Co-op Mode
The protocol that makes Claude a real teammate instead of a chat partner who keeps starting over. Multi-phase plans, color-coded teammate sessions, evidence captured in the plan file as you go.
When you and Claude are working through a 20-step plan together, one of you forgets where you were after a coffee break. Co-op Mode keeps a shared journal in a markdown file. Every step is checked off with proof — every blocked step gets a date stamp and a reason — every session that resumes a plan reads the file and picks up exactly where the last one left off. The plan file is the source of truth, not your chat history. You can put it down, come back tomorrow, open the plan, and pick up exactly where you left off.
The novel piece is team mode. One Lead Claude orchestrates; up to three teammate Claudes execute claimed rows in parallel. Each session has a color ID — G, B, Y, O — that matches the colors of your terminal windows so visual scan matches the plan file. Lead claims and assigns; teammates only execute their claimed rows. No two teammates ever touch the same file in the same step. It's the closest thing I've built to a real team of operators that all happen to be Claude.
The hidden superpower is the safe-reset checkpoint. Long sessions degrade in quality before you notice. Co-op detects clean phase boundaries — decision committed, plan up to date, no uncommitted code — and offers a copy-paste handoff prompt to start a fresh chat with zero context loss. Cheap resets keep quality high.
Plans are markdown files at plans/co-op/<name>.md. Each row is [ ] → [x] with a Result: line capturing evidence (commit SHA, log line, screenshot ref). Solo mode = one Claude session. Team mode = one Lead orchestrator (color G) + up to 3 teammate executors (B/Y/O), color-coded to match window colors so visual scan matches the plan file. Lead claims and assigns rows; teammates only execute claimed rows.
Subcommands: start, next, status, block, revisit, claim, release, assign, sync, verify, team-up, team-down. Team mode adds a mandatory Touches: field per row so Lead can detect collision risk before assigning — two unfinished rows touching the same path get sequenced, not parallelized. A shared-file lock list (config files, top-level state docs, migrations) routes through Lead only.
Persistence is pluggable. The plan file is the raw execution journal — never overwrite history. Decisions and lessons worth keeping fan out to whatever your project's persistent knowledge layer is (Supabase, SQLite, plain markdown — your choice). The invariant is that a fresh session can resume from the plan file alone: no secondary handover notes, no "remember to..." messages, no state living in chat that isn't also in the plan file. If you find yourself wanting to write a handover note, the plan file is missing a dated comment — add it there instead.
The download is at /resources/skills/co-op.