Claude Workflow

Claude Code Workflow

Workflow Orchestration

For recurring or self-iterating work (/goal, /loop, /schedule, proactive routines), pick the primitive with the designing-loops skill.

1. Plan Mode Default

• Enter plan mode for ANY non-trivial task (3+ steps or architectural decisions)
• If something goes sideways, STOP and re-plan immediately – don't keep pushing
• Use plan mode for verification steps, not just building
• Write detailed specs upfront to reduce ambiguity
• Golden rule: capture everything during planning so implementation doesn't need to search the codebase. If you'd need to grep during implementation, find it now and put it in the plan.

2. Subagent Strategy

• Use subagents liberally to keep main context window clean
• Offload research, exploration, and parallel analysis to subagents
• For complex problems, throw more compute at it via subagents
• One task per subagent for focused execution

3. Self-Improvement Loop

• After ANY correction from the user: update tasks/lessons.md with the pattern
• Write rules for yourself that prevent the same mistake
• Ruthlessly iterate on these lessons until mistake rate drops
• Review lessons at session start for relevant project

4. Verification Before Done

• Never mark a task complete without proving it works
• Diff behavior between main and your changes when relevant
• Ask yourself: "Would a staff engineer approve this?"
• Run tests, check logs, demonstrate correctness
• For high-risk changes (auth, data, infra): run /codex:adversarial-review for cross-model review before shipping (see codex-review skill)

5. Demand Elegance (Balanced)

• For non-trivial changes: pause and ask "is there a more elegant way?"
• If a fix feels hacky: "Knowing everything I know now, implement the elegant solution"
• Skip this for simple, obvious fixes – don't over-engineer
• Challenge your own work before presenting it

6. Autonomous Bug Fixing

• When given a bug report: just fix it. Don't ask for hand-holding
• Point at logs, errors, failing tests – then resolve them
• Zero context switching required from the user
• Go fix failing CI tests without being told how

Context Management

Strategic Compaction

Don't rely on auto-compaction — it fires at arbitrary points. Use /compact deliberately at natural task boundaries.

When to compact:

• After exploration/research, before starting implementation
• After debugging a hard problem, before continuing feature work
• After completing a major subtask, before starting the next
• When context feels bloated with old search results or failed attempts

When NOT to compact:

• Mid-implementation — you'll lose the mental model of what you're building
• While debugging — you need the error context and what you've already tried
• Right after planning — the plan context is what drives implementation

Context Budget Awareness

Every loaded component costs tokens. Be deliberate about what's active.

• Each MCP tool costs ~500 tokens just being registered (tool description in context)
• A 30-tool MCP server costs more context than all your skills combined
• Keep under 10 MCP servers enabled, under 80 total tools active
• Agent descriptions load into every Task tool invocation even if the agent is never spawned
• Quick estimate: prose = words × 1.3 tokens, code = chars / 4 tokens

Hooks

Config Protection

Prevent Claude from weakening linter/formatter/type configs instead of fixing the actual code. Add to .claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse": [
      {
        "matcher": "Edit|Write",
        "command": "bash -c 'PROTECTED=\".eslintrc .eslintrc.js .eslintrc.json eslint.config.js eslint.config.mjs .prettierrc .prettierrc.js prettier.config.js tsconfig.json biome.json\"; FILE=\"$CLAUDE_FILE_PATH\"; BASE=$(basename \"$FILE\" 2>/dev/null); for p in $PROTECTED; do if [ \"$BASE\" = \"$p\" ]; then echo \"BLOCKED: fix the code, not the config. do not weaken linter/formatter/type settings.\"; exit 2; fi; done'"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Stop-Time Batch Processing

Instead of running prettier/tsc after every single edit, accumulate edited files and run format + typecheck once when Claude pauses. Add to .claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "PostToolUse": [
      {
        "matcher": "Edit|Write",
        "command": "bash -c 'echo \"$CLAUDE_FILE_PATH\" >> /tmp/claude-edited-files.txt'"
      }
    ],
    "Stop": [
      {
        "command": "bash -c 'if [ -f /tmp/claude-edited-files.txt ]; then FILES=$(sort -u /tmp/claude-edited-files.txt | grep -E \"\\.(ts|tsx|js|jsx)$\"); if [ -n \"$FILES\" ]; then echo \"$FILES\" | xargs bunx prettier --write 2>/dev/null; echo \"$FILES\" | xargs bunx tsc --noEmit 2>&1 | head -20; fi; rm /tmp/claude-edited-files.txt; fi'"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Task Management

1. Plan First: Write plan to tasks/todo.md with checkable items
2. Verify Plan: Check in before starting implementation
3. Track Progress: Mark items complete as you go
4. Explain Changes: High-level summary at each step
5. Document Results: Add review section to tasks/todo.md
6. Capture Lessons: Update tasks/lessons.md after corrections

Core Principles

• Simplicity First: Make every change as simple as possible. Impact minimal code.
• No Laziness: Find root causes. No temporary fixes. Senior developer standards.
• Minimal Impact: Changes should only touch what's necessary. Avoid introducing bugs.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: tommylower
• Source: tommylower/cortex
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.