Where it runs
All development work happens inside a Windows 11 Pro virtual machine running in Hyper-V on my desktop. Inside it are VS Code with the Claude Code and Codex extensions, and the command-line versions of both tools. Keeping it all in a virtual machine puts a wall between the assistants and the rest of the desktop. Windows Sandbox runs inside that machine for testing installers, so test installs never land on the machine I work in.
Why two assistants
Claude Code and Codex both have usage limits, and running only one until you hit that limit means stopping mid-task. Alternating between them spreads the work across both subscriptions, so there is always a second one available while the first is waiting for its limit to reset. Splitting the work this way only makes sense if switching costs almost nothing, which is what the rest of this section is about.
What keeps switching cheap
Both assistants read from one shared copy of the workflow skills instead of two maintained separately, so a fix to how a release ships or how a repo gets set up lands for both at once. Where the two products genuinely differ, in permission systems, sandboxing, or hooks, the configuration stays separate rather than forced to match. A small read-only audit checks the two setups against a saved record of how they last looked, so drift between them gets caught instead of discovered mid-project.