claude-code-best-practice

from vibe coding to agentic engineering - practice makes claude perfect

= Agents · = Commands · = Skills

Boris Cherny on X (tweet 1 · tweet 2 · tweet 3)

Feature	Location	Description
Subagents	.claude/agents/<name>.md
Commands	.claude/commands/<name>.md
Skills	.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md	Official Skills · Skills for Mono-repos
Workflows	.claude/commands/weather-orchestrator.md
Hooks	.claude/hooks/	Guide
MCP Servers	.claude/settings.json, .mcp.json
Plugins	distributable packages	Marketplaces · Create Marketplaces
Settings	.claude/settings.json	Permissions · Model Config · Output Styles · Sandboxing · Keybindings · Auto Mode Config
Status Line	.claude/settings.json
Memory	CLAUDE.md, .claude/rules/, ~/.claude/rules/, ~/.claude/projects/<project>/memory/	Auto Memory · Auto Memory Deep-dive · Rules
Checkpointing	automatic (file-edit tracking)
Sessions	--resume, --continue, /resume, /branch
Context Window	/compact, /clear, /context
CLI Startup Flags	claude [flags]	Interactive Mode · Env Vars
AI Terms
Best Practices		Prompt Engineering · Extend Claude Code
Prompt Library

Feature	Location	Description
Ultrareview	/code-review ultra, claude ultrareview [target]	Tasks tracking
Devcontainers	.devcontainer/
Channels	--channels, plugin-based	Reference
No Flicker Mode	/tui fullscreen, CLAUDE_CODE_NO_FLICKER=1
Auto Mode	--permission-mode auto, Shift+Tab	Blog
Power-ups	/powerup
Fast Mode	/fast, "fastMode": true
Advisor	/advisor, advisorModel, --advisor	Blog
Computer Use	computer-use MCP server	Desktop
Agent SDK	npm / pip package	Quickstart · Examples
Ralph Wiggum Loop	plugin
Chrome	--chrome, extension
Claude Code Web	claude.ai/code	Routines
Artifacts	/share, Artifact tool
Slack	@Claude in Slack
Code Review	GitHub App (managed)	Blog Local /code-review
GitHub Actions	.github/workflows/	GitLab CI/CD
Remote Control	/remote-control, /rc	Headless Mode
Deep Links	claude-cli://open?repo=…&q=…
Dynamic Workflows	/workflows, ultracode keyword, /effort ultracode, .claude/workflows/	Deep Research
Agent Teams	built-in (env var)
Agent View	claude agents, --bg, /bg
Cross-Session Messaging	SendMessage, ListAgents, /list-agents
Scheduled Tasks	/loop, /schedule, cron tools	Desktop scheduled tasks · Announcement
Routines	claude.ai/code/routines, /schedule	Desktop Tasks
Tasks	/tasks, ~/.claude/tasks/	Ultrareview tracking
Goal	/goal <condition>, /goal clear
Voice Dictation	/voice
Bundled Skills	/code-review, /batch
Git Worktrees	--worktree/-w, .worktreeinclude, EnterWorktree/ExitWorktree, isolation: "worktree", WorktreeCreate/WorktreeRemove hooks

See orchestration-workflow for implementation details of Command → Agent → Skill pattern.

claude
/weather-orchestrator

All major workflows converge on the same architectural pattern: Research → Plan → Execute → Review → Ship

Name	★	Workflow
Superpowers	312k	→ → → → → → →	0	0	15
Matt Pocock Skills	312k	→ → → → → → →	0	0	39
Everything Claude Code	297k	→ → → → → →	71	112	314
Spec Kit	147k	→ → → → →	0	10	0
gstack	139k	→ → → → → → → → → →	0	0	63
agent-skills	99.7k	→ → → → →	3	7	21
OpenSpec	73.8k	→ → → →	0	12	12
Get Shit Done	64.2k	→ → → → → → →	33	85	0
BMAD-METHOD	55k	→ → → → → →	6	0	33
oh-my-claudecode	40.5k	→ → → → → → → →	19	0	48
Compound Engineering	25.9k	→ → → → →	0	1	36
HumanLayer	12.8k	→ → → → →	0	0	28

Note: yellow tags are sub-loops — steps that repeat inside a parent step (e.g. per task, per story, or until a verify condition passes).

