How I Tuned Claude Code Into a Better Engineering Partner

2026-07-05 · source · source ↗ · raw capture · wiki page

Practical Claude Code workflows, configuration files, and guardrails that help experienced developers get consistently better results. 13 min read.

Ten Sections

  1. Keep CLAUDE.md Small (8,000 characters maximum; treat it as permanent session context)
  2. Three settings.json Tweaks That Changed My Workflow (auto-allow safe commands, log every session, block dangerous commands)
  3. Don't Enable acceptEdits Everywhere (only when automated tests can detect mistakes)
  4. Hooks Are the Most Underrated Claude Code Feature (Stop hook for session history, PreToolUse for blocking, Notification hook)
  5. Use Multiple Models as an Architecture Review Panel (Opus/reliaiblity, Sonnet/velocity, Haiku/minimalism)
  6. Match the Agent's Effort to the Task (four levels: low, medium, high, maximum)
  7. Learn to Recognize Context Rot (three symptoms, handoff template, fresh session over pushing through)
  8. The Two Corrections Rule (stop after two corrections; restart with smaller task, clearer output, or better starting point)
  9. Create Different Sandbox Profiles for Different Environments (settings.local.json, settings.staging.json)
  10. Use Skills Instead of One Giant Context File (modular documentation for AI; 30-40% token reduction)