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Tooling Decisions — Coding Harnesses, Local Models, MCPs

Iron Automations tooling stack decisions: Claude Code vs Codex harness tradeoffs, Gemma 4 local model setup, Pinch Tab vs Playwright for browser automation, and active MCP integrations.

toolingclaude-codecodexlocal-modelsmcpbrowser-automation
Agent trigger phrases: tooling decisions · claude code vs codex · local model setup · pinch tab playwright · mcp integrations · browser automation tool · vaultwarden · coding harness

Tooling Decisions

Coding Harnesses

  • Codex (GPT-5) — more creative, finds bugs others miss (discovered the GHL private API). Use for reverse-engineering and greenfield spikes.
  • Claude Code (Opus 4.6) — more consistent, better instruction-following, superior for multi-file refactors and sustained sessions. Default choice.
  • Migration away from OpenClaw forced after Anthropic removed third-party OAuth for harnesses.

Local Models

  • Gemma 4 (26B) — runs on 3090 Ti, 24GB VRAM, ~40 tok/s, intelligence score ~39. Good for ICP filtering, batch classification, anything privacy-sensitive.
  • Cloud fallback: Gemini 2.5 Flash for cheap/fast, Claude Sonnet 4.6 for quality.

Browser Automation

  • Pinch Tab — ~5x token savings vs Playwright MCP for snapshot-heavy workflows. Use for repetitive UI tasks.
  • Playwright MCP — when you need full scripting, storage state export, or network interception.
  • Chrome DevTools MCP — pixel/form/API reverse engineering on live sites.

MCPs in Active Use

  • Stripe MCP — automated invoicing, usage-based billing
  • Plaid MCP — bank + CC feed for Claude-driven finance decisions
  • Chrome DevTools MCP — API discovery
  • Context7 — library docs

Password Management

  • Vault Warden — self-hosted Bitwarden-compatible. Chrome extension works unchanged. One less SaaS bill, zero trust in a third party for credentials.

Visualization

  • Mermaid — inline in markdown, LLM-friendly
  • Excalidraw — whiteboard sketches, LLM can export/import
  • Obsidian — personal knowledge base with Mermaid + dataview
  • NOT Miro — not LLM-friendly, can't be version-controlled

The Rule

Prefer tools LLMs can read, write, and diff. Visual-only tools (Miro, Figma-only flows) become black boxes.

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