I’ve been running Claude Code as my main coding tool for most of the past year. Most of the work I do at RightBlogger and on the small product sites I run goes through it at some point. There are 103 commands as I write this, but the actual list I touch in a given week is much smaller.
This is that list, plus an honest section on --dangerously-skip-permissions, which is the flag everyone wants to know about and almost nobody uses correctly.
How commands work in Claude Code
Inside a session, type / to see every command available, or type / followed by a few letters to filter. A command is only recognized at the very start of your message; anything after the command name is passed as arguments.
Two things to know up front. First, slash commands and skills now use the same system. The official commands reference splits them into “built-in commands” (behavior coded into the CLI, like /clear and /model) and “bundled skills” (prompt-driven, like /simplify and /debug), but you invoke both the same way. If you put a file at .claude/commands/deploy.md or a skill at .claude/skills/deploy/SKILL.md, both create /deploy.
Second, not every command shows up for every user. Availability depends on your plan, OS, and environment. /desktop only shows on macOS and Windows when you’re signed in with a Claude subscription. /upgrade doesn’t show on Enterprise plans. If a command in this post isn’t there for you, that’s why.
Everything below is from the official commands reference and the permissions docs, tested against Claude Code 2.1.220. Last checked July 26, 2026.
The ones I run constantly
These are the ten or so commands that earn their muscle memory.
Context management: /clear, /compact, /context
/clear starts a new conversation with an empty context. The previous one stays available in /resume. Pass an optional name (/clear notes) to label the previous conversation in the resume picker so it’s easier to find later. Aliases: /reset, /new.
/compact [instructions] is different. It keeps the same conversation but summarizes it to free up context. Pass focus instructions if you want the summary biased toward something specific. Use this when you’re mid-task and the context bar is getting hot.
/context shows current context usage as a colored grid, with suggestions for what’s eating the most. I use it whenever a session starts feeling sluggish to figure out which tool or memory file is bloating things.
Sessions: /resume, /branch, /rewind
/resume [session] (alias /continue) jumps back into a previous conversation. With no argument, it opens a picker.
/branch [name] creates a branch of the current conversation at this point and switches you into it. You can explore one approach, then /resume back to the original and try a different one without losing either. Note that /fork used to be an alias for this and no longer is: as of v2.1.212 it copies the conversation into a separate background session instead. More on that below.
/rewind is checkpointing. Roll back the conversation, the code, or both, to a previous point, or summarize from a selected message. Aliases: /checkpoint, /undo. This one feels weird the first time and indispensable after.
Models and effort: /model, /effort
/model [model] switches the model for the session. With no argument, it opens a picker.
/effort [level] controls how much reasoning the model uses. Accepts low, medium, high, xhigh, max, or ultracode. max and ultracode are session-only, and the available levels depend on the model you’re on. ultracode is a Claude Code setting that pairs xhigh reasoning with automatic workflow orchestration. Run with no argument to get an interactive slider. Both of these take effect immediately, without waiting for the current response to finish, which is the kind of small detail you only appreciate after living without it.
Diffs and reviews: /diff, /code-review, /security-review
/diff opens an interactive diff viewer for uncommitted changes and per-turn diffs. Left and right arrows switch between the current git diff and individual Claude turns; up and down browse files. This is what I use to actually read what just happened before I trust it.
/code-review is the one that matters now, and it took over the job the old /review used to do. It reviews the current diff for correctness bugs and cleanup opportunities, and takes an effort level as the first argument: /code-review low through max, plus ultra for a deep multi-agent review in a cloud sandbox. Add --fix to apply what it finds, or --comment to post the findings as inline GitHub PR comments. The ultra tier includes 3 free runs on Pro and Max before it starts drawing usage credits, and it isn’t something Claude can launch on its own.
/review [PR] still exists but is now a narrower thing: a fast single-pass, read-only review of a GitHub pull request by number. With no argument it lists open PRs to pick from. If you want the multi-agent version against a PR, use /code-review <level> <pr#> instead.
/security-review analyzes pending changes on the current branch for things like injection, auth issues, and data exposure. Worth running before any PR that touches request handling.
File access: /permissions, /add-dir
/permissions (alias /allowed-tools) opens an interactive dialog for managing allow, ask, and deny rules. You can view rules by scope, add or remove them, and review recent auto-mode denials. This is the single command most worth learning if you want to stop being prompted for the same Bash variations forty times a day.
