Tips & Tricks Advanced

# Good: provides context and constraints
Claude > Create a rate limiter middleware for our Express API.
         Requirements:
         - Use Redis for distributed rate limiting (we use ioredis)
         - Allow 100 requests per minute per IP
         - Return 429 status with a Retry-After header
         - Match the existing middleware patterns in src/middleware/
         - Include TypeScript types

# Good: references existing patterns
Claude > Add a new API endpoint for managing blog tags. Follow the
         exact same patterns used in src/routes/categories.ts for
         the route structure, validation, and error handling.

# Step 1: Core implementation
Claude > Create a basic search feature for the blog posts page

# Step 2: Refine
Claude > Add debouncing to the search input (300ms delay)

# Step 3: Polish
Claude > Add a loading spinner while search results are being fetched

# Step 4: Edge cases
Claude > Handle the empty state when no results are found

# After a long conversation about refactoring...
Claude > /compact

# Claude summarizes the conversation so far and frees up context
# You can continue working with less token usage

# Continue your last conversation
$ claude -c

# Resume a specific conversation by ID
$ claude --resume abc123def

# Start fresh (new conversation)
$ claude

#!/bin/bash
# Add JSDoc comments to all TypeScript files in a directory

for file in src/utils/*.ts; do
  echo "Processing $file..."
  claude -p "Add JSDoc comments to all exported functions in $file. \
    Keep the code unchanged, only add documentation comments."
done

# Pipe data into Claude Code for analysis
$ cat error.log | claude -p "Analyze these errors and summarize the top 5 most common issues"

# Use with git for automated commit messages
$ git diff --staged | claude -p "Generate a conventional commit message for these changes"

# Generate documentation from code
$ claude -p "Read all the route files in src/routes/ and generate an API reference in Markdown format"

# Instead of letting Claude search the whole repo...
Claude > The authentication code is in src/auth/. Look at
         src/auth/middleware.ts and src/auth/strategies/ to
         understand how login works.

# Point Claude to the relevant area
Claude > The bug is in the payment processing module.
         Start by reading src/payments/processor.ts and
         src/payments/stripe-client.ts

# Project Architecture

## Directory Structure
- src/api/ - REST API routes and controllers
- src/services/ - Business logic layer
- src/models/ - Database models (Prisma)
- src/lib/ - Shared utilities and helpers
- src/workers/ - Background job processors
- src/events/ - Event handlers (pub/sub)

## Key Patterns
- All API routes go through src/api/router.ts
- Services never import from api/ (clean architecture)
- Database access is only through services, never directly in routes

# Create a tmux session with two panes
$ tmux new-session -s dev
# Pane 1: Your editor (vim, neovim, etc.)
# Pane 2: Claude Code

# Split vertically
# Ctrl+B, % (vertical split)
# Navigate with Ctrl+B, arrow keys

# Check your session costs
Claude > /cost

Session Statistics:
  Messages: 24
  Input tokens: 45,230
  Output tokens: 12,450
  Estimated cost: $0.42