• RPI
• Ralph Wiggum Loop
• Andrej Karpathy (Founding Member, OpenAI) Workflow
• Peter Steinberger (Creator of OpenClaw) Workflow
• Boris Cherny (Creator of Claude Code) Workflow — 13 Tips · 10 Tips · 12 Tips · 2 Tips · 15 Tips · 6 Tips
• Thariq (Anthropic) Workflow — Skills · Session Management

Use Claude Code together with other models — Codex, Gemini, GPT, Kimi, DeepSeek, local — via three mechanisms:

• Plugin — another model's CLI runs inside Claude Code (slash commands like /codex:review)
• MCP — Claude Code calls another model as a tool through Model Context Protocol
• Router — Claude Code's API endpoint is swapped to a different provider

Methodology: Cross-Model (Claude Code + Codex) Workflow — manual two-terminal flow with Plan in Claude, QA-Review in Codex.

Repos primarily known as curated libraries of SKILL.md files (distinct from full workflow methodologies above). Sorted by stars descending.

Name	★
mattpocock/skills	312k	39
anthropics/skills	187k	19
Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything	67k	8
scientific-agent-skills	56k	177
wshobson/agents	42k	185
awesome-agent-skills	37k	1,497+ (curated list)
impeccable	27k	1 (with 7 design domain references)
agent-skills	27k	21
claude-skills	15k	246 (across 9 domains)
shanraisshan/draw-json-architecture-skill	3	1

Repos primarily known as curated libraries of subagent definitions (.claude/agents/*.md). Sorted by stars descending.

Name	★
msitarzewski/agency-agents	166k	283
VoltAgent/awesome-claude-code-subagents	26k	170 (curated list)

🚫👶 = do not babysit

Prompting · Planning · Context · Session · CLAUDE.md + .claude/rules · Agents · Commands · Skills · Hooks · Workflows · Advanced · Git / PR · Debugging · Utilities · Daily

■ Prompting (3)

Tip	Source
challenge Claude — "grill me on these changes and don't make a PR until I pass your test." or "prove to me this works" and have Claude diff between main and your branch 🚫👶
after a mediocre fix — "knowing everything you know now, scrap this and implement the elegant solution" 🚫👶
Claude fixes most bugs by itself — paste the bug, say "fix", don't micromanage how 🚫👶

■ Planning/Specs (7)

Tip	Source
always start with plan mode
start with a minimal spec or prompt and ask Claude to interview you using AskUserQuestion tool, then make a new session to execute the spec
always make a phase-wise gated plan, with each phase having multiple tests (unit, automation, integration)
break PRDs into vertical slices (tracer bullets) that cross all layers (DB + service + UI) — AI defaults to horizontal phasing (DB phase, then API phase, then frontend phase) which delays end-to-end feedback until the last phase. From the Pragmatic Programmer 🚫👶
spin up a second Claude to review your plan as a staff engineer, or use cross-model for review
write detailed specs and reduce ambiguity before handing work off — the more specific you are, the better the output
prototype > PRD — build 20-30 versions instead of writing specs, the cost of building is low so take many shots

■ Context (5)

Tip	Source
context rot kicks in around ~300-400k tokens on the 1M context model — don't let sessions drift past that for intelligence-sensitive work
dumb zone kicks in around ~40% context — "you hit this point where you have degrading results". Newcomers: "shoot to keep it under 40%, and if you get up to 60%, think about wrapping it up". Experienced: "aggressively keep it below 30%" — push to 60% only on simple tasks. Manual /compact or /clear to reset when switching tasks
rewind > correct — double-Esc or /rewind back to before the failed attempt and re-prompt with what you learned, instead of leaving failed attempts + corrections polluting context 🚫👶
/compact with a hint (/compact focus on the auth refactor, drop the test debugging) beats letting autocompact fire — the model is at its least intelligent point when auto-compacting due to context rot
use subagents for context management — ask yourself "will I need this tool output again, or just the conclusion?" — 20 file reads + 12 greps + 3 dead ends stay in the child's context, only the final report returns 🚫👶

■ Session Management (6)

