# crew menu and crew run reference `crew` with no arguments opens the menu, where you pick a member, its ship, a model and an effort, then start Claude Code as that member. `crew run ` and its short form `crew ` start a member without the menu, with its remembered model, effort and ship, and work without a terminal once the permissions question is answered. Anything after `--` goes to Claude Code. ## crew (the menu) Pick a member and its settings on one screen, then start Claude Code. ```sh crew ``` No flags. It needs a terminal; without one it prints `The menu needs a terminal. Without one, use: crew run ` and exits with 1. ### What the screen shows With at least one member, the menu is one screen: - a row per member, sorted by name, with its 5-hour and week bars; - `+ Add a crew member` under the members; - one settings line: `ship`, `model` and `effort`; - a key line at the bottom. ![The crew menu with three members, their usage bars and the ship, model and effort line](https://crewrota.pasindug.com/docs/images/crew-menu.png) The cursor starts on the current member. Each bar has 14 cells: green under 60%, amber from 60% and red from 80%. A window whose reset time has passed since the reading shows 0%. A member with no reading shows `no reading yet`. ### Keys | Key | What it does | |---|---| | Up and down | Move between members and `+ Add a crew member` | | `1` to `9` | Jump to that member | | Tab, Shift+Tab | Move between `ship`, `model` and `effort` | | Left and right | Change the setting the cursor is on | | Enter | Start, or add a member when `+ Add a crew member` is picked | | Esc | Quit; prints `Nothing launched.` and exits with 0 | Moving to another member loads that member's remembered ship, model and effort. ### Settings | Setting | Values | Default | |---|---|---| | `ship` | `isolated`, then every ship by name | the member's ship, else `isolated` | | `model` | `Claude's default`, `fable`, `opus`, `sonnet`, a model the member used before, `type a name` | the member's last model, else the last model used, else `Claude's default` | | `effort` | `Claude's default`, `low`, `medium`, `high`, `xhigh`, `max` | the member's last effort, else the last effort used, else `Claude's default` | `type a name` asks `Model name (an alias or a full model name)` after you press Enter. `Claude's default` passes no `--model` or `--effort`, so Claude Code uses its own default. Picking a ship other than the member's saved one joins that ship (or leaves it, for `isolated`) before Claude starts. ### Before the screen opens Unless `crew config refresh off` is set, the menu first reads every member's usage with quota-axi, side by side, and prints `Checking usage for (crewrota reads each member's usage; stop it with: crew config refresh off)...` until it is done. No message is sent to any member. ### Step-by-step mode With no members yet, the menu asks one question at a time: `No crew members yet`, then the new member's name, the login and the "Share history" question from [`crew add`](https://crewrota.pasindug.com/docs/reference/members/#crew-add), then the model and the effort. It does the same for screen readers: when the `ACCESSIBLE` environment variable is set to any value other than `0` or `false`, the menu skips the one-screen view and the usage check and asks `Crew member`, `Model` and `Effort` as separate questions. ### The first launch The first time any member starts, crewrota shows a note headed "Skip permission prompts?" and asks once: `Start sessions with --dangerously-skip-permissions?` ![The one-time question: Skip permission prompts, with No selected](https://crewrota.pasindug.com/docs/images/crew-first-launch.png) The default is No. The answer is saved only once Claude Code has started. See [Choose whether Claude asks for permission](https://crewrota.pasindug.com/docs/guides/permissions/). ### What it writes On start it saves the member's model and effort, the last model and effort, and the permissions answer in `config.json`, and a ship change. ## crew run Start Claude Code as a member, without the menu. ```sh crew run [] [-- ] ``` | Argument | Default | What it is | |---|---|---| | `` | `$CREW_MEMBER`, else the current member | The member to start | | `-- ` | none | Passed to Claude Code after crewrota's own flags | `crew run` has no flags of its own. ### Which member starts 1. The `` you name. 2. Else the `CREW_MEMBER` environment variable. 3. Else the current member (`crew use ` sets it). With none of these, it fails: ```text $ crew run crewrota: No crew member chosen. Pick one with: crew use [exit code 1] ``` An unknown member: ```text $ crew run ghost crewrota: Crew member ghost doesn't exist. Create it with: crew add ghost [exit code 1] ``` ### The Claude command line crewrota runs `claude` with this argument list: ```text [--model ] [--effort ] [--dangerously-skip-permissions] ``` - `--model` and `--effort` come from the member's remembered choice, and are left out when it is `default`. - `--dangerously-skip-permissions` is added when `crew config permissions on` is set. - `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` is set to the member's folder, and `LAVISH_AXI_TELEMETRY=0` is added when Lavish telemetry is off. - Claude starts in the folder you ran `crew` from. For example, with permissions on and the model and effort at their defaults, `crew main -- --resume abc` runs `claude --dangerously-skip-permissions --resume abc` with `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` at main's folder. ### Before Claude starts crewrota checks the member's folder, repairs its ship links, links and copies your main setup into it, copies the ship's MCP servers into its `.claude.json`, and gives it crewrota's status line if it has none. Anything worth knowing prints as `[i]` lines on stdout before Claude starts. The steps are in [What happens when a member launches](https://crewrota.pasindug.com/docs/concepts/launch/). A member whose folder is gone fails: ```text crewrota: The folder of crew member team is missing: E:\demo-crew-pages1\crew-home\members\team. Log it in again with: crew login team ``` ### Without a terminal `crew run` works from a script or an agent once the permissions question has an answer. Before that it prints these two lines to stderr and exits with 1: ```text $ crew run main -- -p hi crewrota asks once whether to use --dangerously-skip-permissions, and that needs a terminal. Answer it now with: crew config permissions on (or off) [exit code 1] ``` A headless run, with Claude's JSON written to a file: ```sh crew run main -- -p "Summarise README.md in one line" --output-format json > run.json ``` The `[i]` lines, when there are any, come before Claude's JSON in the same output. ### Exit code `crew run` exits with Claude Code's own exit code. Ctrl+C goes to Claude while it runs. When Claude cannot be started at all, crewrota prints `crewrota: could not start claude: ` and exits with 1. ## `crew ` The short form of `crew run `. ```sh crew [-- ] ``` It works when `` is the name of a member; any other word is an unknown command, which prints `Unknown command: ` and the help, and exits with 1. Everything else is `crew run`. ## The `--` rule crewrota reads every argument before `--` as its own. A Claude flag there is an unknown option: ```text $ crew main --resume abc crewrota: Unknown option: --resume [exit code 1] ``` Put Claude's flags after `--`: ```sh crew main -- --resume abc crew run side -- -p "Reply with READY" --output-format json ``` A session started by one member can be resumed by another member on the same ship, because they share the `projects` folder. See [Resume a session from another member](https://crewrota.pasindug.com/docs/guides/ships/#resume-a-session-from-another-member). ## Related - [Members reference](https://crewrota.pasindug.com/docs/reference/members/) - [Permissions](https://crewrota.pasindug.com/docs/guides/permissions/) - [Exit codes and terminal needs](https://crewrota.pasindug.com/docs/reference/exit-codes/)