Claude Code Guide

Complete guide to Claude Code with 86 production-ready templates

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⚡ Quick Start

Quickest path: Cheat Sheet — 1 printable page with daily essentials

Interactive onboarding (no clone needed):

claude "Fetch and follow the onboarding instructions from: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FlorianBruniaux/claude-code-ultimate-guide/main/tools/onboarding-prompt.md"

Browse directly: Full Guide | Examples | Quiz

Prerequisites & Minimal CLAUDE.md Template

Prerequisites: Node.js 18+ | Anthropic API key

# Project: [NAME]

## Tech Stack
- Language: [e.g., TypeScript]
- Framework: [e.g., Next.js 14]
- Testing: [e.g., Vitest]

## Commands
- Build: `npm run build`
- Test: `npm test`
- Lint: `npm run lint`

## Rules
- Run tests before marking tasks complete
- Follow existing code patterns
- Keep commits atomic and conventional

Save as CLAUDE.md in your project root. Claude reads it automatically.

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Why This Guide?

The problem: Awesome-lists give links, not learning paths. Official docs are dense. Tutorials get outdated in weeks.

This guide: Structured learning path with 86 copy-paste templates, from first install to advanced workflows.

Reading time: Quick Start ~15 min. Full guide ~4 hours (most read by section).

By Florian BRUNIAUX | Founding Engineer @Méthode Aristote

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👥 Not a Developer?

Claude Cowork is the companion guide for non-technical users (knowledge workers, assistants, managers).

Same agentic capabilities as Claude Code, but through a visual interface with no coding required.

→ Claude Cowork Guide — File organization, document generation, automated workflows

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⚠️ ClawdBot vs Claude Code?

Seen the buzz about ClawdBot? It's a different tool. ClawdBot = self-hosted chatbot for messaging apps (personal automation, smart home). Claude Code = CLI for developers (terminal/IDE, code generation).

→ See FAQ for detailed comparison table and decision tree

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🔧 Hitting Rate Limits or High Costs?

cc-copilot-bridge routes Claude Code through GitHub Copilot Pro+ for flat-rate access ($10/month instead of per-token billing).

# Install
git clone https://github.com/FlorianBruniaux/cc-copilot-bridge.git && cd cc-copilot-bridge && ./install.sh

# Use
ccc   # Copilot mode (flat $10/month)
ccd   # Direct Anthropic mode (per-token)
cco   # Offline mode (Ollama, 100% local)

→ cc-copilot-bridge — Multi-provider switching, rate limit bypass, 99%+ cost savings

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🎯 Learning Paths

Junior Developer — Foundation path (7 steps)

1. Quick Start — Install & first workflow
2. Essential Commands — The 7 commands
3. Context Management — Critical concept
4. Memory Files — Your first CLAUDE.md
5. Learning with AI — Use AI without becoming dependent ⭐
6. TDD Workflow — Test-first development
7. Cheat Sheet — Print this

Senior Developer — Intermediate path (6 steps)

1. Core Concepts — Mental model
2. Plan Mode — Safe exploration
3. Methodologies — TDD, SDD, BDD reference
4. Agents — Custom AI personas
5. Hooks — Event automation
6. CI/CD Integration — Pipelines

Power User — Comprehensive path (7 steps)

1. Complete Guide — End-to-end
2. Architecture — How Claude Code works
3. Security Hardening — MCP vetting, injection defense
4. MCP Servers — Extended capabilities
5. Trinity Pattern — Advanced workflows
6. Observability — Monitor costs & sessions
7. Examples — Production templates

Product Manager — Overview path (5 steps)

1. What's Inside — Scope
2. Golden Rules — Key principles
3. Data Privacy — Retention & compliance
4. Adoption Approaches — Team strategies
5. PM FAQ — Code-adjacent vs non-coding PMs

Note: Non-coding PMs should consider Claude Cowork Guide instead (visual interface, no CLI).

DevOps / SRE — Infrastructure path (5 steps)

1. DevOps & SRE Guide — FIRE framework for infrastructure diagnosis
2. K8s Troubleshooting — Prompts by symptom
3. Incident Response — Solo & multi-agent workflows
4. IaC Patterns — Terraform, Ansible, GitOps
5. Guardrails — Security boundaries & team adoption

Product Designer — Design-to-code path (5 steps)

1. Working with Images — Image analysis basics
2. Wireframing Tools — ASCII/Excalidraw workflows
3. Figma MCP — Design file access & tokens
4. Design-to-Code Workflow — Figma Make → Claude handoff ⭐
5. Cheat Sheet — Print this

