The Day I Taught Claude Code to Work Without Me (And How You Can Too)
- Problem: You're trapped micromanaging Claude Code instead of building
- Solution: Train Claude Code once, then let it work autonomously
- How it Works: Strategic context engineering: CLAUDE.md files, systematic workflows, and learning capture
- Benefit: Claude Code becomes your autonomous teammate
Here is CLAUDE.md
Day 0: Just moved from cursor to claude code
It's 11 PM on a Tuesday. My token budget just hit zero. Claude Code is asking me the same question for the fourth time: "What coding style does this project use?" I've spent 6 hours being a glorified copy-paste machine, explaining the same context over and over.
Sound familiar?
That night, I realized something critical: Claude Code is teachable. But I was the worst teacher on Earth.
Day 1: Fighting Claude Code (The Problem)
Every conversation was Groundhog Day:
- "What's our testing framework again?"
- "How do we name files in this project?"
- "What's the deployment process?"
I was Claude Code's personal Wikipedia. This had to change.
Day 2: The Teaching Template (The Mentor)
What if Claude Code could remember your project like a team member who's been there for years?
Instead of explaining everything every time, I wrote a template. The gist is:
# Communication: Be concise, reference past learnings from docs/work/
# File Naming: YYYY-MM-DD-[001]-[category]-[summary].md
# Never code without checking docs/work/ for similar past solutions
That's it. This eliminated hours of repetitive context.
# Project: [Your Project Name]
## Tech Stack & Tooling
- **Language**: Python 3.11+
- **Package Manager**: `uv` (use `uv add <dependency>`, `uv run <script>`)
- **Testing**: pytest with coverage
- **Linting**: ruff + mypy
## Systematic File Naming
Format: `YYYY-MM-DD-[001-999]-[category]-[four-word-summary].md`
Folder: `docs/work/`
Categories: `bug` | `feature` | `task` | `research` | `learnings`
Examples:
- `2025-07-18-001-feature-user-authentication-system.md`
- `2025-07-18-002-bug-database-connection-timeout.md`
## Communication Style
- **Concise**: No fluff, direct responses
- **Evidence-based**: Show, don't just tell
- **Contextual**: Reference past learnings from `docs/work/`
## Planning Protocol
1. **Context Gathering**: Check `docs/work/` for relevant past decisions
2. **Assumption Documentation**: Explicit assumptions in plan files
3. **Execution Gate**: Only proceed after planning is complete
The transformation was instant. Claude Code started referencing past decisions, avoiding repeated mistakes, and building on previous work. It finally felt like working with a teammate.
Day 3: The Learning Moment - 30% context - (The Training)
What if Claude Code could learn from every mistake and never repeat it?
When your context hits 30%, you have one chance to crystallize everything learned. Miss it, and you go back to day 1.
When context drops below 30%:
1. Document every decision made
2. List what failed (with code snippets)
3. Note what worked brilliantly
4. Write handoff notes for next session
Use the `Systematic File Naming` given above.
Day 4: The Autonomous Engineer (The Victory)
I saw this tweet - @svs used Claude Code as an MCP client to write an MCP server.
Something magical discovered: When put in verifiable workflows, Claude Code started working much better!:
- Write code → Run tests → Fix failures → Repeat
- Build feature → Deploy to staging → Check logs → Iterate
- Analyze data → Generate insights → Verify against sources → Summarize
I wasn't micromanaging anymore. I was collaborating.
The War Stories from other folks
Met awesome folks at Fifth Elephant Conference where we shared claude code learnings.
The Token Budget Hack That Doubled My Productivity
Rajesh was burning through tokens like crazy at his startup. Then he discovered something weird about Claude's 5-hour windows.
His discovery: Start sessions at 7 AM instead of 9 AM.
Why? The overlapping windows create a "double token zone" during peak hours:
Before: 9am-2pm, 2pm-7pm (standard)
After: 7am-12pm, 12pm-5pm, 5pm-10pm (overlapping)
Result: Between 9am-5pm = double tokens available
The CSV Strategy That Saved Hours
Rajesh's team was dealing with lots of data analysis requests. CSV files everywhere. Claude kept hitting context limits trying to process raw data.
The breakthrough: Stop feeding Claude data. Feed it scripts.
Old way: "Here's a 10MB CSV, analyze it"
New way: "Write a script to analyze this CSV type, then run it"
Why it works: Scripts are tiny. Results are focused. Claude guides itself using its own analysis output.
The Accidental Discovery That Changed Everything
Ashwin was debugging a frustrating session. In a moment of rage, he accidentally hit ESC four times.
What happened next blew his mind.
Claude Code showed him a prompt history he'd never seen before. Every conversation. Every context. Time travel for developers.
The magic combo: ESC + ESC + ESC + ESC = Prompt history navigation
Game changer: You can resurrect any previous session state instantly.
Claude Code as Your Database Whisperer
At ShelfRadar, Ashwin deployed Claude Code as their internal SQL agent.
The setup: Claude Code + database schema = autonomous query optimizer
The result:
- Ad-hoc queries refined automatically
- Schema changes don't break queries
- Claude evolves with your database
The question isn't whether Claude Code is teachable.
The question is: Are you ready to become its teacher?
This revolution moves fast. By the time you read this, someone's already teaching Claude Code to do things we haven't imagined yet.
Further Reading: