ultrathink

as someone who’s been using it heavily for 9 months, here are my top tips to maximize its potential: getting started & configuration customize your status line - use /statusline to show your current model, git branch, and token usage. keeps you aware of what’s going on learn essential slash commands - /usage (rate limits), /chrome (browser), /mcp (tools), /stats (activity), /clear (fresh start). these are your power moves use claude. md for project context - create a claude. md file in your project root with commands, style guides, and setup instructions. claude pulls it in automatically create custom slash commands - turn your repetitive workflows into custom commands by adding markdown files to .claude/commands. automate the boring stuff configure allowed tools - use /permissions or edit .claude/settings.json to let claude use certain tools without asking every time. saves you a ton of back-and-forth install the gh cli - if you’re on github, grab the gh command-line tool. makes it way easier for claude to create issues and prs use terminal aliases - create alias c=‘claude’ so you’re not typing the full command constantly. small thing, big quality of life improvement prompting & interaction use voice input - talking is faster than typing. grab a local transcription tool and just talk to claude. it understands even with typos break down large problems - don’t throw a massive problem at claude. split it into smaller pieces and solve them one by one. works way better use the “think” keyword - when you want claude to really dig deep, use “think,” “think hard,” “think harder,” or “ultrathink” to give it more thinking time provide detailed specs - for bigger tasks, write a proper spec in markdown. more detail upfront means better results. worth the effort use @ to reference files - point claude to specific files with @ instead of just describing them. clearer and you get tab auto-completion interrupt and add context anytime - if claude’s going the wrong way or you think of something important, just type it. claude will pick it up and adjust on the fly workflow & best practices minimize context - start a fresh conversation for each new task. long chats with irrelevant stuff actually make claude perform worse plan before coding - hit shift+tab twice for planning mode. let claude map out the solution before writing code. saves so much time use git for version control - commit often. if claude messes up, just git restore and try again with a better prompt. no stress let claude handle git operations - ask claude to write commits and commit messages. it’s surprisingly good at it and you’ll get better messages always verify output - check what claude gives you. have it write tests, review changes, or create a draft pr. don’t ship blind use handoff documents for long tasks - for multi-session work, ask claude to write a handoff doc summarizing what it did, what worked, and what’s next. makes pickups way easier try test-driven development - have claude write failing tests first, then code to make them pass. powerful workflow that leads to better code advanced techniques use subagents for complex problems - for tricky research or investigation, tell claude to use subagents to verify details. keeps your main chat clean create feedback loops - for stubborn bugs, set up a loop where claude builds, runs, checks output, and tries again on its own. let it grind use tmux for interactive clis - when working with interactive command-line stuff, use tmux so claude can send commands and capture output clone and half-clone conversations - use clone to copy a conversation or half-clone to keep only the recent half. quick way to manage context juggle multiple sessions - run multiple claude instances in different tabs. focus on a few tasks at a time and switch between them. solid multitasking approach