Open-Source Claude Code Skill for Family Logistics Coordination

What Parent Helper Does

Parent Helper is a Claude Code skill that turns Claude into a family coordination engine. It's built as a single SKILL.md markdown file that contains family knowledge: schedules, dietary profiles, cooking ability, custody calendars, and other logistics.

Key Features

• Sunday Night Briefing: Provides a week-ahead overview showing who will be home when, how many people need dinner, where childcare is needed, and schedule conflicts
• Meal Planning: Matches meal complexity to whoever's cooking that night. For example, the developer's wife gets crockpot and sheet pan meals on nights she cooks solo, while he gets more involved recipes on his nights. Adjusts portions based on who's actually eating.
• Multi-Store Grocery Optimization: Scans prices for stores (Walmart, Aldi, Publix, Whole Foods, etc.) and splits the grocery list to the cheapest store for each item. The first test projected ~$4.3K/year savings vs. buying everything at one store. The tool loads grocery carts using Chrome MCP.
• Custody Schedule Awareness: Monitors irregular custody schedules and adjusts headcount, meals, and logistics accordingly
• Co-Parent Communication Drafts: Creates logistics-oriented emails to communicate scheduling needs

Technical Implementation

The entire tool was built in Claude Code. The skill file is just markdown with no app, backend, or database. Claude reads it as context and operates with full knowledge of your family. MCP integrations (Google Calendar, Gmail, Notion, Chrome) give it access to real data.

To use it: write the skill in a markdown file and drop it in ~/.claude/skills/. Replace placeholders like {{YOUR_FAMILY_MEMBER}} and {{YOUR_STORE}} with your family's information. After setup, Claude automatically enters the skill when you mention meals, schedules, or groceries.

The repository includes store profiles for 15+ US grocery chains, eliminating the need to figure out search URLs and DOM selectors manually.

Developer Insights

The cooking-assignment logic became the most useful feature. It prevents assigning a 20-minute sheet pan meal to a parent who comes home at 7:30 PM after a 12-hour shift, or planning a from-scratch Sicilian recipe on a night when the better cook isn't home. This distinction determines whether the meal plan gets executed or everyone orders DoorDash.

Grocery savings exceeded expectations: dividing a 40-item grocery list between 4 stores based on per-item price beat shopping at a single store by 30-40%.

The tool is free and open source under the MIT license with no paid version, just the skill file and setup documentation.