Tip	Source
every turn is a branching point — after Claude ends a turn, pick between Continue, /rewind, /clear, /compact, or Subagent based on how much existing context you need to carry forward
new task = new session — related tasks (e.g. writing docs for what you just built) can reuse context for efficiency, but genuinely new tasks deserve a fresh session
use "summarize from here" before rewinding to have Claude write a handoff message — like a note to the previous iteration of Claude from its future self
/compact vs /clear — compact is lossy but momentum-friendly (mid-task, fuzzy details ok); /clear + brief is more work but you control exactly what carries forward (high-stakes next step)
use recaps for long-running sessions — short summaries of what Claude did and what's next, useful when returning after minutes or hours. Disable with recaps in /config
/rename important sessions (e.g. [TODO - refactor task]) and /resume them later — label each instance when running multiple Claudes simultaneously

■ CLAUDE.md + .claude/rules (8)

Tip	Source
CLAUDE.md should target under 200 lines per file. 60 lines in humanlayer (still not 100% guaranteed)
.claude/rules/*.md auto-load into every session like CLAUDE.md — add paths: YAML frontmatter to lazy-load them only when Claude touches files matching the glob
wrap domain-specific CLAUDE.md rules in <important if="..."> tags to stop Claude from ignoring them as files grow longer
use multiple CLAUDE.md for monorepos — ancestor + descendant loading
use .claude/rules/ to split large instructions
any developer should be able to launch Claude, say "run the tests" and it works on the first try — if it doesn't, your CLAUDE.md is missing essential setup/build/test commands
keep codebases clean and finish migrations — partially migrated frameworks confuse models that might pick the wrong pattern
use settings.json for harness-enforced behavior (attribution, permissions, model) — don't put "NEVER add Co-Authored-By" in CLAUDE.md when attribution.commit: "" is deterministic

Agents (4)

Tip	Source
have feature specific sub-agents (extra context) with skills (progressive disclosure) instead of general qa, backend engineer
say "use subagents" to throw more compute at a problem — offload tasks to keep your main context clean and focused 🚫👶
agent teams with tmux and git worktrees for parallel development
use test time compute — separate context windows make results better; one agent can cause bugs and another (same model) can find them

Commands (3)

Tip	Source
use commands for your workflows instead of sub-agents
use slash commands for every "inner loop" workflow you do many times a day — saves repeated prompting, commands live in .claude/commands/ and are checked into git
if you do something more than once a day, turn it into a skill or command — build /techdebt, context-dump, or analytics commands

Skills (9)

Tip	Source
use context: fork to run a skill in an isolated subagent — main context only sees the final result, not intermediate tool calls. The agent field lets you set the subagent type
use skills in subfolders for monorepos
skills are folders, not files — use references/, scripts/, examples/ subdirectories for progressive disclosure
build a Gotchas section in every skill — highest-signal content, add Claude's failure points over time
skill description field is a trigger, not a summary — write it for the model ("when should I fire?")
don't state the obvious in skills — focus on what pushes Claude out of its default behavior 🚫👶
don't railroad Claude in skills — give goals and constraints, not prescriptive step-by-step instructions 🚫👶
include scripts and libraries in skills so Claude composes rather than reconstructs boilerplate
embed !command in SKILL.md to inject dynamic shell output into the prompt — Claude runs it on invocation and the model only sees the result

■ Hooks (5)

Tip	Source
use on-demand hooks in skills — /careful blocks destructive commands, /freeze blocks edits outside a directory
measure skill usage with a PreToolUse hook to find popular or undertriggering skills
use a PostToolUse hook to auto-format code — Claude generates well-formatted code, the hook handles the last 10% to avoid CI failures
route permission requests to Opus via a hook — let it scan for attacks and auto-approve safe ones 🚫👶
use a Stop hook to nudge Claude to keep going or verify its work at the end of a turn

■ Workflows (5)

Tip	Source
use /model to select model and reasoning, /context to see context usage, /usage to check plan limits, /extra-usage to configure overflow billing, /config to configure settings — use Opus for plan mode and Sonnet for code to get the best of both
always use thinking mode true (to see reasoning) and Output Style Explanatory (to see detailed output with ★ Insight boxes) in /config for better understanding of Claude's decisions
use ultrathink keyword in prompts for high effort reasoning
/focus mode hides all intermediate work and shows only the final result — trust the model to run the right commands and just look at the outcome (toggle with /focus)
tune effort level with Opus 4.7's adaptive thinking — low for speed and fewer tokens, max for most intelligence (slider: low · medium · high · xhigh · max)

