Essential Claude Code Commands Every Developer Should Know
Working with Claude Code? A handful of commands control the whole workflow — your context, your reviews, your session.
As a project grows, the conversation gets long. Context fills up, you forget which features exist, and it gets harder to steer what happens next. The commands are the steering.
There are three ways to control a session:
Slash commands steer Claude Code itself /help
Keyboard shortcuts control the live session Esc
Terminal commands launch and configure it claude
The four worth knowing first:
/help show help and available commands
/clear clear the conversation history
/compact clear it, but keep a summary
/review review a pull request
A real session, start to finish:
$ claude
> /help see what you've got
> add payment validation to the Payment model Claude reads and edits the files
> /review check it before you accept
> /compact when the conversation gets heavy
> /clear a fresh start for the next task
EXPLORE -> IMPLEMENT -> REVIEW -> COMPACT -> CONTINUE
The distinctions that matter:
- /clear removes the conversation history — NOT your project files. Any edits made during the session stay on disk.
- /compact keeps a summary instead, so Claude stays oriented on what happened while freeing up context. Use /clear when you move to something unrelated; use /compact when you want to keep going on the same thing.
- /review helps you inspect a pull request. It does not replace your own testing.
Whether you're building Ruby on Rails applications or working in another stack, knowing when to reach for each of these makes Claude Code a far more effective part of your workflow.
Chapters:
00:00 – Essential Claude Code Commands
00:10 – The Problem
00:25 – Understanding Claude Code Commands
00:40 – Four Essential Commands
01:00 – A Practical Developer Workflow
01:25 – Benefits and Important Tips
01:45 – Final Takeaway
Master the workflow. Not just the code.
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