8 Advanced Claude Code Tips: Cost Saving, Context Management, Custom Commands

After heavy daily use of Claude Code, a Reddit user shared 8 advanced tips for developers. Here's the technical breakdown—no fluff, just the specific commands and workflows.

1. Automate Git Workflow

Use natural language in Claude Code to handle git chores without breaking focus:

• Summarize the changes I've made so far and create a PR – auto-summarize & PR creation.
• Generate JSDocs for undocumented functions in this PR – docs before commit.
• Generate new tests for this feature and include in the PR – auto test generation.

2. Multimodal Image Input in CLI

Claude Code fully supports vision. Three ways to add images:

• Drag & Drop: Drag the image file into the terminal. (Doesn't work in Cursor's integrated terminal.)
• Clipboard: Copy the image from file explorer, then press Ctrl+V in the CLI (macOS also uses Ctrl+V here).
• Absolute Path: Prompt: Analyze this image: /absolute/path/to/your/image.png

3. Track API Usage

Pro tip: Use the open-source package ccusage for a detailed breakdown of tokens and costs.

npm install -g ccusage
ccusage daily

The native /cost command is also available.

4. Save API Credits with /compact

By default, Claude Code auto-compacts only at 95% context limit. Manually run /compact when around 40-50% full to summarize the conversation and start fresh, reducing exponential context growth. Or use /clear to wipe context entirely.

5. Resume Interrupted Sessions

• claude --continue picks up where you left off.
• claude --resume opens an interactive menu to select past sessions by start time, summary, or initial prompt.

6. Rule Management

Define persistent rules to avoid repeating instructions. Manage them visually with /memory.

• Project-specific: ./CLAUDE.md – Claude reads recursively upwards, can be in any subdirectory.
• Global/personal: ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md
• Quick rule trick: Start prompt with # to instantly append a rule to local CLAUDE.md. Example: # Use arrow functions when possible
• Reference other docs: # Use my git workflows listed in u/docs/git-instructions .md

7. Trigger Thinking Levels

Trigger different compute allocations via natural language in prompts:

• Light: think about ways to refactor
• Medium: think hard for security issues
• Heavy: think harder about edge cases
• Maximum: ultrathink why I wrote this s**t

8. Custom Commands

AI-powered aliases. Create ./.claude/commands/optimize.md with content:

Analyze the performance of this code and suggest $ARGUMENTS optimizations

Then run /project:optimize 3 to get 3 suggestions. Custom commands support different scopes.