, I’ll cowl my expertise on how one can get probably the most out of Claude Code. Claude Code is a robust coding command-line interface (CLI) instrument. You possibly can open it immediately in your terminal and begin coding.
This makes it an efficient instrument each for proficient coders accustomed to a terminal. Nonetheless, it additionally works effectively for non-technical folks, since they’ll code just by typing pure language, and don’t should work together with an advanced IDE.
On this article, I’ll cowl why you need to think about using Claude Code for coding, highlighting its effectiveness at implementing code with little to no handbook evaluation. Moreover, I’ll cowl some particular methods I make the most of to get probably the most out of Claude Code, earlier than highlighting some limitations of Claude Code.
I’m not affiliated with Claude Code, and I’m merely writing this text from my expertise utilizing the instrument.
Why use Claude Code
If you wish to follow coding these days, you need to embrace agentic coding. I feel this is applicable whether or not you simply began programming or in the event you’ve been programming for 10+ years. All of us ought to be leveraging coding brokers to change into extra environment friendly engineers.
Now you’ve gotten a big number of such instruments to select from. Claude Code is considered one of a number of CLI instruments, with another choices being OpenAI Codex or Gemini CLI. These CLI instruments are good in the event you don’t want to have a look at the code you’re creating, usually for easier implementations or bug fixes.
Nonetheless, I’m noticing increasingly more that my coding brokers are in a position to implement bigger scale implementation with fewer and fewer errors, which is noteworthy. I imagine we’ll quickly be in an period the place coding brokers are doing all coding (you might additionally argue we’re already there), and in such a situation, CLI instruments will probably be highly effective, because you by no means have the necessity to have a look at any code.
For those who do wish to look extra on the code, nevertheless, you may think about extra built-in agentic coding experiences, in instruments akin to Cursor or Antigravity, that are forks of VS Code, however with agentic performance deeply built-in into the applying.
I like utilizing each CLI’s and IDEs for agentic coding. If I wish to code with out performing handbook critiques of the code, I have a tendency to make use of Claude Code increasingly more. I feel eventualities the place you need to strongly think about using Claude Code are:
- You’re fixing a bug
- You’re investigating manufacturing logs
- You’re implementing a simple or medium problem function
For those who’re in any of those conditions, or comparable, I strongly urge you to check out Claude Code, or another CLI coding instrument, and see how effectively it performs.
Strategies I exploit
On this part, I’ll cowl a number of the methods I make the most of to get probably the most out of Claude Code. Every subsection will cowl a selected method, together with why I feel it’s necessary.
Slash instructions
Slash instructions are prompts that you simply retailer for simple entry. You usually do that on a immediate you run frequently, akin to:
- Investigating manufacturing logs
- Making a PR
- Checking if code is production-ready
The second I understand I’m operating a immediate for the second time, I create a slash command with the immediate. This makes it much more environment friendly to run the immediate sooner or later, since I can merely name the command beginning with a slash (/), as a substitute of typing out the immediate each time.
The principle motive for utilizing slash instructions is time financial savings and consistency. Writing out prompts takes time, after all, and moreover, you’ll usually be inconsistent when writing out the identical immediate a number of occasions.
For instance, when you’ve got a immediate for checking if code is production-ready, you may need a guidelines the agent ought to undergo, akin to:
- In search of lacking varieties
- Operating pre-commit checks
- Spinning up the Docker picture
Nonetheless, in the event you’re typing out the immediate each time, you threat forgetting any of those factors, which then makes the agent much less efficient.
Consumer reminiscence and challenge reminiscence
I’m additionally a heavy consumer of each the consumer reminiscence and challenge reminiscence in Claude Code. Consumer reminiscence is the reminiscence that applies to your whole Claude code periods, whereas challenge reminiscence is the reminiscence that solely applies to the folder and subfolders you’re presently working in.
