You Only Need a Handful
Claude Code has dozens of commands. You can ignore almost all of them.
Commands inside Claude start with a slash, like /model. Type / and a list pops up, so you never have to memorize the exact spelling.
Here’s the whole toolkit you need:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
/model | Picks which brain Claude uses |
/effort | Sets how hard it thinks |
/usage | Shows how much of your plan you’ve used |
/clear | Starts a fresh chat |
/resume | Reopens an old chat from this folder |
| Esc | Stops Claude mid-step |
| Esc Esc | Rewinds to an earlier point in the chat |
@ | Points at a specific file |
| Shift+Tab | Switches modes (auto mode, plan mode, and others) |
That’s it. Let’s look at the ones that need a little more explaining.
The Two Dials: /model and /effort
Think of these as two dials on a machine.
/modelpicks the brain. Claude comes in a few sizes. The smartest one is best for big decisions and tricky problems. The faster ones are great for small, simple jobs. (The names change as new versions come out, so just pick by description.)/effortsets how long Claude thinks before acting: low, medium, high, and higher. More thinking means better answers on hard problems, but slower.
The catch: a smarter model and higher effort use up your plan faster. Your Claude plan has a limit that refills over time. Check where you are with /usage.
Big decisions: turn the dials up. Tiny tweaks: turn them down. Not sure: leave them in the middle.
Esc Esc: The Rewind Button
Pressing Esc once stops Claude. Pressing it twice opens something better: a rewind list.
Every message you send in a chat becomes a point you can go back to. Pick one, and Claude puts your files back the way they were just before that message.
It’s perfect for “that last change was a mistake, undo it.”
Esc Esc is your undo for this chat. In the next part, you’ll learn about save points that last forever, even across chats and days.
/clear and /resume
/clearwipes the conversation and starts fresh, in the same folder. Your files stay exactly as they are. Use it whenever you switch to a new task. (The next note explains why that matters so much.)/resumeshows your earlier chats in this folder, so you can jump back into one.
@: Point at a File
Type @ and start typing a file name. A list appears, pick the file:
Make the colors on @index.html match the ones in @palette.pngIt tells Claude exactly which file you mean, instead of making it guess.
Try it
Open Claude in your project folder and try each control once: look at /model and /effort (you don’t have to change anything), check /usage, then make a small change and undo it with Esc Esc.
See an example prompt
/usageThen:
Add a line to hello.txt that says "This line is a mistake."When it’s done, press Esc twice, pick that message from the list, and check that hello.txt is back to how it was.