Value Summary: This comprehensive guide from a Meta Staff Engineer who uses Claude Code 12 hours daily for 6 months shares 50 battle-tested tips to maximize your AI coding productivity. You'll learn foundation setup, keyboard shortcuts, context engineering, advanced workflows including parallel development across multiple instances, and how to compose skills, MCPs, and subagents into powerful automation pipelines. Perfect for anyone wanting to level up from basic AI coding to professional-grade workflows.
This video presents 50 practical tips for using Claude Code effectively, from a Meta Staff Engineer who has transitioned from manual coding to AI-assisted development. The guide covers everything from basic setup to advanced parallel development workflows, emphasizing context engineering as the key skill for modern AI-augmented software development.
Tip 1: Run Claude Code in a Project Root Directory Always launch Claude Code from your project's root directory. This ensures the initial context window captures your entire project structure correctly, including rule files and setup configurations.
Tip 2: Run /init for New Projects
Use /init when starting with a new codebase. Claude will analyze your project architecture and automatically create an optimized CLAUDE.md file in your .claude directory with project-specific context.
Tip 3: Understand the CLAUDE.md Hierarchy
Claude Code uses a hierarchy of rule files: checked-in memory (project-specific) and user memory (global). Use /memory to view which rules are currently active and understand the priority system.
Tip 4: Keep CLAUDE.md Around 300 Lines Aim for ~300 lines in your CLAUDE.md file. Larger files consume more tokens on every startup and dilute the AI's focus, making it less likely to follow your specific requirements.
Tip 5: Structure Your CLAUDE.md Properly Include: high-level technical architecture, domain context, file paths, design patterns, and critically—your build and validation flow. A good validation loop enables Claude to self-correct and iterate autonomously.
Tip 6: Prioritize Validation Flows Validation is the most important topic for AI coding success. Define clear build, test, and validation commands in your CLAUDE.md so Claude can verify its own work and self-improve through iteration cycles.
Tip 7: Shift+Tab to Toggle Modes Use Shift+Tab to switch between "Accept Edits" and "Plan Mode." Plan mode is essential for complex features—always verify assumptions and direction before executing code changes.
Tip 8: Escape to Interrupt Press Escape to interrupt Claude's execution if it's going off track. Don't be afraid to interrupt—Claude Code handles queued prompts intelligently and you can always resume or redirect.
Tip 9: Double-Escape to Clear Input Double-tap Escape to clear the input field completely. On an empty input, double-escape opens the rewind feature to restore previous conversation states.
Tip 10: Drag and Drop Screenshots Drag screenshot files directly into the input field and add context for UI work. Always add descriptive text with images. Consider using a Figma MCP for integrated design workflows.
Tip 11: /clear to Reset Context
Use /clear to reset your context window when starting a completely new feature. This prevents old context from polluting new work—equivalent to starting a fresh Claude Code instance.
Tip 12: /context to Audit Usage
Run /context regularly to visualize and audit your current context window. Identify token-heavy MCPs and files to manage costs and improve AI performance. Context is best served fresh and condensed.
Tip 13: /compact for Manual Compaction
Use /compact to manually summarize context (though auto-compaction works well for most projects). Useful for saving context snapshots to your local "second brain" knowledge base.
Tip 14: /models to Switch AI Models
Access /models to switch between Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku. Use Opus 4.5 when possible for best results; switch to lighter models for cost-sensitive workflows where appropriate.
Tip 15: /resume to Recover Lost Sessions
Use /resume if you accidentally close a Claude Code instance. This recovers your previous context and conversation history, preventing loss of carefully built-up context.
Tip 16: /mcp to View Installed MCPs
Run /mcp to see all installed Model Context Protocol servers. Be cautious—MCPs can bloat your context window significantly. Only install project-specific MCPs you truly need.
Tip 17: /help for Command Reference
Use /help to explore all available commands and features. The wizard provides descriptions of every slash command—teach yourself to fish rather than memorizing everything.