/add-dir <path> adds a working directory for file access during the current session. Worth knowing: most .claude/ configuration in the added directory is not loaded as configuration, just as files. The exceptions are skills in .claude/skills/, which do get picked up with live reload.
The ones worth knowing exist
These don’t earn daily slots, but they’re the ones I reach for when the situation calls for them.
/initinitializes a project with aCLAUDE.mdguide. SetCLAUDE_CODE_NEW_INIT=1for an interactive flow that also walks through skills, hooks, and personal memory files./memoryeditsCLAUDE.mdfiles, enables or disables auto-memory, and views auto-memory entries./agentsused to open an interactive manager for subagents. As of v2.1.198 it just prints a reminder to ask Claude to create or manage them for you, or to edit.claude/agents/and~/.claude/agents/yourself. Mildly annoying if you had muscle memory for the old UI./plan [description]enters plan mode directly from the prompt. Pass a description to start with that task immediately, like/plan fix the auth bug./goal [condition]is a newer one I’ve been enjoying. Set a condition (“all tests pass,” “every endpoint returns 401 for unauthenticated requests,” “no TypeScript errors”) and Claude keeps working across turns until it’s met. With no argument, it shows the current or most recently achieved goal. Passclear,stop,off,reset,none, orcancelto drop an active goal early. What I like about it is the simplicity: it just keeps working until the thing you asked for is done./simplify [target]is a bundled skill that reviews recently changed files for reuse, simplification, efficiency, and whether the change sits at the right level of abstraction, then applies the fixes. Four review agents run in parallel and their findings get aggregated./debug [description]enables debug logging for the current session and troubleshoots issues by reading the session debug log. Worth knowing that debug logging is off by default unless you started withclaude --debug, so running/debugmid-session captures logs from that point forward, not earlier./loop [interval] [prompt]runs a prompt repeatedly while the session stays open. Omit the interval and Claude self-paces. Example:/loop 5m check if the deploy finished./schedule [description](alias/routines) creates, updates, lists, or runs scheduled remote agents. Useful for the “remind me to clean up that feature flag in two weeks” pattern./usage(aliases/cost,/stats) shows session cost, plan usage limits, and activity stats. On Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plans, it also breaks down usage by skill, subagent, plugin, and MCP server./export [filename]exports the current conversation as plain text. With a filename, writes directly; without, opens a copy/save dialog./copy [N]copies the last assistant response to the clipboard. PassNto copy the Nth latest. With code blocks present, you get an interactive picker. Presswin the picker to write the selection to a file instead, which is genuinely useful over SSH./mcpmanages MCP server connections and OAuth./pluginmanages plugins./reload-pluginsreloads all active plugins to apply pending changes without restarting./doctorgot a real promotion. It’s now a bundled skill that runs a full setup checkup and offers to fix what it finds: duplicate installs,PATHproblems, unparseable settings, slow hooks, and skills or MCP servers or plugins you’re paying context for and never using. It’ll also dedupe and trim yourCLAUDE.mdfiles, cutting the parts Claude could work out from the codebase anyway and moving what’s left into skills that load on demand. It reports first and asks before changing anything. Worth running once on any project you’ve had for a while./insightsanalyzes your sessions and reports on project areas, interaction patterns, and friction points./cd <path>moves the session to a different working directory without losing the conversation. It appends the new directory’sCLAUDE.mdas a message rather than rebuilding the system prompt, so the prompt cache survives the move. Useful in a monorepo when you finish in one package and want to keep going in another./advisor [model]turns on a second model that gets consulted at key moments during a task. Acceptsopus,sonnet, or a full model ID. It’s a second opinion on the hard calls rather than a second worker./verifyand/runare a pair worth knowing if you’ve ever had a change pass every test and still not work./runlaunches and drives your project’s app;/verifyconfirms a change does what it should by actually building and running it instead of trusting tests and type checks./reload-skillsre-scans your skill and command directories so anything you added or edited mid-session becomes available without a restart./config key=valuesets a setting without opening the settings UI, like/config theme=darkor/config thinking=false. Run/config --helpto list every key.
Running things in parallel
This is the cluster that changed most since I first wrote this post, and the naming is genuinely confusing, so it’s worth laying out side by side. Four commands, four different shapes of “do this somewhere else.”
