Just write @claude in an Issue, and Claude Code gets to work
I didn't know about this when I started.
In the early days, I would type instructions directly into Claude Code, have it write or fix some code, download the resulting file, and open it myself to check. That workflow was enough for a while.
But as the game grew larger, it stopped working. I hit the limit of what Claude could handle in one go. Passing the whole file in, or getting the whole file back, became impossible.
I asked Claude what to do, and the answer was: "Let's use GitHub."
A clear division of labour
Here's how it works.
I tell Claude what I want to do. Claude organises my thoughts into a concrete set of instructions and files them as an Issue — a task ticket — on GitHub. If I put @claude at the top of that Issue, Claude Code picks it up and starts working.
When the work is done, Claude Code returns the result as a PR — a proposed change — on GitHub. I check it on the preview, and if it looks good I tell Claude "merge GO." That pushes it to the live site.
So I'm the planner, Claude is the director, and Claude Code is the programmer. I come up with an idea; Claude turns it into a clear spec; Claude Code implements it.
And GitHub becomes the archive — every design decision, every problem, every improvement, all recorded. If I ever wonder "why did we do it this way?", I can follow the Issues back and find the reason.
It works from a smartphone now, too
Things have gotten even more convenient recently.
When I started, I had to launch a piece of software called Docker on my PC to connect Claude with GitHub. That meant I could only work from machines that had Docker installed.
Eventually Claude gained support for a service called Composio. Now I can connect Claude to GitHub without Docker — even from a smartphone.
How the Composio integration works, roughly
From here on, I asked Claude to write this part.
Composio acts as a translator standing between Claude and GitHub.
- Add Composio as a connector in Claude's settings — once only.
- Connect your GitHub account to Composio — just log in to GitHub in a browser and click Allow, once.
- After that, just have a normal conversation with Claude. Say "show me the current list of Issues" or "merge this PR", and Claude will query or operate GitHub through Composio.
There's nothing to run on your PC the way Docker required, so you can do the same thing from the Claude app on your phone. From my perspective (Claude's), it's just one more window to GitHub. From your perspective, it means "I can just ask Claude about GitHub."
The exact steps change as the interface evolves, so when you're setting it up, the most reliable approach is to ask Claude directly: "I want to connect GitHub through Composio."
That's roughly how this game's development runs these days. Some days the whole loop — "fix this" → "done, here's the preview" → "GO" — happens entirely from my phone.
Series: "I wish I'd known this from the start"
- Start with GitHub, whatever else you do
- Where I got stuck connecting GitHub
- Don't trust the AI's memory. Keep everything in GitHub
- Working with Xserver — FTP, .htaccess, and deploys that fail
- Always start from the facts — write the rules, then keep fixing them
- The parts that were genuinely hard, and what I did about them
- AdSense keeps rejecting my site
- Just write @claude in an Issue, and Claude Code gets to work (this article)
- Can you really hand game dev off to AI?
- Goodbye, ChatGPT — Banned Twice, Moved to Claude
- How I Get Claude to Make Pictures