The better way to work with Claude Code

Three short prompts. Use them in order. They’re the practical shape of the master prompt — broken into the three things you actually do in a session.

1) Don’t start coding. Explore.

Do not start with:

Make this dashboard look better.

Start with:

Explore the current dashboard first. Identify the layout structure, navigation
model, component system, and user tasks. Then propose 3 UI/UX improvement
directions before coding.

This forces the explore phase. Claude reads your actual code before suggesting anything.

2) Pick a direction. Get a real plan.

Turn direction 2 into a detailed implementation plan. Include files to modify,
components to create, dependencies to avoid, responsive behavior, accessibility
requirements, and verification steps.

This forces the plan phase. You get a real diff plan before any code is written.

3) Implement small. Verify each step.

Implement the plan in small commits. Reuse existing components where possible.
After each major change, run the relevant checks and tell me what changed.

This forces the implement-and-verify phase. You don’t end up with a 700-line untestable diff.

That’s the whole loop

Explore  →  Plan  →  Implement  →  Verify
   ↑                                  ↓
   └─────────  next session  ─────────┘

Anthropic recommends this exact pattern. The course just wraps it in real prompts you can paste.

Where the supporting tools come in

For repeatable team workflows, Anthropic recommends:

CLAUDE.md — persistent project conventions (template)
Skills — reusable playbooks (ui-pattern-picker)
MCP — external tools like Figma or databases
Subagents — isolated research without polluting main context
Hooks — deterministic checks (lint/typecheck/a11y on save or commit)
Plugins — packageable bundles of the above

The course covers the first two heavily. The other four are referenced where they fit.