Checking Infrastructure

Claude accesses infrastructure through two dedicated MCP servers:

Homelab Snapshot provides cached reads — Docker containers, disk usage, ZFS pools, Proxmox CTs, Caddy hostnames, Mac Studio launchd agents — without SSH round-trips.

Structured Exec provides reliable shell execution with argv arrays. The pct_exec tool runs commands inside Proxmox containers through SSH without shell-escaping issues. Replaces Desktop Commander for homelab operations.

Disk space: “check disk space on CT100” — uses homelab-snapshot for cached read or structured-exec for live data.

Docker status: “what containers are running” — homelab-snapshot returns all 42 CT100 containers with status and ports.

ZFS health: “check ZFS pools” — homelab-snapshot cached zpool data.

Service check: “is Plex running” — homelab-snapshot or Uptime Kuma.

Media Management

With the arr-media-management skill loaded, Claude knows all API keys and endpoints:

• “what’s downloading” — checks Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr queues
• “search for [show name]” — uses lookup API, offers to add
• “is altHUB enabled on Lidarr” — checks indexer settings
• “how many missing movies” — queries wanted/missing endpoint

Adding Cron Jobs

When adding automations, Claude should:

1. Add the cron job to the appropriate system
2. Update the Bee Hub cron-jobs docs page
3. Verify with crontab -l
4. Consider adding Gotify notification wrapper

Example: “add a weekly docker prune to CT100 and update the docs”

Seasonal Planning

With the seasonal-calendar skill: “what should I be doing outside this month” gives a prioritized task list across all projects (berries, bees, mushrooms, irrigation, etc.)

Shopping Lists

Claude generates formatted xlsx shopping lists with pricing, sources, and “Ordered?” checkboxes. Effective prompts:

• “put together a parts list for the drip irrigation”
• “what do I need to expand the berry beds”
• “shopping list for shiitake inoculation supplies”

Species and Planting Data

The farm-data MCP server exposes 19 tools against the PostgreSQL farm database (772 species, plantings, harvests, observations). Queries like “what berries do I have planted”, “show species in the Rubus collection”, or “log a harvest” go directly through the MCP — no manual SQL needed. The Tana Brownsville workspace holds unstructured research notes and planning docs; structured data lives in Postgres.

Claude is effective at comparative product research. The pattern:

1. State the need and constraints (well water, 93 acres, Zone 6b, LoRa range, etc.)
2. Claude searches, compares specs, identifies what fits
3. Generates a recommendation with reasoning
4. Builds a shopping list spreadsheet if needed

Works well for: irrigation components, homelab hardware, tools, farm supplies, appliances.

Updating Bee Hub

Claude can edit Hugo content files directly via Filesystem tools:

• “add this to the docs” — updates the relevant Bee Hub page
• “update the cron jobs page” — edits /Users/bee/Sync/ED/homelab/bee_hub/content/homelab/cron-jobs/_index.md
• “document the new container” — adds to services page

The deploy cron (deploy-vps.sh) runs every 30 minutes, so changes appear on the site within half an hour.

Creating New Docs Pages

For new documentation, Claude creates the Hugo page with proper frontmatter:

---
title: "Page Title"
page_links:
  - { label: "Link Label", url: "https://example.com", external: true }
---

Content uses Hugo section shortcodes (with id and title attributes) for collapsible sections.

Be Specific About Systems

“Check CT100” is better than “check the server” — Claude has multiple systems to manage.

Reference Past Decisions

“We decided on Netafim HCVXR for the irrigation” — Claude searches past conversations to find context.

Ask for Docs Updates

End infrastructure changes with “and update the docs” — saves a separate step.

Use Structured Exec for Shell Work

The structured-exec MCP replaces Desktop Commander for homelab operations. Its pct_exec tool takes argv arrays and optional stdin for piping scripts into containers, avoiding the shell-escaping nightmares of nested SSH+pct exec+bash chains. Use bash_wrap=true when globs are needed inside the container.

Use Skills for Context

Skills load automatically based on keywords. Mentioning “berries” or “irrigation” triggers the seasonal-calendar skill. Mentioning “what’s downloading” triggers the arr skill. No need to explicitly invoke them.