Claude Code Ultimate Guide

6 months of daily practice distilled into a guide that teaches you the WHY, not just the what. From core concepts to production security, you learn to design your own agentic workflows instead of copy-pasting configs.

If this guide helps you, give it a star ⭐ — it helps others discover it too.

StarMapper

Choose Your Path

| Who you are | Your guide | |---|---| | 🏗️ Tech Lead / Engineering Manager | Deploying Claude Code across your team → | | 📊 CTO / Decision Maker | ROI, security posture, team adoption → | | 💼 CIO / CEO | Budget, risk, what to ask your tech team (3 min) → | | 🎨 Product Manager / Designer | Vibe coding, working with AI-assisted dev teams → | | ✍️ Writer / Ops / Manager | Claude Cowork Guide (separate repo) → | | 👨‍💻 Developer (all levels) | You're in the right place — read on ↓ | | 🧭 Career pivot / new AI role | AI Roles & Career Paths → |

🎯 What You'll Learn

This guide teaches you to think differently about AI-assisted development:

• ✅ Understand trade-offs — When to use agents vs skills vs commands (not just how to configure them)
• ✅ Build mental models — How Claude Code works internally (architecture, context flow, tool orchestration)
• ✅ Visualize concepts — 48 Mermaid diagrams covering model selection, master loop, memory hierarchy, multi-agent patterns, security threats, AI fluency paths
• ✅ Master methodologies — TDD, SDD, BDD with AI collaboration (not just templates)
• ✅ Security mindset — Threat modeling for AI systems (only guide with 28 CVEs + 655 malicious skills database)
• ✅ Test your knowledge — 271-question quiz to validate understanding (no other resource offers this)

Outcome: Go from copy-pasting configs to designing your own agentic workflows with confidence.

📊 When to Use This Guide vs Everything-CC

Both guides serve different needs. Choose based on your priority.

| Your Goal | This Guide | everything-claude-code | |-----------|------------|------------------------| | Understand why patterns work | Deep explanations + architecture | Config-focused | | Quick setup for projects | Available but not the priority | Battle-tested production configs | | Learn trade-offs (agents vs skills) | Decision frameworks + comparisons | Lists patterns, no trade-off analysis | | Security hardening | Only threat database (28 CVEs) | Basic patterns only | | Test understanding | 271-question quiz | Not available | | Methodologies (TDD/SDD/BDD) | Full workflow guides | Not covered | | Copy-paste ready templates | 181 templates | 200+ templates |

Ecosystem Positioning

                    EDUCATIONAL DEPTH
                           ▲
                           │
                           │  ★ This Guide
                           │  Security + Methodologies + 24K+ lines
                           │
                           │  [Everything-You-Need-to-Know]
                           │  SDLC/BMAD beginner
  ─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────► READY-TO-USE
  [awesome-claude-code]    │            [everything-claude-code]
  (discovery, curation)    │            (plugin, 1-cmd install)
                           │
                           │  [claude-code-studio]
                           │  Context management
                           │
                      SPECIALIZED

5 unique gaps no competitor covers:

1. Security-First — 28 CVEs + 655 malicious skills tracked (no competitor has this depth)
2. Methodology Workflows — TDD/SDD/BDD comparison + step-by-step guides
3. Comprehensive Reference — 24K+ lines across 16 specialized guides (24× more reference material than everything-cc)
4. Educational Progression — 271-question quiz + 7-module structured learning path (beginner → advanced)
5. Interactive Assessment — /self-assessment skill with personalized learning path recommendations

Recommended workflow:

1. Learn concepts here (mental models, trade-offs, security)
2. Use battle-tested configs there (quick project setup)
3. Return here for deep dives (when something doesn't work or to design custom workflows)

Both resources are complementary, not competitive. Use what fits your current need.

⚡ Quick Start

New to Claude Code? → 7-Module Learning Path — 8-11 hours, beginner to advanced

Quickest path: Cheat Sheet — 1 printable page with daily essentials

Interactive onboarding (no setup needed):

claude "Fetch and follow the onboarding instructions from: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FlorianBruniaux/claude-code-ultimate-guide/main/tools/onboarding-prompt.md"

Browse directly: Full Guide | Learning Path | Visual Diagrams | Examples | Quiz

🔌 MCP Server — Use the guide from any Claude Code session

No cloning needed. Add to ~/.claude.json and ask questions directly from any session:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claude-code-guide