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📚 What's Inside

Core Documentation

File	Purpose	Time
Ultimate Guide	Complete reference (~15K lines), 10 sections	~4 hours
Cheat Sheet	1-page printable reference	5 min
Architecture	How Claude Code works internally	25 min
Methodologies	TDD, SDD, BDD reference	20 min
Workflows	Practical guides (TDD, Plan-Driven, Task Management)	30 min
Data Privacy	Retention & compliance	10 min
Security Hardening	MCP vetting, injection defense	25 min
Production Safety	Port stability, DB safety, infrastructure lock	20 min
DevOps & SRE	FIRE framework, K8s troubleshooting, incident response	30 min
Claude Code Releases	Official release history	10 min

Repository Structure

claude-code-ultimate-guide/
├── guide/                    # 📖 Core documentation
│   ├── ultimate-guide.md     # Complete reference (~15K lines)
│   ├── cheatsheet.md         # 1-page printable reference
│   ├── architecture.md       # How Claude Code works internally
│   ├── methodologies.md      # 15 development methodologies
│   └── workflows/            # TDD, Task Management, Plan-Driven guides
│
├── examples/                 # 📦 Production templates
│   ├── agents/               # Custom AI personas
│   ├── commands/             # Slash commands (/pr, /commit...)
│   ├── hooks/                # Security & automation (bash + PS)
│   ├── skills/               # Knowledge modules
│   └── scripts/              # Utility scripts
│
├── docs/                     # 📚 Public documentation
│   └── resource-evaluations/ # Community resource assessments (14 files)
│
├── tools/                    # 🔧 Interactive utilities
│   ├── audit-prompt.md       # Setup audit
│   └── onboarding-prompt.md  # Personalized guided tour
│
├── machine-readable/         # 🤖 LLM/AI consumption
│   ├── reference.yaml        # Structured index (~2K tokens)
│   └── llms.txt              # Standard LLM context file
│
└── quiz/                     # 🧠 Interactive quiz (227 questions)

Examples Library (86 templates)

Agents (6): code-reviewer, test-writer, security-auditor, refactoring-specialist, output-evaluator, devops-sre ⭐

Slash Commands (18): /pr, /commit, /release-notes, /diagnose, /security, /refactor, /explain, /optimize, /ship...

Security Hooks (18): dangerous-actions-blocker, prompt-injection-detector, unicode-injection-scanner, output-secrets-scanner...

Skills (1): Claudeception — Meta-skill that auto-generates skills from session discoveries ⭐

Plugins (1): SE-CoVe — Chain-of-Verification for independent code review (Meta AI, ACL 2024)

Utility Scripts: session-search.sh, audit-scan.sh

GitHub Actions: claude-pr-auto-review.yml, claude-security-review.yml, claude-issue-triage.yml

Integrations (1): Agent Vibes TTS - Text-to-speech narration for Claude Code responses

Browse Complete Catalog | Interactive Catalog

Knowledge Quiz (227 questions)

Test your Claude Code knowledge with an interactive CLI quiz covering all guide sections.

cd quiz && npm install && npm start

Features: 4 profiles (Junior/Senior/Power User/PM), 10 topic categories, immediate feedback with doc links, score tracking with weak area identification.

Quiz Documentation | Contribute Questions

Resource Evaluations (15 assessments)

Systematic evaluation of external resources (tools, methodologies, articles) before integration into the guide.

Methodology: 5-point scoring system (Critical → Low) with technical review and challenge phase for objectivity.

Evaluations: GSD methodology, Worktrunk, Boris Cowork video, AST-grep, ClawdBot analysis, and more.

Browse Evaluations | Evaluation Methodology

Audit Tools

Quick scan (~2s):

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FlorianBruniaux/claude-code-ultimate-guide/main/examples/scripts/audit-scan.sh | bash

Deep audit with personalized recommendations: tools/audit-prompt.md

For AI Assistants (LLM-optimized)

Resource	Purpose	Tokens
llms.txt	Standard context file	~1K
reference.yaml	Structured index with line numbers	~2K

Quick load: curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FlorianBruniaux/claude-code-ultimate-guide/main/machine-readable/reference.yaml

Alternative Formats

• DeepWiki — AI-powered Q&A
• NotebookLM Slides — Visual overview
• Kimi PDF — Full text export

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🔑 Golden Rules

1. Always review diffs before accepting changes — Claude suggests, you decide
2. Use /compact before context hits 70% — prevention beats recovery
3. Be specific in requests — Include WHAT, WHERE, HOW, VERIFY
4. Start with Plan Mode for risky/complex tasks — read-only exploration first
5. Create CLAUDE.md for every project — single source of truth

Context management is critical. See the Cheat Sheet for thresholds and actions.