Tip 18: Leverage Git Integration Let Claude manage your git operations, including commits, PRs, and summaries. Use git as your safety net instead of relying on Claude's rewind feature. Git is more reliable and familiar.
Tip 19: Rules Read Top-to-Bottom CLAUDE.md files are prioritized from top to bottom. Place your most important rules and constraints at the top, with decreasing priority as you move down. Include clear "always do" and "never do" statements.
Tip 20: Add Code Examples to Rules Include concrete code snippets and examples in your CLAUDE.md for unique patterns, homegrown DSLs, or archaic company-specific architectures that Claude hasn't seen during training.
Tip 21: Let Claude Update Rules Never manually edit CLAUDE.md—ask Claude to update it for you. When you catch a mistake, request a rule addition so the error never happens again. Treat it like a lint file that evolves.
Tip 22: Use Keywords to Trigger Skills Define keyword triggers in your CLAUDE.md that automatically invoke specific MCPs or workflows. For example, "use my xcode mcp to build" triggers your build validation flow.
Tip 23: Commit CLAUDE.md to Repos ("Compound Engineering") Consider committing your CLAUDE.md to the codebase to improve AI coding for all teammates. Remove generic content first and maintain a high bar—every team member will load this context on startup.
Tip 24: Use --dangerously-skip-permissions for Throwaway Environments
Run claude --dangerously-skip-permissions in safe, throwaway environments to enable YOLO mode. Use with extreme caution—only in isolated contexts where destructive operations won't cause harm.
Tip 25: Configure /permissions for Safety
Use /permissions to specify which operations still require approval even in dangerous mode. Protect against destructive mutations like rm -rf and database deletions.
Tip 26: Always Start with Plan Mode Begin every feature in Plan Mode to verify assumptions and direction before execution. Spend significant time building good context and execution specs—code generation is the easy part once context is right.
Tip 27: Fresh Context Beats Bloated Context Avoid iterative "try this, try that" approaches that bloat context. Build excellent context upfront in Plan Mode, then execute cleanly. Fresh, relevant context dramatically outperforms large, messy context windows.
Tip 28: Persist Context with Second Brain Save completed work to a local knowledge base using "save this to my local CLAUDE.md in my projects directory." Load context from previous sessions with "load my context from my local projects."
Tip 29: Track TODOs Inside Claude Code Keep your task list inside Claude Code itself, lazy-loaded from your second brain. This enables seamless context switching between projects without external project management tools.
Tip 30: Design Comprehensive Validation Loops Think beyond basic builds: add debug logging, emulator control, log parsing, performance profiling (Perfetto), Puppeteer navigation, or end-to-end tests. Creative validation loops are the key to autonomous AI coding.
Tip 31: Prefer Opus 4.5 When Possible Always use Opus if you can afford it—it produces the best results. Slower response times don't matter when you're juggling multiple Claude Code instances in parallel.
Tip 32: Interrupt Early and Often Watch for Claude making incorrect assumptions or struggling. Interrupt immediately with Escape and course-correct. Don't wait for completion—early intervention saves tokens and time.
Tip 33: Understand Composability Primitives Master the four composable primitives: slash commands, skills, MCPs, and subagents. These building blocks combine to create powerful automated workflows and parallel development pipelines.
Tip 34: Create Skills from Workflows Turn any recurring workflow into a skill. After completing a multi-step task (like fetching Hacker News and saving summaries), say "save what we just did into a new skill called [name]."
Tip 35: Skills Are Just Markdown System Prompts Skills are stored as .md files in specific directories Claude monitors. They're system prompts that trigger when you invoke the skill name or use the auto-generated slash command.
Tip 36: Skills and Slash Commands Are Interchangeable
Recent Claude updates unified skills and slash commands. Creating a skill automatically generates a corresponding slash command (e.g., /fetch-hacker-news).
Tip 37: Let Claude Manage Your Skills Never manually create or edit skill files. Ask Claude to "extend this [skill] to also [new capability]." Claude will update the system prompt appropriately.
