You’ve seen the basic slash commands. This module covers the commands that experienced Claude Code users reach for once the initial workflow is working — context management, session tools, the bundled skills, and keyboard shortcuts that speed everything up.
Context and Session Management
Every Claude Code session has a context window. /context visualizes it as a colored grid — green for available, yellow for getting full, red for nearly exhausted. When context gets long, /compact compresses the conversation. Pass focus instructions to preserve what matters: /compact focus on the database migration plan.
/branch creates a parallel conversation from the current point, letting you explore two approaches side by side. /rewind rolls back to an earlier point — useful when Claude went down the wrong path. It optionally reverts file changes too, functioning as an undo for both conversation and code.
Session resumption makes long work possible. /rename my-feature saves the current session with a readable name. /resume my-feature picks it back up later with full context intact. Export a session to a file or clipboard with /export for sharing or archiving.
/context
/compact focus on the auth refactor
/branch
/rename auth-refactor-v2
/export auth-refactor-v2.mdBundled Skills
Claude Code ships with built-in skills that work like commands. These are always available without installation.
/simplify reviews recently changed files for code quality, spawning parallel review agents that look at different concerns. /batch <instruction> is for large-scale changes across many files — it plans the work, uses isolated git worktrees, and can coordinate verification and PR-oriented follow-up. /loop 5m check deploy status runs a prompt repeatedly on an interval, useful for polling long-running operations. /proactive is an alias for /loop — same behaviour, often more readable when the goal is “keep watching and act on what you see” rather than “run this on a timer”.
/debug enables verbose logging to help diagnose issues with Claude’s behavior or tool use. /claude-api loads the Anthropic SDK reference for the project’s language — it activates automatically when it detects imports from @anthropic-ai/sdk or the Python anthropic package.
/simplify
/batch add JSDoc comments to all public functions in src/
/loop 2m check if the build finished
/debugFast Mode
Fast mode is a high-speed API configuration of Opus 4.6 that prioritizes speed over cost efficiency — approximately 2.5x faster at higher token cost. It’s not a separate model but the same Opus 4.6 with a different configuration. Available via /fast or by setting fastMode: true in user settings. When enabled, a ↯ icon appears next to the prompt bar.
/fast # toggle on/off
/fast on # explicitly enable
/fast off # explicitly disableFast mode switches you to Opus 4.6 automatically if you’re on a different model. When you turn it off, you stay on Opus 4.6 — use /model to switch models. Opus 4.7 is available from the picker as opus-4-7 or claude-opus-4-7.
If you’re using a custom LLM gateway, set CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_GATEWAY_MODEL_DISCOVERY=1 to populate the /model picker from your gateway’s /v1/models endpoint automatically.
Fast mode and effort level are separate speed levers. /fast reduces latency without changing quality. /effort low reduces thinking time, which may lower quality on complex tasks. Combine both for maximum speed on straightforward work:
/fast
/effort lowWhen the fast mode rate limit is hit, it automatically falls back to standard Opus 4.6 speed (the ↯ icon turns gray) and re-enables when the cooldown expires. Fast mode requires extra usage to be enabled on your account and is not available on Bedrock, Vertex AI, or Foundry. Enterprise admins can control availability through managed settings.
Keyboard Shortcuts and Power Features
Shift+Tab cycles through permission modes. The order is default, acceptEdits, plan, and then optional modes like auto or bypassPermissions if they are enabled in your environment. This is the fastest way to switch to plan mode for a complex task and back afterward.
Option+T (macOS) or Alt+T toggles extended thinking — Claude spends more time reasoning before responding. Use /effort to set reasoning depth: auto, low, medium, high, xhigh, or max where supported. max applies to the current session only. Ctrl+O enters verbose mode to see tool calls and thinking steps as they happen.
/btw your question asks a side question without adding it to the conversation history — useful for checking a fact or asking about syntax without cluttering the context. Ctrl+B backgrounds running bash commands and agents so you can give Claude another instruction while they continue working. If you need to kill all background agents, the official shortcut is Ctrl+X Ctrl+K.
Ctrl+U clears the entire input buffer, and Ctrl+Y restores what you just cleared — handy when you’ve typed a long prompt and want to start over without losing it. Ctrl+L forces a full screen redraw in addition to clearing the prompt input, useful when terminal output tears or drifts. In the transcript viewer footer, [ dumps the transcript to scrollback and v opens it in your $EDITOR.
The /diff command opens an interactive diff viewer for uncommitted changes — better than reading raw git output when you want to review what Claude has done before committing. /insights generates a session analysis report with statistics on what was accomplished.
# Toggle to plan mode, then back
Shift+Tab
Shift+Tab
/effort high
/btw what's the difference between async and defer on script tags?Vim Visual Mode
Vim users get visual selection in the input editor. Press v for character-wise selection and V for line-wise selection. Once in visual mode, navigation keys (h, j, k, l, w, e, b, f, F, t, T) extend the selection. Then apply an operator:
d/x deletes, y yanks, c/s changes, p replaces with register contents, r{char} replaces every selected character, ~/u/U toggles or forces case, >/< indents or dedents, J joins lines, and o swaps the cursor and anchor. Text objects like iw, aw, i", a", i(, a( work for precise selections. Block-wise visual mode (Ctrl+V) is not supported.
/usage — Unified Session Statistics
The /usage command shows a unified dashboard that merges what /cost and /stats used to show separately — total cost estimate, API and wall-clock duration, and lines added or removed. For API users it includes detailed token statistics; for subscribers it shows plan usage bars and activity. Both /cost and /stats still work as shortcuts that open the relevant tab. Dollar figures are locally computed estimates — check the Claude Console for authoritative billing.
/goal — Goal-Directed Sessions
The /goal command sets a completion condition that Claude works toward across multiple turns. Once a goal is active, Claude keeps working autonomously until the condition is satisfied. A live overlay shows elapsed time, turn count, and token usage so you can monitor progress without interrupting.
/goal migrate all API endpoints from REST to GraphQL
/goal all tests pass and coverage is above 80%Goals pair well with /effort high for complex multi-step tasks. To cap how many turns Claude will take, set CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_TURNS as an environment variable:
export CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_TURNS=50Custom Themes
The /theme command lets you create and switch between named color themes. Themes are stored as JSON files in ~/.claude/themes/ and can be hand-edited. Plugins can also ship themes via a themes/ directory in the plugin bundle.