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🌍 About

Origins & Philosophy

This guide is the result of several months of daily practice with Claude Code. I don't claim expertise—I'm sharing what I've learned to help peers and evangelize AI-assisted development best practices.

Philosophy: Learning journey over reference manual. Understanding why before how. Progressive complexity — start simple, master advanced at your pace.

Created with Claude Code. Community-validated through contributions and feedback.

Key Inspirations:

• Claudelog.com — Excellent patterns & tutorials
• zebbern/claude-code-guide — Comprehensive reference with security focus
• ykdojo/claude-code-tips — Practical productivity techniques

External Research Tools:

• Petri 2.0 — Open-source AI behavior audit tool (Anthropic Alignment)
  • 70 scenarios for collusion, ethics conflicts, info sensitivity
  • Eval-awareness mitigations + benchmarks (Claude Opus 4.5, GPT-5.2, Gemini 3 Pro, Grok 4)
  • Blog

Privacy & Data

Claude Code sends your prompts, file contents, and MCP results to Anthropic servers.

• Default: 5 years retention (training enabled) | Opt-out: 30 days | Enterprise: 0
• Action: Disable training | Full privacy guide

Claude Cowork (for Non-Developers)

Cowork is Claude's agentic desktop feature for knowledge workers — same AI, files-only interface.

📦 Complete Documentation Now Has Its Own Repository!

⭐ Star the repo: FlorianBruniaux/claude-cowork-guide

Quick Access (34 files, v1.0.0):

Resource	Description
🏠 Main Hub	Complete documentation repository
🚀 Getting Started	Setup, first workflow, CTOC framework
⚡ Cheatsheet	1-page printable reference
❓ FAQ	20+ frequently asked questions

Content:

• 📖 6 Core Guides: Overview, capabilities, security, troubleshooting
• 📝 60+ Prompts: File ops, document creation, data extraction, research
• 🔧 5 Workflows: File organization, expense tracking, report synthesis, meeting prep, team handoff
• 🎓 Interactive Onboarding: Personalized learning path
• 🛠️ 3 Scripts: Version sync, stats update, validation

Status: Research preview (Pro $20/mo or Max $100-200/mo, macOS only, VPN incompatible)

Archive: Historical versions available in git history (pre-v3.15.0)

Ecosystem & Related Resources

This Guide's Ecosystem (4 interconnected repositories):

Repository	Purpose	Audience
Claude Code Guide (this repo)	Comprehensive documentation (13K lines, 82 templates)	Developers
Claude Cowork Guide	Non-technical usage (67 prompts, 5 workflows)	Knowledge workers
Code Landing (to be deployed)	Marketing site for Claude Code guide	Discovery
Cowork Landing (to be deployed)	Marketing site for Cowork guide	Discovery

💡 Architecture: Separate repos for clear audience separation (devs vs non-devs), bidirectional cross-links for easy navigation.

Complementary resources:

Project	Focus	Best For
claude-code-templates	Distribution - Install & use	Getting 200+ templates via CLI (17k⭐)
skills.sh	Skills marketplace - Discover & install	One-command skill installation (npx add-skill) from Vercel Labs
awesome-claude-code	Curation - Discover & link	Exploring community resources
Claude-Code-Everything	Visual walkthrough	Learning through screenshots
AI Coding Agents Matrix	Technical comparison	Comparing Claude Code vs 22+ alternatives

AI Coding Agents Matrix (by Packmind):

• Interactive comparison: 23 AI coding agents across 11 technical criteria
• Criteria: CLI, MCP Support, Skills, Commands, Subagents, Plan Mode, AGENTS.md, and more
• Sortable/filterable matrix for precision discovery
• Open source (Apache-2.0), community-driven
• Use case: Discovery (Matrix: "Which agent has X feature?") → Mastery (This Guide: "How to use Claude Code?")

Positioning: Use Matrix to discover and compare → Choose Claude Code → Use this guide to master it.

Community: 🇫🇷 Dev With AI — 1500+ devs on Slack, meetups in Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon

Official docs: docs.anthropic.com/claude-code

Windows & Translation

Windows Users: Most commands work with Git Bash. Use %USERPROFILE%\.claude\ for paths. Report issues

Language: Written in English for wider reach. French is my native language. Request translations via issues.

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🤝 Contributing

Found an error? Have a suggestion? See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Ways to Help: Star the repo • Report issues • Submit PRs • Share workflows in Discussions

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📄 License & Support

Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Free to share and adapt with attribution.

Stay Updated: Watch releases | Discussions | Connect on LinkedIn

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Version 3.15.0 | January 2026 | Crafted with Claude