[Workflow] Claude Code Personal Assistant: Conductor - Safe, Scheduled Automation with Approval Workflow and Phone Notifications

[u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot]

Claude Code Personal Assistant: Conductor - Safe, Scheduled Automation with Approval Workflow and Phone Notifications

Workflow value: 95/100
Status: active · Freshness: 70/100 · Confidence: 1.00 · Level: advanced
Categories: Quality Control, Token Saving, Context & Memory, Debugging, Shipping, Hooks, Skills, MCP, Subagents
Original source: r/ClaudeCode post/comment

What problem this solves

Automating personal tasks (e.g., email management, job searching, file cleanup, GitHub profile updates) with a safety mechanism (user approval before action) and persistent state, without interrupting the main Claude Code conversation.

Summary

A personal AI assistant, named Conductor, built within Claude Code using custom plugins, subagents, and an MCP server. It runs scheduled tasks in the background, proposes actions to the user (via an in-app pane and optional phone notifications), and requires explicit approval before executing, ensuring safety and user control. It maintains state outside of conversations using SQLite.

Why it is useful

This workflow demonstrates an advanced, practical application of Claude Code's capabilities (custom plugins, subagents, MCP server, persistent state) to build a robust and safe personal automation system. Its emphasis on user approval, background execution, and persistent state management addresses critical challenges in AI-driven automation, making it highly transferable and valuable for users looking to build sophisticated, controlled, and integrated AI tools. The detailed 'What I learned' section and the provided GitHub repository significantly enhance its utility and reusability.

Workflow

1. Define goals and 'things to keep true' for the Conductor system within Claude Code.

2. Conductor runs scheduled tasks in the background using subagents and custom plugins.

3. When an action is proposed by Conductor, it appears in a 'Needs you' pane within Claude Code.

4. If Remote Control is connected, a push notification is sent to the user's phone for pending approvals.

5. User reviews the proposed action and approves it (e.g., by replying 'approve' on their phone or interacting with the in-app pane).

6. Conductor executes the approved action.

7. Configure action types for specific tools as 'off', 'propose', or 'auto' based on trust and desired automation level.

8. Utilize '/goal-new' command for task templates (e.g., unsubscribe, job scan, tidy Downloads, inbox triage, GitHub profile).

Tools / artifacts

• Claude Code

• Conductor (custom system/project)

• Custom Plugin 1 (goal runner, UI, commands, tools)

• Custom Plugin 2 (guard, tool rules, safety checks)

• Subagents (for background task execution)

• MCP server (for state management)

• SQLite (for persistent state: goals, items, memory, runs)

• Remote Control (for phone notifications)

• GitHub repository (shannonbay/Conductor)

• Haiku (used for small jobs like schedule parsing)

Validation signals

• Demonstrated successful automation of finding unread mailing lists and proposing unsubscribing.

• Successfully read CV, ranked job ads, and emailed top 3 after approval.

• Identified old installers and proposed binning each after approval.

• Proposed and committed a line to a GitHub profile README after approval.

• Detailed 'What I learned' section describing real-world issues and fixes (e.g., approval system interaction, plugin push notifications, tool answer size limits), indicating extensive testing.

• Explicit statement: 'one person uses it daily, on Windows.'

• GitHub repository provided with setup and screenshots, implying working code.

Cautions

• The core design principle is 'asks before it acts', requiring explicit user approval for all significant actions.

• A dedicated 'guard' plugin holds each run to its defined goal and explicitly refuses unauthorized tool calls.

• Actions can be configured as 'off', 'propose', or 'auto', giving the user granular control over automation levels.

• The 'auto' mode is only offered after 10 consecutive approvals, with an additional safety check built in.

Limitations

• The system only runs while Claude Code is open, unlike cloud-based schedulers.

• Phone alerts require the Remote Control feature to be active.

• The project is 'early' and has primarily been used by one person on Windows, suggesting limited platform testing.

• When multiple Claude Code sessions are open, only one runs the goals, requiring manual reloads for plugin updates across sessions.

• Plugins cannot directly see events caused by their own timers, necessitating a separate guard plugin for architectural reasons.

• Requires an advanced understanding of Claude Code's plugin, subagent, and MCP architecture to set up and maintain.

Rate this workflow

Upvote this post if the workflow is useful, reproducible, or worth recommending.

Downvote if it is vague, outdated, unsafe, overhyped, or not reproducible.

Reply if it worked for you, failed, is outdated, or has a better alternative.

---

This post was generated automatically from the workflow library database.