Claude Code is brilliant, but a few habits separate people who fly with it from people who fight it. Here are the ones worth stealing.
Don't let it read your entire codebase to change one function. Point it at specific files or even line ranges. Cleaner edits, and you stop re-billing thousands of lines of context every turn.
/clear wipes context between unrelated tasks so you stop dragging a giant history behind you. /compact summarises a long session down to its essentials. Reach for them whenever you switch focus.
Every back-and-forth re-sends the whole context. One precise, complete request is far cheaper than five vague ones that each trigger a clarifying reply.
Instead of asking for a fix immediately, try: 'ask me questions until you know the root cause, then fix it.' You get the real bug, not a plausible-looking patch.
Paste a picture of any app or website and ask for the front-end to rebuild it. It's shockingly good.
If you do a task more than twice, capture it as a custom skill. We built a free tool that generates the skill file for you in 60 seconds.