/branch [name]copies the conversation and switches you into the copy. You’re now working in the branch; the original waits in/resume./fork [prompt]copies the conversation and leaves you where you are. The copy runs as its own background session with everything up to this point, and the two are independent from then on. Pass a prompt and it starts on it immediately./subtask <task>hands a side task to a subagent that inherits the full conversation, works in the background, and reports its result back into this conversation when it’s done. This is the one you want for “go check that while I keep going.”/background [prompt](alias/bg) detaches this session to keep running without you and frees the terminal. Monitor it withclaude agents.
The short version: /branch to change your own direction, /fork to spin off an independent copy, /subtask to delegate and get an answer back, /background to walk away from a long job.
If you’re running any of these, /workflows opens the progress view where you can watch, pause, resume, or save what’s running, and /tasks lists background tasks in the current session.
One caveat on /fork and /subtask: they only behave this way on v2.1.212 and later. Between v2.1.161 and v2.1.211, /fork was the forked-subagent command and /subtask didn’t exist. Before that, /fork was just an alias for /branch. Check your version before assuming.
The dangerous one
Now the section everyone scrolls to: --dangerously-skip-permissions.
This is a CLI flag, not a slash command. You start a session with it:
claude --dangerously-skip-permissionsIt puts the session in bypassPermissions permission mode, which skips almost all the per-tool approval prompts. No more “Allow Bash to run npm install?” No more accept-edit dialog. Claude just goes.
There’s also a related flag, --allow-dangerously-skip-permissions, that doesn’t enable bypass mode but allows it as an option (so you can flip into it with --permission-mode bypassPermissions later). Anthropic recommends the latter only for sandboxes with no internet access.
What it actually skips
According to the permissions documentation, bypassPermissions mode skips permission prompts including writes to .git, .config/git, .claude, .vscode, .idea, .husky, .cargo, .devcontainer, .yarn, and .mvn. That list has grown since I first wrote this post, which tells you something. These are the directories most people assume are protected and aren’t.
That means if you’re running this in a real project, Claude can rewrite your local git history, edit your editor settings, modify your husky hooks, and overwrite your own .claude/ config without asking. None of those will trigger a prompt.
What it doesn’t skip
More than I originally gave it credit for. “Skips all prompts” was never quite right, and the docs are clearer about it now. Explicit ask rules you’ve written still prompt. So do connector tools your organization set to ask, and MCP tools marked requiresUserInteraction. Bypass mode overrides the defaults, not your deliberate guardrails.
Then there’s the circuit breaker. Removals targeting the filesystem root or your home directory, like rm -rf / or rm -rf ~, still prompt regardless of the mode. The docs frame this as a guard against model error, not user error. So you’re not going to wipe your machine in a single tool call without seeing a dialog first.
That circuit breaker also got smarter. As of v2.1.208 it catches the removal even when it’s hidden inside command substitution with $(...) or backticks, or process substitution with <(...). Before that, only the plain form typed as its own command would trip it, so a wrapped version slipped straight through. If you’re on an older build, that gap is real.
Hooks are also still respected. A PreToolUse hook that exits with code 2 still blocks the call. So if you have your own guardrails wired up, they keep working.
When I actually use it
My honest take: with a strong model like Claude Opus 4.7, this flag is more usable than its name implies. Opus is unlikely to wander off and do something catastrophic on its own. I do run sessions with bypass mode on for routine work where I’m watching what’s happening, and the friction reduction is real.
The risk isn’t the model freelancing. The risk is one bad prompt from you. Ask Claude to “clean up that directory” ambiguously, drop bypass on, and you can lose work. Tell it to “reset the database” without specifying which one, and it’ll happily run the destructive command against whatever connection your local env is pointed at. Worst case, a single typo or unclear instruction in a bypass session can delete files you care about, drop a database, or do something genuinely worse if the session has access to production credentials. The flag removes the safety net that would have caught any of that.
So a better framing than “never use it” is: use it with a strong model, in a project where you’ve thought about the blast radius, and only after you trust yourself to write prompts that are unambiguous about destructive operations. The rules I run with:
- Don’t run bypass mode in a directory holding uncommitted work I’d hate to lose.
- Don’t run bypass mode in any session that has access to a production database, S3 bucket, or live API key.
- Never paste a prompt I haven’t read carefully into a bypass session.
