The Fastest Way to Get Productive with Claude Code in 2025

Claude Code went from “interesting new toy” to “I can’t imagine coding without this” surprisingly fast.

What changed in 2025 is not just the tool itself, but the ecosystem around it. There’s now a clear path from “I’ve just installed it” to “I can safely ship code with it” - if you pick the right resources and build the right habits.

In this article I’ll walk through what’s working best for developers right now: which resources to start with, how to configure CLAUDE.md, and why Plan Mode and aggressive context management are the two habits that separate frustrated users from productive ones.

Start with the official docs (and don’t skip the best practices)

If you’re new to Claude Code, the fastest route is still very simple:

Do the 5-minute Quickstart
Start with the official Claude Code Quickstart. It walks you through installation, basic commands and your first interaction. By the end you’ll have a feel for how Claude fits into your workflow.
Read the Setup & CLI docs once, properly
From the docs hub you’ll find pages on setup, installation, and CLI usage. They cover authentication and system requirements, core CLI flags and JSON output, and how to configure subagents and more.
Don’t skip the “Common Workflows” section
The documentation for common workflows shows how Anthropic expects you to use Claude Code day-to-day: debugging, refactoring, code navigation, and multi-file edits.
Install it where you actually work
Use the IDE integration docs to configure Claude Code in VS Code or your main editor, so it’s available right where you already spend your time.

The most underrated official resource is the best practices blog post, “Claude Code: Best practices for agentic coding”. It introduces the Explore → Plan → Code → Commit loop and explains how Anthropic’s own engineers work with Plan Mode, extended thinking (think, think harder, ultrathink), and safe “YOLO mode” inside containers.

Community tutorials: seeing how people actually use it

Official docs show what’s possible. Community tutorials show how people really work with Claude Code after hundreds of hours.

A few standout resources:

For people coming from Cursor and other AI IDEs

Steve Sewell’s “How I use Claude Code (+ my best tips)” is extremely practical if you’re migrating from Cursor or another agent. He covers “hidden” shortcuts (Escape to stop Claude, double-Escape to show previous messages) and explains how he uses hierarchical CLAUDE.md files in monorepos plus hooks for auto-formatting.

For people who like structured learning paths

Daniel Avila’s “Claude Code Learning Path” on Medium gives a 5-level progression - from CLI basics to enterprise deployment - with clear “breakthrough moments” and curated links at each stage.

For people who trust tests more than vibes

Harper Reed’s “Basic Claude Code” focuses on Test-Driven Development as the main counter to hallucinations. He uses spec.md and prompt_plan.md with numbered prompts, and treats Claude like a checklist executor rather than a magician - there’s a nice example of building a BASIC interpreter in C in about an hour using this flow.

For people who learn best from real projects

Sid Bharath’s “Cooking with Claude Code: The Complete Guide” walks you through building a complete personal finance app. It’s one of the best project-based tutorials right now, covering Plan Mode, MCP integration with Supabase, and the Skills system, with a full written guide and supporting content.

If you want something lighter, the Claude Code tutorials on DataCamp and Codecademy are good “quick reference” pieces - especially for installation and first steps across platforms.

Video content and courses for visual learners

If you prefer to watch someone work before you try it yourself, a few options are worth your time:

Anthropic’s official course: “Claude Code in Action”

Hosted via Anthropic’s learning portal, this is the most complete official video curriculum: architecture, tools, context management, MCP servers, and practical demos.

Simon Willison’s 11-minute walkthrough

Simon’s short demo of using Claude Code to build an RTF-to-HTML tool shows a realistic “vibe-coding” workflow from an experienced developer. It’s a great model for how to talk to Claude clearly while keeping control of the solution.

VS Code–focused tutorials

For example, Krish Naik’s “Getting Started with Claude Code with VS Code” on YouTube walks step-by-step through extension installation, configuration, and basic workflows in the IDE. Combine that with Peter Yang’s tutorial building a YouTube research agent, and you’ll see Claude Code as an automation tool across your stack, not just “autocomplete++”.

You don’t need to watch everything. One good course plus one or two real-world walkthroughs is usually enough.

CLAUDE.md: the most important file you’ll create

Every experienced user I talk to agrees: a well-crafted CLAUDE.md gives you the biggest leverage for the least effort.

Claude loads this file into every context window. You’re effectively writing the operating manual for how it should behave in a given project. Anthropic’s own guide to using CLAUDE.md files is a great companion here.

A simple starter template might look like this:

# Project Context
Short description of what this project does and its architecture.

## Key Directories
- `src/` – main application code
- `tests/` – test files

## Standards
- Type hints required on all functions
- Run `pytest tests/ -v` before committing

## Common Commands
npm run dev    # start development server
npm run build  # production build

Practical guidelines

Run /init once per project to auto-generate a starter CLAUDE.md, then edit it.
Keep it under 100 lines; remember it’s injected into every context window.
List commands you actually use (test, build, run), not everything in package.json.
Use emphasis like IMPORTANT or YOU MUST for hard rules (security, tests).
During a session, press # to add instructions that persist into CLAUDE.md.
Put personal preferences into ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md so they apply across projects.

