We present an embedded-cluster method, based on the TRILEX formalism. It turns the Fierz ambiguity, inherent to approaches based on a bosonic decoupling of local fermionic interactions, into a convergence criterion. It is based on the approximation of the three-leg vertex by a coarse-grained vertex computed by solving a self-consistently determined multi-site effective impurity model. The computed self-energies are, by construction, continuous functions of momentum. We show that, in three interaction and doping regimes of parameters of the two-dimensional Hubbard model, selfenergies obtained with clusters of size four only are very close to numerically exact benchmark results. We show that the Fierz parameter, which parametrizes the freedom in the Hubbard-Stratonovich decoupling, can be used as a quality control parameter. By contrast, the GW +extended dynamical mean field theory approximation with four cluster sites is shown to yield good results only in the weak-coupling regime and for a particular decoupling. Finally, we show that the vertex has spatially nonlocal components only at low Matsubara frequencies.Two major approaches have been put forth to fathom the nature of high-temperature superconductivity. Spin fluctuation theory [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] , inspired by the early experiments on cuprate compounds, is based on the introduction of phenomenological bosonic fluctuations coupled to the electrons. It belongs to a larger class of methods, including the fluctuation-exchange (FLEX) 9 and GW approximations 10,11 , or the Eliashberg theory of superconductivity 12 . In the Hubbard model, these methods can formally be obtained by decoupling the electronic interactions with Hubbard-Stratonovich (HS) bosons carrying charge, spin or pairing fluctuations. They are particularly well suited for describing the system's long-range modes. However, they suffer from two main drawbacks: without an analog of Migdal's theorem for spin fluctuations, they are quantitatively uncontrolled; worse, the results depend on the precise form of the bosonic fluctuations used to decouple the interaction term, an issue referred to as the "Fierz ambiguity" [13][14][15][16][17][18] .A second class of methods, following Anderson 19 , puts primary emphasis on the fact that the undoped compounds are Mott insulators, where local physics plays a central role. Approaches like dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) 20 and its cluster extensions 21-25 , which self-consistently map the lattice problem onto an effective problem describing a cluster of interacting atoms embedded in a noninteracting host, are tools of choice to examine Anderson's idea. Cluster DMFT has indeed been shown to give a consistent qualitative picture of cuprate physics, including pseudogap and superconducting phases . Compared to fluctuation theories, it a priori comes with a control parameter, the size N c of the embedded cluster. However, this is of limited practical use, since the convergence with N c is nonmonotonic for small N c 33 , requiring large N c 's, which cann...