A practical guide to setting up Claude Code as a proper development collaborator rather than an ad-hoc chat tool. Key strategies include writing a thorough CLAUDE.md as an onboarding document, using .claudeignore to keep context clean, externalizing plans and artifacts to disk for persistence across sessions, building reusable 'skills' (markdown-defined repeatable processes stored in .claude/skills/), integrating CLI tools and MCP servers for structured external access, and using hooks to automatically run tests or commits after Claude finishes tasks. Also covers remote control via the Claude app for supervising long-running jobs and model switching (Haiku/Sonnet/Opus) to balance cost and capability. The core thesis: invest in the environment and infrastructure around Claude Code, not just the prompts.
Table of contents
The core insight: context is a resource #Start with CLAUDE.md — but write it properly #.claudeignore : what Claude doesn't see matters too #Externalizing artifacts: context that outlives the session #Skills: packaging your expertise #Connecting to your tools: CLI integration and MCP #Hooks: participating in your existing workflow #Remote control and model switching #Sort: