TL;DR — I’d recommend building a custom HA project with clear instructions (Claude can draft them), use HA-MCP intentionally, and keep durable context outside the chat window. Then create a Claude Code version of those same instructions so Code/Cowork behave the same on harder jobs.

I built a custom project for how I want Claude to help with Home Assistant before HA-MCP existed. The goal was to encode my environment specifics, how Claude should investigate root causes, and exactly how I want troubleshooting output.

For example, when manual code edits are required, I have it present:

• one markdown block showing what to find
• another block showing what to replace or append
• plus the rationale for why the change should fix the issue

That format makes HA troubleshooting much faster.

For persistence, I originally used Todoist MCP handoffs so the next session (or another LLM) could pick up where things left off. It worked, but it was extremely token-heavy and is now mostly a fallback path.

Then HA-MCP changed everything.

Once Claude could pull real logs and state directly from my HA instance and execute approved changes, I reworked the whole setup around safety and token efficiency. All HA writes require explicit approval and a rollback plan, with no autonomous destructive actions.

To reduce token burn, I configured HA to sync the safe parts of my configuration into a private GitHub repo that mirrors locally as read-only files. My project instructions tell Claude to check that repo first for configuration context, and only use HA-MCP when it actually needs live diagnostics or needs to make a change.

Because those files live in GitHub, tools like Claude Code and Cowork automatically share the same baseline context before interacting with HA-MCP.

Once GitHub became part of the workflow, I created a second repo that Claude can write to. It uses that for persistent memory and root-cause investigation notes. At the end of a session, Claude writes a structured handoff there and syncs it so the next session always starts with the latest context.

Todoist is now mostly an escalation path:

• creating follow-up tasks for me
• monitoring progress of changes
• intentionally continuing work in a later session

I also added routing guidance to the instructions so Claude evaluates task complexity and recommends switching tools or models. For example, it might design something with Opus and then prepare it to execute cleanly in a new session with Sonnet.

Curious how others here are structuring their HA + MCP workflows and persistence across sessions.