Running planning poker from Claude Code: set up the room, keep the vote

21 October 2026 · Updated 23 October 2026 · 8 min read

If you spend your day in a terminal, the slowest part of planning poker is the setup: opening the tracker, copying ten titles into a room, pasting the link into the team channel. With Estimay's MCP server, Claude Code does that in one prompt, and writes the agreed estimates back when the meeting is over. The vote itself stays where it belongs, in the room, with the team. Here is how to set it up and the workflows worth keeping.

Why run planning poker from a terminal at all

Nobody wants to vote from a command line. But the work around the vote is exactly the kind of thing an assistant is good at: gathering the stories, setting up the room, and afterwards recording what was decided. Those steps are tedious, easy to check, and usually done by one person while everyone else waits. Moving them into Claude Code means the meeting starts with a ready room and ends with an up-to-date backlog.

Connecting Claude Code to Estimay

Add the server once:

claude mcp add --transport http estimay https://estimay.io/api/mcp

Add --scope user if you want it in every project, not just the one you are in. Then, in a Claude Code session, type /mcp, pick estimay and choose to authenticate. Your browser opens an Estimay page that asks whether to allow Claude Code to use Estimay as you, read only or read and write. There is no account to sign in to: the assistant acts as the guest your browser already is, so every room it creates opens with you as its host in that browser.

The setup guide covers Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code and ChatGPT too, and what the consent screen does.

The tools you get

• create_room: a room with you as host, optionally with its stories.
• add_stories: up to 200 stories at once, with their tracker keys.
• get_room: the room as you see it: who is there, who has voted, each story's status and estimate, and the results once the cards are revealed.
• start_voting, reveal, vote: run a round.
• set_estimate: record the agreed estimate of a story.
• export_results: the stories, estimates and total as a Markdown table or CSV.
• write_estimates: send every estimate back to the Jira, Linear, Trello or Asana issue the story came from, through the room's own connection.
• revote, start_timer, change_deck, set_facilitator, end_room: the host's other controls.
• join_room, edit_story, delete_story: for a room someone else made, and tidying up.

Every tool takes the room's 5-character code or its link, so you can paste whatever the channel has. The full list, with arguments, is on the developer reference.

A real workflow: from the backlog to a ready room

1. Pull the candidates. With your tracker's own MCP server connected too, ask: "Find the ten highest-priority issues in the backlog that have no estimate."
2. Create the room."Create an Estimay room called Sprint 42 planning with those issues, keys included, in priority order." Claude Code calls create_room once with all ten stories.
3. Share the link. It answers with the room's link. Post it in the team channel; people join in their browser with no sign-up.
4. Run the meeting in the room. Everyone picks a card in secret, the cards turn over together, and the team talks about the spread. That part doesn't change.
5. Record the outcome. Afterwards: "Read the Sprint 42 room, set the agreed estimate on each Jira issue, and list the stories where the votes were far apart." Claude Code calls write_estimates when the stories came from Jira, Linear, Trello or Asana (through the room's own connection), or your tracker's tools otherwise, and get_room for the spread.

Steps 1 and 2 take about as long as typing the prompt. The server also offers these steps as ready-made prompts: /mcp__estimay__plan_sprint and /mcp__estimay__record_outcome in Claude Code.

What is different from the browser room

Don't let it vote for you

Claude Code can vote, and the tool is there for the day you are away from the browser and want to cast the card you already chose. Don't ask it to pick the card. An estimate that came from the assistant before the reveal anchors everyone who sees it, and the value of planning poker is the disagreement between people who looked at the story on their own. Use the assistant before the vote to prepare the stories (see AI-assisted backlog refinement) and after the reveal to help explain a wide spread (here's how to read one). Estimay helps: no tool returns anyone's card before the cards are turned over.

Smaller workflows worth keeping

• Add a story mid-meeting."Add PAY-151 to the planning room and put it on the table." It appears on everyone's screen, open for voting.
• Check who is missing."Who hasn't voted on the current story?" Useful in an async room that has been open all week.
• Skip a story that isn't ready."Move on to the next story; this one needs more grooming."
• One room per epic."Create a room for each open epic in the payments project, with its stories."
• Summarise the session."List today's estimates and the total, as a table I can paste into the sprint notes."

When the assistant gets confused

• "Join the session first." The room was created by someone else. Ask it to join the room first; a protected room needs its password.
• "Only the host or a facilitator can do that." Adding stories, starting a vote and setting estimates are for the host and facilitators, as in the browser. Ask the host to make you a facilitator.
• "That card is not in this deck." Each room has its own cards; the room's answer lists them in deck.
• The room opens without you as host. The assistant acts as the guest of the browser you allowed it in. Open the link in that browser, or reconnect from the one you use.

Common questions

Is it free?

Yes. The MCP server is free, like every other Estimay feature today, and needs no account.

Can the meeting run entirely from Claude Code?

It could, but it shouldn't. The team needs to see the reveal together and talk about it. Use Claude Code for the setup and the write-up.

Can it read votes before the reveal?

No. It sees what you would see in the room: who has voted, not what they picked, until the cards turn over. In an anonymous room it only ever sees the totals.

How do I disconnect it?

Open Connected assistants in the browser you allowed it in and choose Disconnect; its next request is refused. Then remove the server with claude mcp remove estimay.

New to the protocol itself? Start with what MCP is.

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