The goal: open a Cowork session on either machine and get the same experience — same skills, same MCPs, same context bundle, same memory graph, same tasks. No “Claude doesn’t know what I’m talking about” on the MacBook.

Six layers that must stay in sync:

Layers 1–5 are fully automatic. Layer 6 requires running sync-cowork-snapshot.sh on the Mac Studio after editing skills — it pushes to the MacBook if reachable.

Four Syncthing folders handle the Mac-to-Mac sync (all bidirectional, no Proxmox relay):

Device IDs:

API keys (for programmatic Syncthing management):

The Claude Desktop app reads its MCP server configuration from ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. To keep this in sync, the actual file lives in the Syncthing’d directory and both machines symlink to it:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  → ~/Sync/ED/config/claude_desktop_config.json  (symlink)

This file defines three MCP servers:

All paths use /Users/bee/.mcp-servers/ (with leading dot). Both machines have the same username (bee) so paths are identical.

All custom MCP servers live in ~/.mcp-servers/. Source code syncs via Syncthing; venvs are built locally per-machine.

Python version requirement: MCP SDK requires Python 3.10+. The MacBook’s system Python is 3.9 (Xcode). All venvs are built with /opt/homebrew/bin/python3 (currently 3.14).

Venv auto-rebuild (MacBook only):

A launchd agent watches ~/.mcp-servers/ and rebuilds venvs when Syncthing delivers new code:

The script only rebuilds venvs that are missing or have a requirements.txt newer than the existing .venv/. It maps server names to their dependencies (farm-data → asyncpg, homelab-snapshot → fastmcp, etc.).

Skills source lives in ~/Sync/ED/skills/ (synced via claude-ed). The plugin is registered as bee-farm-skills in ~/.claude/settings.json with source type directory.

The snapshot problem: Cowork doesn’t read skills from the source directory at session start. It reads from a per-account snapshot cached at:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/skills-plugin/
  8d800cde-a725-4eaf-a5d9-0c44525af93d/
    3364911c-2ed9-4d54-8786-41d805a22426/
      skills/

This snapshot is keyed on stable account+plugin UUIDs and is NOT refreshed by restarting Claude Desktop or reinstalling the plugin. The only way to update it is sync-cowork-snapshot.sh.

After editing any SKILL.md:

~/scripts/sync-cowork-snapshot.sh

This script validates all skills, rsyncs from source to snapshot, and (as of 2026-05-19) pushes the snapshot to the MacBook if it’s reachable. Then open a new Cowork session on both machines.

These files are critical for Claude context and must be present on both machines:

If setting up Claude on a new Mac from scratch:

1. Install prerequisites: brew install syncthing python node
2. Configure Syncthing: Add the four folder syncs (claude-config, claude-ed, mcp-servers, farm-data-sync) pointing to the Mac Studio
3. Wait for initial sync to complete (check Syncthing UI)
4. Symlink the Desktop config:

   ln -sf ~/Sync/ED/config/claude_desktop_config.json \
     ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   

5. Build MCP venvs: ~/scripts/rebuild-mcp-venvs.sh
6. Install the venv rebuild launchd agent:

   cp ~/scripts/com.bee.rebuild-mcp-venvs.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
   launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.bee.rebuild-mcp-venvs.plist
   

7. Push the Cowork snapshot: Run sync-cowork-snapshot.sh on the Mac Studio
8. Restart Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q, reopen)

Alternatively, run the all-in-one setup script:

bash ~/Sync/ED/setup-macbook-claude.sh

This handles steps 4–6 automatically (assuming Syncthing is already configured).

“Claude has no MCPs” on the MacBook:

1. Check Syncthing is running: brew services list | grep syncthing
2. Verify ~/Sync/ED/.claude-context.md exists (Syncthing working?)
3. Check ~/.mcp-servers/farm-data/.venv/ exists (venvs built?)
4. Verify the Desktop config symlink: ls -la ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
5. Restart Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q, reopen)

Skills missing in Cowork:

1. Check ~/Sync/ED/skills/ has content (Syncthing working?)
2. Run sync-cowork-snapshot.sh on the Mac Studio
3. Open a NEW Cowork session (existing sessions can’t be fixed mid-flight)

MCP server fails to start:

1. Check the venv exists: ls ~/.mcp-servers/SERVER_NAME/.venv/
2. Check Python version: .venv/bin/python3 --version (must be 3.10+)
3. Rebuild: cd ~/.mcp-servers/SERVER_NAME && rm -rf .venv && ~/scripts/rebuild-mcp-venvs.sh
4. Check network: nc -z 192.168.8.100 5432 (for farm-data — needs CT100 reachable)

Syncthing sync stuck:

1. Check both Syncthing UIs for errors
2. Verify folder IDs match on both machines
3. Check .stignore isn’t filtering the missing files
4. Force rescan: curl -X POST http://localhost:8384/rest/db/scan -H "X-API-Key: KEY" -d 'folder=FOLDER_ID'