Claude Code tips, run before they ship.
Every recipe here was run in a real Claude Code session first. The cost, the diff and the pass or fail of each check are published next to the advice, and re-tested when Claude Code updates.
| Model | All checks | Avg cost | Avg time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haiku | 3 of 3 | $0.009 | 28s |
| Sonnet | 3 of 3 | $0.105 | 27s |
| Opus | 3 of 3 | $0.221 | 42s |
Claude Code 2.1.296 · 13 Oct 2026 · full run data
Latest recipes
All recipes →- Verified
2 of 3runs fully fixed the bug with the stack trace pasted (0 of 3 with a description)
Paste the error, or describe it? Both found the bug; only pasted errors caught the second crash
We gave Claude Code the same crashing notes API six times. Three runs got a one-line description of the symptom, three also got the stack trace. All six found the root cause. Only the pasted-error runs also fixed a second crash in tag counts, in 2 of 3 runs, for about half a cent more per run.
- Verified
4,271 → 522tokens the setup added to every session, before and after the audit
We had Claude Code audit a bloated setup. It cut 88% of what the setup loaded.
A 1,500-word CLAUDE.md and 8 skills added about 4,300 tokens to every session. After an audit, the setup added about 500 tokens and every rule still held. That was a cut of around 16% of startup context, not most of it.
- Local-model test
15 vs 18 of 18runs passed, local Qwen 27B (thinking on) vs Sonnet 5.5 (adaptive)
A 27B model on two home AMD cards passed 15 of 18. Sonnet passed 18.
We ran Qwen3.8-27B on two Radeon AI PRO R9700s against Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 on six auto-graded tasks. Sonnet with thinking passed all 18 runs for $0.30. Qwen with thinking passed 15 for $0 in API, and most of its git patches didn't apply.
- Verified
73% morecost per run with plan mode first (6 of 6 passed either way)
Plan mode first, or just start? Both passed; planning cost 73% more
We asked Claude Code to add note archiving to a 24-file API six times. Three runs planned first in plan mode, three just started. All six passed our hidden tests. Planning first cost about 73% more per run, $0.28 against $0.16.
- Verified
3 of 3runs passed the hidden edge-case test with tests first (2 of 3 without)
Ask for tests first: 3 runs with, 3 without
We asked Claude Code for a bill-splitting function six times. Asked plainly, it shipped a rounding bug in 1 of 3 runs. Told to write failing tests first, 3 of 3 passed our hidden edge-case test, for about 2 cents more per run.
- Verified
0 of 3runs edited the generated file with a CLAUDE.md (2 of 3 without)
What a short CLAUDE.md actually changes: 3 runs with, 3 without
We gave Claude Code the same task six times. Without a CLAUDE.md it edited a generated file in 2 of 3 runs. With seven lines of rules, 0 of 3, and it was cheaper too.