I make the most of the consumer reminiscence every time I would like Claude to recollect particular preferences I’ve that apply throughout repositories. That is for instance:
- Find out how to create good PR’s
- Find out how to verify manufacturing logs
- Details about my IaC stack
If I’ve preferences that solely apply inside a selected challenge (or not less than that don’t apply to all my coding tasks), I retailer them within the challenge reminiscence, in a file known as AGENTS.MD. I have a tendency to make use of AGENTS.md as a substitute of CLAUDE.md, as a result of then all my coding brokers will discover the file, for instance, if I resolve to attempt Cursor or different instruments sooner or later.
Using reminiscence is necessary, because it prevents Claude Code from making the identical mistake twice. If Claude used the incorrect desk title or checked the incorrect log group, you may retailer in its reminiscence which mistake it made, and the right desk title and log group title. Whenever you work together with Claude Code sooner or later, it’ll then bear in mind this info and be extra environment friendly subsequent time.
For those who proceed doing this for all of the errors Claude Code makes, it is going to be customized to your codebase and preferences and will probably be far more practical for you as a coding agent.
Plan mode
Plan mode can be extremely necessary when utilizing Claude Code. Plan mode is basically the paradox killer. Whenever you immediate Claude Code in plan mode, it’ll analyze your immediate and codebase and ask questions on something that’s unclear or ambiguous.
Plan mode is the paradox killer
That is tremendous useful, because it’s near unimaginable to write down a very unambiguous immediate, and having Claude Code establish unclear components of your immediate and ask you questions on it’s a good technique to align on how a coding implementation ought to be performed.
I most likely begin 90% of my Claude Code periods with plan mode; the one exceptions are once I’m performing some tremendous easy fixes or just writing experimentation code. I like to recommend attempting plan mode as a lot as potential, and solely not utilizing it once you really really feel it’s not mandatory.
Do the whole lot with Claude
My final tip is that solely your creativeness limits what you are able to do with Claude Code. For instance:
- Do you wish to make a presentation? Ask Claude to make a presentation in Latex Code
- Do you wish to analyze CloudWatch logs? Give Claude AWS permissions and have it analyze for you
- Do you wish to construct a portfolio web site? Have Claude vibe it up and deploy it to Vercel. You don’t even have to depart the terminal
The probabilities are infinite, and I strongly urge you to make use of the next mindset:
Everytime you encounter an issue, you need to suppose: How can I clear up and automate this utilizing Claude Code
This mindset will prevent plenty of time, because you’ll understand that plenty of duties may be solved by merely offering Claude with the required permissions, and let it try to resolve the issue for you.
Challenges with Claude Code
I’ve talked about plenty of optimistic sides of Claude Code on this article, as a result of it’s a very good instrument that makes me far more practical as an engineer. Nonetheless, there are additionally some downsides to Claude Code.
The primary challenge I’ve with Claude Code is that it’s a bit sluggish generally, particularly once I examine it to utilizing Cursor. This occurs regardless that I’m utilizing Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Claude Opus 4.5 in Cursor.
I’m not completely positive why that is the case, however I usually discover that when analyzing log teams or performing easy fixes, Claude in Cursor is just quicker than utilizing Claude Code.
One other draw back to Claude Code is that it’s purely terminal-based. If you wish to perceive your code higher and evaluation it, I’d encourage you to make use of an IDE as a substitute. It also needs to be famous that there exists a Claude Code extension for VS Code, which may be put in in any VS Code fork as effectively, akin to Cursor.
Conclusion
On this article, I’ve talked about Claude Code, protecting why and when you need to make the most of the instrument. I highlighted that Claude Code excels at coding once you don’t have to carry out handbook critiques of the code, which is increasingly more usually the case with the speedy enhancements in LLMs. I then coated particular methods I exploit to get probably the most out of Claude, akin to heavy utilization of reminiscence and plan mode, in addition to attempting to use Claude Code to just about each drawback I encounter. I imagine coding brokers are right here to remain, and that you need to embrace the know-how as a lot as you may. It is best to continually be testing the bounds of what these coding agent instruments can do, in an effort to change into as efficient an engineer as potential.
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