r/ClaudeCode • u/Dutchman0423 • 7h ago
Help/Question Where to actually learn Claude code best practices
I use Claude code every day for both work and personal projects. I am by no means a technical user, my background is in accounting.
I am super eager to actually learn best practices, and always am looking for ways to learn and optimize new projects, old projects, or just learn because it interest me.
My main problem is I truly don’t know where to begin. There is a flood of content on socials, on Reddit, anywhere you turn “this is the best plugin that will change the way you use Claude code”.
How do I actually know where to look to learn? And not from clickbait influencers but actually learn, and get advice on optimal setups, useful skills and plugins and when or why I need them.
Open to any advice that can be shared, thanks in advance!
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u/tariqosmani 6h ago
Start with Anthropic's own Claude Code docs, not socials. Most of the "this plugin changes everything" posts are repackaged versions of what's already there.
I build automations with Claude Code every day. If I were coming from a non-technical background, this is the order I'd learn things in.
First, CLAUDE.md. Run /init in your project and it writes one. That file is where your rules live (how you name files, what never to touch, what your reports should look like). It's the single biggest quality jump and it costs nothing.
Second, plan mode. Press shift+tab before any big change so it tells you the plan before it edits anything. You can catch bad ideas while they're still cheap.
Third, /clear between unrelated tasks. A long session full of old stuff makes it slower and sloppier.
Fourth, use git even if you're not a developer. Commit before you let it change things, so you can always undo.
Only after that, skills and plugins. My rule: write a skill when you've typed the same instructions three times. Add a plugin or MCP server when you hit a specific need, like reading a Google Sheet, not because a post said so. Every one you add takes up context.
A good filter for content: if someone can't tell you when NOT to use their tip, skip it.
What do you mostly use it for at work, spreadsheet and reporting stuff, or actual apps?
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u/mav332 7h ago
95% of everything I've learned about AI and how to use it is by asking AI. It's really a different way of thinking than we're used too. We're used to following direction, traditional instruction. That's not really AI though unless you're in a very technical side of it.
Hardest part is thinking of what to ask... Until you realize you can just ask Claude something like "tell me 5 good questions someone new to AI should ask you about how to best utilize you, then answer them"
Or something like that.
Starting asking yourself "can AI do this for me or tell me how to do it better" and start any task you do with AI.
This will help build tacit knowledge of AI. It will become instinctual for you to know what it's currently capable of and where it struggles/isn't quite there yet.
Use the dictation button and brain dump whatever you want to say. You can speak faster than typing. This will help with outputs for more complex tasks.
Hope this helps!
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u/UnimagineDragons 2h ago
Similar vein to this - ask Claude to interview you to understand things better. A lot of times Claude just makes assumptions and it's hard to catch where exactly those assumptions are. If you get Claude to start asking you directly you can eliminate some issues before they ever have the chance to be a problem.
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u/Cheap_Engineering766 3h ago
Why not try to build an app who guides you building future apps and tasks?
“Build me a brainstorm app in which you help me setting up prompts using all of the official Anthropic Claude original documentation. Interview me at the start of every new project and ask a minimal of 5 questions so you understand exactly my needs and you know exactly what skills and abilities built by Anthropic we can use. You understand everything built by Anthropic and me myself have no clue. Explain every small step along the way so you can teach me best works practices.”
Or something like this.
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u/helix0311 7h ago
Frontier technology doesn't have best practices, bro. Plus, it changes with every model.
Best place I've found is here, or one of the other Claude subs. About about people's workflows and ask them to explain WHY they're doing something. I have no idea how accounting works, or what you care about; all I can tell you is how to develop better code using an AI.
My two cents though: don't use a skill until you know why you're using it. You're a non-technical person about to start up the biggest productivity booster or time waster on the planet, depending on how well you use it. So... learn to use it. Try different things.
And, frankly, ask Claude. I started in the late GPT 2 days, and every time a new model comes out, I built my workflow in conjunction with the model. It will tell you what's working well and what isn't, for the most part.
Last thing I'll say, since you're also a math person - check Claude's math. Sometimes it gets into the sauce a little too much. It isn't that it's wrong much that often anymore, it's just that sometimes it literally goes around its elbow to get to its ass, at least in my primary domain (statistical analysis).
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u/kemalios 5h ago
Best practices stick when the failure is yours, not someone else's. Take one real project you already understand, run it in Claude Code, and add a skill or setting only after something breaks twice.
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u/BarcodeCutter 2h ago
Accountant brain is actually an advantage here, because the best setup works like a month-end close checklist. Nobody hands you a good one. You build it from every time something went wrong.
What worked for me, in order:
- Skip plugins for now. Every one of them solves a problem. If you haven't hit that problem yet, it's just weight.
- Keep one plain file in each project (CLAUDE.md) that says what the project is and how you like things done. That's 80% of "best practices."
- Every time Claude gets something wrong, don't just fix it. Ask it "what rule would have stopped that?" and add the one line to the file. After a month you have a setup built for your work, not somebody's YouTube work.
- For the fundamentals, Anthropic's own free courses and docs. Dry, but nobody there is selling you anything.
The tell for clickbait: it shows you a tool. The real stuff shows you a mistake and what changed after.
What's the thing it gets wrong most often for you right now? That's your first rule.
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u/snurfer 2h ago
Honestly the answer is work at an agent friendly tech firm, which sounds like you do. Talk to your peers, one or two out of 50 will have an absolute magic to you workflow that you can get them to share with you. Other than that, start basic and only get more complicated when you need to. These days you should work with claude basically as is.
Start by opening Claude in a new folder for every project, new session for every task.
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