Tip 0: Customize your status line

You can customize the status line at the bottom of Claude Code to show useful info. I set mine up to show the model, current directory, git branch (if any), uncommitted file count, sync status with origin, and a visual progress bar for token usage. It also shows a second line with my last message so I can see what the conversation was about:

Opus 4.5 | 📁claude-code-tips | 🔀main (scripts/context-bar.sh uncommitted, synced 12m ago) | ██░░░░░░░░ 18% of 200k tokens
💬 This is good. I don't think we need to change the documentation as long as we don't say that the default color is orange el...

This is especially helpful for keeping an eye on your context usage and remembering what you were working on. The script also supports 10 color themes (orange, blue, teal, green, lavender, rose, gold, slate, cyan, or gray).

To set this up, you can use this sample script and check the setup instructions.

Tip 1: Learn a few essential slash commands

There are a bunch of built-in slash commands (type / to see them all). Here are a few worth knowing:

/usage

Check your rate limits:

 Current session
 █████████▌                                         19% used
 Resets 12:59am (America/Vancouver)

 Current week (all models)
 █████████████████████▌                             43% used
 Resets Feb 3 at 1:59pm (America/Vancouver)

 Current week (Sonnet only)
 ███████████████████▌                               39% used
 Resets 8:59am (America/Vancouver)

If you want to watch your usage closely, keep it open in a tab and use Tab then Shift+Tab or ← then → to refresh.

/chrome

Toggle Claude's native browser integration:

> /chrome
Chrome integration enabled

/mcp

Manage MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers:

 Manage MCP servers
 1 server

 ❯ 1. playwright  ✔ connected · Enter to view details

 MCP Config locations (by scope):
  • User config (available in all your projects):
    • /Users/yk/.claude.json

/stats

View your usage statistics with a GitHub-style activity graph:

      Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan
      ··········································▒█░▓░█░▓▒▒
  Mon ·········································▒▒██▓░█▓█░█
      ·········································░▒█▒▓░█▒█▒█
  Wed ········································░▓▒█▓▓░▒▓▒██
      ········································░▓░█▓▓▓▓█░▒█
  Fri ········································▒░░▓▒▒█▓▓▓█
      ········································▒▒░▓░░▓▒▒░░

      Less ░ ▒ ▓ █ More

  Favorite model: Opus 4.5        Total tokens: 17.6m

  Sessions: 4.1k                  Longest session: 20h 40m 45s
  Active days: 79/80              Longest streak: 75 days
  Most active day: Jan 26         Current streak: 74 days

  You've used ~24x more tokens than War and Peace

/clear

Clear the conversation and start fresh.

Tip 2: Talk to Claude Code with your voice

I found that you can communicate much faster with your voice than typing with your hands. Using a voice transcription system on your local machine is really helpful for this.

On my Mac, I've tried a few different options:

• superwhisper
• MacWhisper
• Super Voice Assistant (open source, supports Parakeet v2/v3)

You can get more accuracy by using a hosted service, but I found that a local model is strong enough for this purpose. Even when there are mistakes or typos in the transcription, Claude is smart enough to understand what you're trying to say. Sometimes you need to say certain things extra clearly, but overall local models work well enough.

For example, in this screenshot you can see that Claude was able to interpret mistranscribed words like "ExcelElanishMark" and "advast" correctly as "exclamation mark" and "Advanced":

I think the best way to think about this is like you're trying to communicate with your friend. Of course, you can communicate through texts. That might be easier for some people, or emails, right? That's totally fine. That's what most people seem to do with Claude Code. But if you want to communicate faster, why wouldn't you get on a quick phone call? You can just send voice messages. You don't need to literally have a phone call with Claude Code. Just send a bunch of voice messages. It's faster, at least for me, as someone who's practiced the art of speaking a lot over the past number of years. But I think for a majority of people, it's going to be faster too.

A common objection is "what if you're in a room with other people?" I just w