■ Workflows Advanced (9)

Tip	Source
use ASCII diagrams a lot to understand your architecture
use /loop for local recurring monitoring (up to 7 days) · use /schedule for cloud-based recurring tasks that run even when your machine is off
use Ralph Wiggum plugin for long-running autonomous tasks
/permissions with wildcard syntax (Bash(npm run *), Edit(/docs/**)) instead of dangerously-skip-permissions
/sandbox to reduce permission prompts with file and network isolation — 84% reduction internally
invest in product verification skills (signup-flow-driver, checkout-verifier) — worth spending a week to perfect
use auto mode instead of dangerously-skip-permissions — a model-based classifier decides if each command is safe and auto-approves, pauses and asks if risky. Shift+Tab to cycle Ask → Plan → Auto modes 🚫👶
use /less-permission-prompts skill to scan session history for safe bash/MCP commands that repeatedly prompt, then get a recommended allowlist to paste into settings
build a /go skill that (1) tests end-to-end via bash/browser/computer use (2) runs /simplify (3) puts up a PR — so when you come back, you know the code works 🚫👶

■ Git / PR (5)

Tip	Source
keep PRs small and focused — p50 of 118 lines (141 PRs, 45K lines changed in a day), one feature per PR, easier to review and revert
always squash merge PRs — clean linear history, one commit per feature, easy git revert and git bisect
commit often — try to commit at least once per hour, as soon as task is completed, commit
tag @claude on a coworker's PR to auto-generate lint rules for recurring review feedback — automate yourself out of code review 🚫👶
use /code-review for multi-agent PR analysis — catches bugs, security vulnerabilities, and regressions before merge

■ Debugging (6)

Tip	Source
make it a habit to take screenshots and share with Claude whenever you are stuck with any issue
use mcp (Claude in Chrome, Playwright, Chrome DevTools) to let claude see chrome console logs on its own
always ask claude to run the terminal (you want to see logs of) as a background task for better debugging
/doctor to diagnose installation, authentication, and configuration issues
use a cross-model for QA — e.g. Codex for plan and implementation review
agentic search (glob + grep) beats RAG — Claude Code tried and discarded vector databases because code drifts out of sync and permissions are complex

■ Utilities (5)

Tip	Source
iTerm/Ghostty/tmux terminals instead of IDE (VS Code/Cursor)
/voice or Wispr Flow for voice prompting (10x productivity)
claude-code-hooks for claude feedback
status line for context awareness and fast compacting
explore settings.json features like Plans Directory, Spinner Verbs for a personalized experience

■ Daily (2)

Tip	Source
update Claude Code daily
start your day by reading the changelog

Spinner Verbs & Tips (extracted from CLI binary v2.1.121)

Video / Podcast	Source	YouTube
From Vibe Coding to Agentic Engineering (Andrej) | 02 May 2026 | AI Engineer		YouTube
Full Walkthrough: Workflow for AI Coding (Matt) | 24 Apr 2026 | Matt Pocock		YouTube
Everything We Got Wrong About Research-Plan-Implement (Dex) | 24 Mar 2026 | MLOps Community		YouTube
Building Claude Code with Boris Cherny (Boris) | 04 Mar 2026 | The Pragmatic Engineer		YouTube
Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved (Boris) | 19 Feb 2026 | Lenny's Podcast		YouTube
Inside Claude Code With Its Creator Boris Cherny (Boris) | 17 Feb 2026 | Y Combinator		YouTube
Boris Cherny (Creator of Claude Code) On What Grew His Career (Boris) | 15 Dec 2025 | Ryan Peterman		YouTube
The Secrets of Claude Code From the Engineers Who Built It (Cat) | 29 Oct 2025 | Every		YouTube

