063 - Hidden Claude Tricks You Probably Aren't Using

Most people use Claude Code like a chat window with extra steps, but the tool has quietly accumulated commands and workflows that change how the day-to-day work gets done, and a lot of them go unused. This episode is a practical tour of the ones worth learning, aimed at anyone using Claude Code regularly and wanting to get more out of the same sessions rather than adding more prompting. It covers slash B T W for asking a side question without derailing the main conversation, slash compact with custom preserve instructions for controlling what survives when the context window gets summarized, and slash clear for wiping conversation history while keeping project files intact. The episode also covers slash context, which shows exactly what's consuming the context window, and slash simplify, the bundled skill that runs parallel agents to review changed code for reuse, quality, efficiency, and CLAUDE.md compliance in a single pass. It explains rewind and checkpoints, triggered by pressing Escape twice or running slash rewind, which can restore the code, the conversation, or both to an earlier point in a session. Beyond slash commands, the episode walks through three ways to build repeatable structure around Claude Code: skills, stored in a project's dot-claude slash skills folder with a SKILL.md file for reusable procedures; hooks, which run deterministic actions such as auto-formatting a file after an edit or running checks before a task finishes; and subagents, which take on a focused investigation in their own context window so it doesn't crowd out the main session. It closes with plan mode for working through a complicated change before touching any files, slash loop and slash schedule for recurring local and cloud jobs, and Claude Code's built-in auto-memory, which saves preferences and corrections between sessions separately from a project's CLAUDE.md file. The throughline: mastering these means designing the environment Claude Code operates inside. Sources & References Anthropic / Claude Help Center: Claude Code power user tips — https://support.claude.com/en/articles/14554000-claude-code-power-user-tips Anthropic / Claude Help Center: Claude Code cheatsheet — https://support.claude.com/en/articles/14553413-claude-code-cheatsheet Anthropic / Claude Help Center: Models, usage, and limits in Claude Code — https://support.claude.com/en/articles/14552983-models-usage-and-limits-in-claude-code Anthropic: Enabling Claude Code to work more autonomously — https://www.anthropic.com/news/enabling-claude-code-to-work-more-autonomously Anthropic Newsroom: current Claude announcements — https://www.anthropic.com/news Voice narration is AI-generated.