Tip 38: Be Cautious with MCPs MCPs dramatically expand capabilities but bloat context windows. Only install project-specific MCPs you truly need. Prefer writing custom scripts and validations when possible.
Tip 39: Ask Claude to Find MCPs Instead of searching the web, ask Claude "find me a good [Figma/Jira/etc.] MCP." Claude usually recommends quality MCPs, though occasionally suggests outdated ones—verify before installing.
Tip 40: Let Claude Install MCPs Don't manually configure MCP JSON files. Ask Claude to "install this MCP for me" and it will handle configuration automatically, unlike cursor-style manual setup.
Tip 41: Use Subagents for Atomic, Isolated Work Spawn subagents for atomic tasks that don't need the parent context (parallel work, side effects). Avoid the common mistake of using subagents for context-heavy work like testing or validation.
Tip 42: Keep Context-Heavy Work in Main Session Testing, validation, and debugging need full context to work well. Keep these in the main Claude session rather than isolating them in subagents that only return output summaries.
Tip 43: Avoid "CEO/Product/Design" Agent Patterns Don't create elaborate multi-agent hierarchies (CEO, Product, Design agents). Instead, "bring work to context" rather than spreading context across agents. Keep related work in unified sessions.
Tip 44: Avoid Context Overload Keep context condensed and fresh through lazy loading and second brain patterns. Watch the video on "second brain" concepts for advanced context management and RAG-style knowledge retrieval.
Tip 45: Run Multiple Claude Code Instances The game-changer: run multiple Claude Code sessions in parallel across different projects or features. Juggle instances like Starcraft—while one AI works, you're building context in another.
Tip 46: Master iTerm2 for Instance Management Use iTerm2 with Command+D for splits, Command+[ and Command+] to switch panes, and tab renaming to organize multiple Claude instances (local, remote SSH, different projects).
Tip 47: Enable Notifications for Completion Configure Claude to "ring a little sound when you finish execution." This alerts you when a background Claude instance completes, so you know when to switch back and review results.
Tip 48: Use Git Worktrees for True Parallel Development Git worktrees let you clone multiple instances of your codebase on different branches simultaneously. This enables parallel code execution in the same project across multiple Claude instances.
Tip 49: Use /chrome for Browser Automation
Run /chrome to let Claude control a headless browser. Perfect for scraping data without APIs, debugging web UIs, filling forms, and composing into automated workflows.
Tip 50: Explore Hooks for Pre/Post Automation Configure pre-tool and post-tool hooks (like git pre-commit hooks) for automatic linting, formatting, and validation. Use pre-tool hooks to block destructive operations on critical resources.
- Context is King: Fresh, condensed, relevant context dramatically outperforms large, bloated context windows
- Plan First, Execute Second: Always start features in Plan Mode to build solid context before code generation
- Validation Loops Are Critical: Comprehensive build, test, and validation flows enable autonomous AI self-correction
- Parallel Development: Running multiple Claude Code instances simultaneously is the new "zone" for modern engineers
- Composability: Skills, MCPs, subagents, and slash commands combine into powerful automation pipelines
- Let Claude Manage Claude: Have Claude update rules, create skills, install MCPs—don't manually configure
- Git as Safety Net: Use git for checkpoints rather than relying on Claude's rewind features
- Set up your foundation: Run Claude Code from root directory, execute
/init, and create a ~300 line CLAUDE.md - Define your validation flow: Add comprehensive build, test, and validation commands to your CLAUDE.md
- Learn the keyboard shortcuts: Memorize Shift+Tab (toggle modes), Escape (interrupt), and double-Escape (clear/rewind)
- Implement second brain pattern: Watch the linked video and set up local knowledge persistence for context across sessions
- Practice parallel development: Set up iTerm2, learn to juggle multiple Claude Code instances, and enable completion notifications
- Create your first skill: Turn a recurring workflow into a reusable skill by asking Claude to save it
- Audit your context regularly: Use
/contextto identify token bloat, especially from MCPs, and optimize accordingly - Master Plan Mode: Force yourself to start every feature in Plan Mode until it becomes habit
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