Best practices for Claude Code

A coding agent can correct its own mistakes more effectively when the task includes a check it can run. Anthropic's Claude Code guide recommends giving the agent observable success criteria, such as a passing test, a successful build or a screenshot to compare. The agent can then make a change, inspect the result and revise its work. Asking it to return that evidence also gives the developer something concrete to review. This turns verification into part of the task instead of leaving every mistake for a person to discover afterward.

“Most best practices are based on one constraint: Claude’s context window fills up fast, and performance degrades as it fills.”

“Give Claude a check it can run: tests, a build, a screenshot to compare.”

“If you could describe the diff in one sentence, skip the plan.”

“A clean session with a better prompt almost always outperforms a long session with accumulated corrections.”