Published: 2026-09-25
Summary

Claude Code habits from $31K of usage: evals, /context, /btw, handoff notes and an AGENTS.md fallback

Chapters / key moments (click to jump — plays here on the page)

Fifteen habits, simplest first, from someone who spent five figures on Claude Code. We've kept the ones you can act on today and checked every command against the Claude Code docs.

Source video

"I Spent $31,141 & 1,000 Hours On Claude Code To Learn This" by Nick Saraev — Watch on YouTube →

Quality habits

Don't trust the first output. Eval it. Before a prompt goes into a workflow, run it about 10 times and count the passes. Change one thing, re-run, and keep the change only if the count goes up.
Give Claude a way to check its own work: a screenshot comparison, an example, a test, a Lighthouse score. A revision loop turns draft one into draft three.
Let the code be the context. Separate spec, notes and log files drift from the code (the code is on v4, the notes are still on v1). Put the explanation in inline comments where Claude reads it every time, and keep CLAUDE.md for preferences and lessons.
Let Claude write the prompt. For anything big: "I want X for Y audience — help me write a prompt," then answer its questions.
Give a definition of done, not step-by-step instructions. Treat it like a contractor: "You're done when A, B and C are true. Ask if unsure."
Diagnose before fixing. "List every problem. Don't change anything yet." Then choose which ones to fix.

Context habits (commands verified)

/context             # coloured grid of what's in the context window
/compact keep the test output   # summarise now, with focus instructions
/btw what does this function do?   # side question — not added to the conversation
/init                # generate a CLAUDE.md
/insights            # HTML report on how you use Claude Code

Check /context before you start. System prompt, tools, MCP servers, memory and skills can fill ~30% before you type. Turn off MCP servers and skills you aren't using.
Compact early rather than waiting for auto-compaction, or…
…start fresh from a handoff note: "Summarise where we are: what's done, decisions I need to make, what's next, open problems." Correct it, then paste it into a new session.
/btw for side questions while Claude works. The docs say it answers without adding to the conversation, so it doesn't pollute the main thread.

Scale habits

Prototype with MCP, then graduate to a lean skill. MCP connectors take one click to set up but weigh heavily on context and slow startup. Once a workflow is proven, rebuild it as a small custom skill (see skills guide).
Run scoped tasks in parallel: "Do these in parallel by running mutually exclusive scoped tasks," then add a merge step.
Fan out, fan in: send cheap subagents to research widely, then give the combined result to the strongest model to decide.

CLAUDE.md habits

Audit CLAUDE.md now, and after every model update. He had stale revenue figures in his, and Claude kept making decisions from them.
Write lessons as positives ("batch file reads"), not prohibitions ("don't retry the old API"). A question that produces good lessons: "How could you have done that faster with fewer tokens?"
Keep a backup agent. Claude Code reads AGENTS.md in a project with no CLAUDE.md, and can load it alongside CLAUDE.md (memory docs). Keep the two in sync, and Codex or another agent can pick up the same folder during an outage.

More: what goes in a CLAUDE.md. (Ends with a pitch for his paid program.)