Source	Name	Badge
	r/ClaudeAI, r/ClaudeCode, r/Anthropic
	Claude, Claude Devs, Anthropic, Boris, Thariq, Cat, Lydia, Noah, Anthony, Alex, Kenneth
	Jesse Kriss (Superpowers), Affaan Mustafa (ECC), Garry Tan (gstack), Dex Horthy (HumanLayer), Kieran Klaassen (Compound Eng), Tabish Gilani (OpenSpec), Brian McAdams (BMAD), Lex Christopherson (GSD), Matt Pocock (Skills), Dani Avila (CC Templates), Dan Shipper (Every), Andrej Karpathy (AutoResearch), Peter Steinberger (OpenClaw), Sigrid Jin (claw-code), Yeachan Heo (oh-my-claudecode)
	Anthropic
	Lenny's Podcast, Y Combinator, The Pragmatic Engineer, Ryan Peterman, Every, MLOps Community

If you have answers, do let me know at [email protected]

Memory & Instructions (4)

1. What exactly should you put inside your CLAUDE.md — and what should you leave out?
2. If you already have a CLAUDE.md, is a separate constitution.md or rules.md actually needed?
3. How often should you update your CLAUDE.md, and how do you know when it's become stale?
4. Why does Claude still ignore CLAUDE.md instructions — even when they say MUST in all caps? (reddit)

Agents, Skills & Workflows (6)

1. When should you use a command vs an agent vs a skill — and when is vanilla Claude Code just better?
2. How often should you update your agents, commands, and workflows as models improve?
3. Should you have a generalist subagent or a feature-specific/role-specific agent? Does giving your subagent a detailed persona improve quality, and what does a "perfect persona prompt" for research/vision look like?
4. Should you rely on Claude Code's built-in plan mode — or build your own planning command/agent that enforces your team's workflow?
5. If you have a personal skill (e.g., /implement with your coding style), how do you incorporate community skills (e.g., /simplify) without conflicts — and who wins when they disagree?
6. Are we there yet? Can we convert an existing codebase into specs, delete the code, and have AI regenerate the exact same code from those specs alone?

Specs & Documentation (3)

1. Should every feature in your repo have a spec as a markdown file?
2. How often do you need to update specs so they don't become obsolete when a new feature is implemented?
3. When implementing a new feature, how do you handle the ripple effect on specs for other features?

Get the maximum out of this repo by following these steps:

1. Read this repo as a course, not as a workflow or skill. It's reference material first; you'll run things later.
2. Don't use Claude as a chatbot. Learn the primitives — agents, commands, skills, hooks — and assemble them into your own workflow.
3. Run /weather-orchestrator to see a complete command → agent → skill flow. Use it as a template for any dev workflow, from planning to shipping.
4. Listen for the custom hook sounds while you work. Their implementation lives in the dedicated Claude Code Hooks repo; other patterns like Agent Teams ship inside this repo's implementation/ directory.
5. Learn the advanced topics and their implementations from the 🔥 Hot sub-table — for example, the Ralph Wiggum self-evolving loop is a full working repo you can clone to see one of these patterns end-to-end.
6. Point Claude at the tips and tricks section in your own project and ask it to suggest edits — especially how to restructure your CLAUDE.md. Every tip is sourced from the Claude team or the community.
7. Subscribe to the Reddit and YouTube channels in the Subscribe section to keep up with the community.

🎬 Videos

📊 Presentations

✨Trending on Github in March 2026✨

stars and counting

Claude Code Hooks

Codex CLI Best Practice

Codex CLI Hooks

Gemini CLI Best Practice

Gemini CLI Hooks

#	Workflow	Description
1	/workflows:development-workflows	Update the DEVELOPMENT WORKFLOWS table and cross-workflow analysis report by researching all 10 workflow repos in parallel
2	/workflows:skill-collections	Update the SKILL COLLECTIONS table by researching all 5 skill-collection repos in parallel
3	/workflows:agent-collections	Update the AGENT COLLECTIONS table by researching all agent-collection repos in parallel
4	/workflows:best-practice:workflow-concepts	Update the README CONCEPTS section with the latest Claude Code features and concepts
5	/workflows:best-practice:workflow-claude-settings	Track Claude Code settings report changes and find what needs updating
6	/workflows:best-practice:workflow-claude-subagents	Track Claude Code subagents report changes and find what needs updating
7	/workflows:best-practice:workflow-claude-commands	Track Claude Code commands report changes and find what needs updating
8	/workflows:best-practice:workflow-claude-skills	Track Claude Code skills report changes and find what needs updating

If you like my work, buy me a doodh patti 🍵 on

Polar

Want your brand in the header? Header placements are available — email [email protected].