How It Works

When you run the Tandemu installer (curl -fsSL https://tandemu.dev/install.sh | bash), it handles the full connection setup:

1. Instance selection — Choose Tandemu Cloud or provide a self-hosted URL
2. Browser authorization — Your browser opens to the Tandemu dashboard. Log in and click Allow.
3. Config saved — Connection details are saved to ~/.claude/tandemu.json
4. Telemetry configured — OTEL environment variables written to ~/.claude/settings.json
5. Memory configured — MCP server registered in ~/.claude.json
6. Skills installed — /morning, /finish, /pause, /standup, /blockers

No manual configuration needed. Open any project and start using skills.

Configuration Files

The installer creates three files:

~/.claude/tandemu.json

Authentication and API config, shared across all repos:

{
  "auth": { "token": "eyJhbG..." },
  "user": { "id": "uuid", "email": "you@company.com", "name": "Your Name" },
  "organization": { "id": "uuid", "name": "Acme Engineering" },
  "team": { "id": "uuid", "name": "Frontend Team" },
  "api": { "url": "http://localhost:3001" }
}

~/.claude/settings.json

Telemetry env vars and file permissions for Tandemu operations (merged with existing settings):

{
  "env": {
    "CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TELEMETRY": "1",
    "OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER": "otlp",
    "OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT": "http://localhost:4318"
  },
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["Edit(~/.claude/tandemu*)", "Bash(curl*localhost:3001*)"]
  }
}

~/.claude.json

MCP memory server config so Claude Code has persistent memory across sessions. The URL includes your user ID to keep memories scoped to you — other team members get their own isolated memory space:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tandemu-memory": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "http://localhost:8765/mcp/tandemu/sse/<your-user-id>"
    }
  }
}

~/.claude/CLAUDE.md

Personality and memory behavior instructions for your AI teammate. This tells Claude to:

• Search memories at session start and use your name
• Learn your coding style passively (naming, error handling, patterns)
• Store observations silently without asking you to describe yourself
• Include occasional “btw” moments for casual rapport building
• Adapt tone to match your communication style

Reconnecting

If your token expires (24 hours) or you need to switch organizations, run the installer again:

curl -fsSL https://tandemu.dev/install.sh | bash

It will re-authorize and update your config files.

Troubleshooting

Browser doesn’t open — Copy the URL from the installer output and open it manually.

“Could not reach Tandemu API” — Check that your Tandemu instance is running and the URL is correct.

“You must create or join an organization first” — Go to the Tandemu dashboard and complete the organization setup, then run the installer again.

Token expired — Run the installer again to re-authorize.