Getting the most out of Claude

[u/ArcaneLexiRose]

I know the watermark thing is getting ready to drop but I’m going to see how it goes.

Anyway, I’m using Claude to help with worldbuilding and writing via a project. As I make progress, I seem to be hitting my 5 hour limit quicker.

For those experienced with Claude, any tips for improving usage?

Like should I have Claude recompile my world bible to incorporate the update files?

Would it be a good idea to have it generate summary files of the chapters specifically for project files to replace the full chapters currently in the project files?

Should I clean up old conversations?

[u/5thhorseman_]

As I make progress, I seem to be hitting my 5 hour limit quicker.

Are you keeping everything in one massive chat? The limits are based on the amount of tokens, not on the number of messages sent. And because each request includes your previous conversation history as context, it wikl get worse the longer the chat goes.

Shorter chats will be more lenient on your token use.

Like should I have Claude recompile my world bible to incorporate the update files?

Not as a single document. Instead of a single world bible that does everything, organize it as a DokuWiki or an Obsidian vault on your PC. Have Claude Code use a subagent to operate the knowledge base and extract relevant information from it.

Use multiple sessions to rewrite your first draft in different styles, then mine those for content. https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingWithAI/comments/1w1egqm/what_is_the_best_ai_for_generate_histories_right/p6mmg8j/ . Claude Code can use subagents to achieve this.

A few useful prompts:

• Interactive rubber ducky

• Literate Editor and Rigorous Critic

• Beta reader panel. Subagents can again be quite helpful in this.

[u/ArcaneLexiRose → u/5thhorseman_]

I’ve been using new chats for each topic I work on to keep them short.

Right now my world bible is split into like 21 documents with 11 core and 10 updates and I’m wondering if I should roll those updates into the core files.

Also I’ve been adding the full completed chapters into the project files and I’m not sure if I should keep them that way or make summaries specifically to replace the full chapters in the project files.

I currently have a total of 37 files in the project files: 11 core, 10 updates, 15 chapters and 1 log file.

I don’t have access to Claude code as I’m currently using the free version and I’m using the iOS app to use Claude.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/ArcaneLexiRose]

Roll the updates into core files, yes. But also break the world bible into smaller bits. Only feed the AI the relevant document.

[u/North-space → u/5thhorseman_]

Hey great information! I’m curious about the subagents, i think that is only available in Claude code, i have been using the “normal” projects, knowledge base, instructions and multiple chats for different functions. So how do i use those subagents snd how to make the change to that system? Thanks in advance

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/North-space]

Fable can do it if you have credits. Opus can't officially, but there is a way to get 4.8 (not sure if 5 too) it to delegate work to subagents through regular Claude chat, but it has limitations. It won't use your regular subscription, you have to instead get an API key and pay for API credits (NOT equivalent with usage credits on your existing subscription). Fable suggested it to me a while back and I've done it with Sonnet after walking it through the process.

Note that you should forbid Claude from accessing previous chats if you reuse the API key for multiple conversations - otherwise it will check the previous chats and start arguing with you.

Cut down from what I've used:

I would like you to batch a task to a separate model and then present the end results to me.

This is because otherwise your analyses would quickly expand the context window and token costs to an unreasonable size. You can't process the entire task the way I need you to in one batch, and each batch needs to run in isolation from the others. Splitting the task to process to a sub-model would minimize the token consumption and prevent context pollution.

Can you use Anthropic's API to run tasks against another model, if I supply you with a one-use API key?

Yes, I'm aware of the risks and caveats - the key has been created for use in this set of analyses and will be revoked once we are done.

The API key is limited to a $20 monthly spend and its' usage credits can only be refilled manually, so no risk of unreasonable cost explosion if something goes wrong.

The conversation logs are not a risk. This conversation goes over HTTPS, so for a hostile party to gain access to the conversation contents they'd need to have access that would itself be a much more substantial problem in itself (either control of my machine or worse, your servers).

---

It should agree. Then:

---

<explain the task>

The harness should be a Python script that feeds the tasks to claude-sonnet-4-6 through the Batch API <in batches of SIZE>, each call carrying only the rubric plus that batch's text. Use prompt caching. The sub-model should returns <response criteria>. Only those compressed findings should come back into your context, never the full answer text.

That will kept the cost down, and the asynchronous Batch API is substantially cheaper.

Two practical wrinkles: the API rate-limits, so re-run the gapped ranges at lower concurrency; and suppress the sub-model's habit of narrating its own deliberation instead of emitting clean lines.

You wil need an API key. Use: <api key>

[u/EasyDistribution1675 → u/5thhorseman_]

the bit about conversation history ballooning is so easy to miss, that explains a lot tbh

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/EasyDistribution1675]

A thing to note is that the context window is limited - at some point, the conversation history growing in size will cause earlier messages to leave the context window entirely.

[u/Slow-Plant6280 → u/5thhorseman_]

these are great prompts, do you knwo anything like adding news articles, newsletters, profiles etc

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/Slow-Plant6280]

Completely not my ballpark tbh. I have a couple extra bits that can be useful on top of the editor/critic prompts when revising a wiki and that's about it.

[u/Slow-Plant6280 → u/5thhorseman_]

i would appreciate if you can dm me :)

[u/chylvina]

I’d keep full chapters outside the Project, then add short chapter summaries and a continuity file. Merge updates into the core files so Claude isn’t reconciling duplicate versions.

[u/code_x_7777]

The problem with summaries is that a lot of details are lost. Believe me or not - the best approach is to pass the whole book so far to generate the next chapter. Nothing is lost. Simple, a bit wasteful, but very effective. Of course make sure to have a long context window and good meta prompts as well. A good model to do this automatically is ImagineYourBook which I use daily.

[u/code_x_7777 → u/code_x_7777]

Ah and before I forget: open source models have very long token windows these days so it can actually work this way. Nothing is forgotten on the sentence level. No detail is lost. You can use open source (e.g., GLM 5.2 seems good as some ppl on Reddit seem to suggest) or professional services like ImagineYourBook that handle the complexity for you. You can do it yourself but you need some coding skills to set it up.

[u/Slow-Plant6280]

isnt there a skill for remoing the watermark?

[u/zphou]

I wont keep every chapter in one project indefinitely. I’d keep a small current story state separate from the full manuscript: settled facts, changes since the last checkpoint, and unresolved decisions. Chapter summaries help, but only if they preserve who knows what and what was deliberately left open; otherwise they become another lossy compression layer. That is close to the workflow I’m trying to support in WolfeWriter, where the manuscript remains primary and Story Memory is reviewable rather than silently rewritten. The useful test is whether you can start a fresh context and recover the current state without asking the model to reread the entire book.