- Anthropic’s own recommendation, “isolated environments like containers or VMs where Claude Code cannot cause damage,” is still the safest bar to hit when the project allows it.
If those constraints don’t fit a particular project, the lower-risk paths below get you most of the friction reduction without the full liability:
/permissionsto allow specific commands you trust. Spend ten minutes setting upBash(npm run *),Bash(git status *),Bash(jest *), and the prompts go away.- The
/fewer-permission-promptsskill, which scans your transcripts for common read-only Bash and MCP calls and adds a prioritized allowlist to your project’s.claude/settings.json. /sandboxto toggle sandbox mode (on supported platforms). When sandboxing is enabled withautoAllowBashIfSandboxed: true(the default), sandboxed Bash commands run without prompting. The sandbox boundary substitutes for the per-command prompt, which is a much safer trade than blanket bypass.acceptEditsmode, which auto-accepts file edits and common filesystem commands likemkdir,touch,mv, andcpfor paths in your working directory. Most of the friction without most of the risk.
How orgs lock it down
If you run a team and don’t want anyone using bypass mode, set permissions.disableBypassPermissionsMode to "disable" in managed settings. That blocks the mode regardless of what individual users put in their own settings. The --dangerously-skip-permissions flag will still parse, but the mode won’t activate. Worth setting if Claude Code is going on company laptops with access to anything sensitive.
Custom commands are just skills now
If you find yourself pasting the same instructions into chat, or your CLAUDE.md file has grown a section that’s really a procedure, that procedure should be a skill.
The minimum is a directory with a SKILL.md file. Drop it at ~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md for personal use across every project, or .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md for a single project. The directory name becomes the command. Add YAML frontmatter with a description, and Claude can also load the skill automatically when the description matches what you’re asking.
A useful pattern is the ! prefix to inject live shell output into a skill before Claude reads it:
---
description: Summarize uncommitted changes and flag risky ones.
---
## Current changes
!`git diff HEAD`
## Instructions
Summarize the diff in two or three bullets. Flag missing error handling, hardcoded values, or tests that need updating.When you run /summarize-changes, Claude Code runs git diff HEAD first, replaces the placeholder with the output, and only then sends the prompt. The instructions arrive with the actual diff already inlined.
The full reference is in the skills documentation. I built a few of these for the WordPress sites I run, and the time savings vs pasting the same checklist into chat are real.
Skills worth installing
The good thing about skills being a shared format is you don’t have to write your own to benefit. There’s now a directory at skills.sh where developers publish reusable skills for Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, and other agents. A few I keep installed:
color-expertby meodai. Color naming, theory, palettes, ramps, gradients, conversions, accessibility. The kind of knowledge I don’t want to keep re-explaining to an agent every time I’m picking colors.emil-design-engby Emil Kowalski. Encodes Emil’s philosophy on UI polish, component design, animation decisions, and the small details that make software feel good. If you’ve ever stared at one of Emil’s components on Twitter and wondered how he gets motion to feel that way, this is the closest thing to a transferable answer.make-interfaces-feel-betterby Jakub Krehel. Design engineering principles for hover states, micro-interactions, and the kind of polish that takes a UI from working to nice.
If you want to find more, skills.sh itself has a find-skills skill you can install that helps you discover others when you describe what you’re trying to do. Mildly recursive but useful.
Quick reference
If you just want the categorical list:
- Context tools:
/clear,/compact,/context - Sessions:
/resume,/branch,/rewind - Model and effort:
/model,/effort,/fast - Reviewing changes:
/diff,/code-review,/review,/security-review - Permissions and access:
/permissions,/add-dir,/sandbox - Project setup:
/init,/memory,/skills,/hooks,/cd - Parallel work:
/branch,/fork,/subtask,/background,/workflows,/tasks - Workflow:
/plan,/goal,/loop,/schedule,/simplify,/debug,/verify,/run,/fewer-permission-prompts - Visibility:
/usage,/insights,/status,/doctor - Output:
/copy,/export,/recap - Integrations:
/mcp,/plugin,/reload-plugins,/install-github-app,/install-slack-app - Session UI:
/theme,/color,/focus,/tui,/statusline - The dangerous flag, CLI only:
--dangerously-skip-permissions
That’s not all of them. The complete list is in the official commands reference, and it changes often enough that I’d check it before relying on anything not covered here.