You can also create custom slash commands by adding markdown files to .claude/commands/. For example, a /fix-types command defined in .claude/commands/fix-types.md with instructions like:

Run the TypeScript compiler, list all type errors, and fix them one by one.

Over time, you end up with a small standard library of commands tailored to how you work.

Plan Mode and context management: your two core habits

Two habits have the biggest impact on real-world productivity:

1. Use Plan Mode for anything non-trivial

Plan Mode (Shift+Tab) puts Claude into a read-only analysis state. It’s designed for prompts like:

“Don’t write code yet. Read these files and propose a plan.”

The loop looks like this:

Ask Claude to explore and propose a plan.
Push back on risky or unclear steps.
Only when you agree, say: “OK, implement your plan.”

This maps directly to the Explore → Plan → Code → Commit flow from Anthropic’s best practices article and several community guides.

2. Be aggressive about context hygiene

Claude can handle large contexts, but once auto-compaction kicks in (around 40k+ tokens), it may start to forget details or repeat mistakes.

A few simple rules help a lot:

Use /clear between distinct tasks instead of dragging all history around.
Use /compact manually when the conversation feels “heavy” or confused, so Claude generates a fresh summary.
If Claude starts looping or ignoring instructions, reset the context and restate the goal instead of arguing with it.

Extended thinking keywords like think hard or ultrathink are useful when you want deeper reasoning - architectural decisions, security reviews, or non-obvious trade-offs - rather than quick code edits.

Common mistakes at each skill level

Knowing where people usually trip up makes it easier to avoid the same potholes.

Beginners

Being too vague: “Make this better” instead of “Refactor this function to use async/await and handle network errors.”
Skipping planning and going straight to “write the code”.
Treating Claude as a black box instead of a junior collaborator who needs explicit direction.

Intermediate users

Letting context grow indefinitely, never using /clear or /compact.
Putting generic AI instructions into CLAUDE.md instead of concrete project standards and commands.
Avoiding Plan Mode even for large refactors.
Leaving Claude unattended during long operations; it often ends up waiting for a permission confirmation or an interactive prompt.

Advanced users

Over-engineering with subagents and MCP servers when simpler flows would work.
Dropping TDD, even though tests give Claude verifiable targets and make refactors safer.
Forgetting to isolate risky operations (like --dangerously-skip-permissions) inside containers with no internet access.

One Netflix engineer summed it up nicely: treat Claude like a very fast junior developer - give it clear specs, challenge its plans, and test everything.

For a practical MCP example that enhances Claude’s code understanding without over-engineering, see Serena MCP: IDE-Like Code Understanding for AI Coding Assistants.

Where the community gathers and shares new patterns

If you want to keep evolving your setup, there are a few high-signal hubs:

The communities r/ClaudeAI and r/ClaudeCode are full of practical tips: people recommend using ccusage (via npx ccusage) to track token usage, installing Filesystem MCP as the default for multi-file work, and using Sequential Thinking MCP for complex reasoning tasks.

ClaudeLog

ClaudeLog maintains community-curated docs, including how the Rewind feature works (double-Escape or /rewind to roll back both conversation and code state) and detailed MCP configuration guides.

Awesome Claude Code on GitHub

The Awesome Claude Code list collects ready-made slash commands, hooks, workflows and CLAUDE.md templates. The TDD Guard hooks and TypeScript quality hooks are particularly popular.

Hacker News threads regularly surface edge cases and war stories-for example, how writing a 12-step specification can save hours of iteration, or why you should always isolate Claude Code in safe containers when you’re tempted to skip permission prompts.

A simple learning path for your first week

If you want a concrete plan, here’s a pragmatic sequence that works well for most people:

Run the official Quickstart and get Claude Code running in a real project.
Run /init in your main repo and clean up the generated CLAUDE.md to reflect your real architecture, commands and standards.
Read Anthropic’s best practices article once, end to end.
Pick one project-based tutorial, like Sid Bharath’s “Cooking with Claude Code”, and follow it through to the end.
In your first real session, practice this loop:
- Plan Mode: “Don’t write code yet, just propose a plan.”
- Review and adjust the plan.
- Implement step by step, ideally with tests.
- Use /clear more often than feels natural.

The biggest unlock isn’t a specific flag, hook, or MCP server. It’s the mental shift from “AI that writes code for me” to “a very fast collaborator that needs clear specs, plans before implementation, and frequent context resets.”

Once you internalize that, Claude Code stops being a fancy autocomplete and starts feeling like an actual teammate - just one that doesn’t get tired of reading your entire codebase.

Want to extend Claude Code with curated plugins? Check out Puerto, our plugin marketplace for MCP servers, commands, and skills.