powerful tool, not a replacement for judgment
Set token budgets - Costs can escalate quickly
Log everything - You'll need it for debugging and optimization

Don't:

Let agents work on overlapping files - Merge conflicts waste time
Skip code review - Agent code needs human verification
Ignore the CLAUDE.md - Inconsistency compounds over time
Run multiple agents without coordination - Race conditions are real

Key Takeaways

CLAUDE.md is essential for team consistency
Coordinate agent work through task assignment and file locking
Integrate with CI/CD for automated reviews and documentation
Manage costs with budgets and usage tracking
Treat agent output like junior developer code—always review

Multi-agent Claude Code isn't just about adding more AI to your workflow. It's about building systems that make AI collaboration scale. Get the foundations right, and your team's productivity multiplies.

Multi-Agent Claude Code: DevOps Orchestration for Teams