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Claude Code best practices: a workflow from source conversations

Define an outcome Claude can check, give it a way to observe the result, keep separate investigations in separate contexts, and review the evidence before accepting the work. This workflow combines five episodes across Claude, Y Combinator and The Startup Ideas Podcast. Each short transcript excerpt is followed by PodLearn’s practical interpretation and an application you can try.

From 5 episodes on PodLearn

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What result should Claude verify?

Finally, it verifies those results and determines if they achieve what your prompt set out to do in the first place.

How Claude Code Works · Claude

Start with an observable acceptance criterion: what should a user be able to do, and what output would prove it? After the change, compare the observed behavior with that criterion. A passing tool call supports the check it performed. Review the remaining acceptance criteria before treating the whole task as complete.

How can Claude observe whether the app works?

If I'm building an app, I always use the Chrome extension to have Claude test its own work.

Claude Code's Creator Reveals "Claude Cowork"'s Setup · The Startup Ideas Podcast

Give Claude a working way to run and inspect the application, then ask it to report the interaction and output it actually observed alongside routine code checks. The Chrome-extension example in this conversation is one way to do that. Choose tools available in your setup and confirm that they can reach the application before relying on their results.

When should a testing process become a skill?

Like if you need to provide Claude information on your testing process

Tool, skill, or subagent? Decomposing an agent that outgrew its prompt · Claude

When the same testing procedure recurs, package its steps and acceptance checks as reusable instructions. Describe how your team tests and what evidence to return. A skill gives the agent a procedure to follow; it still needs access to the test tools and running application. Try the procedure on a real task before making it part of the team’s routine.

When do separate agent contexts help?

multiple agents, they have fresh context windows that aren't as such polluted with each other's context, or their own previous context.

Inside Claude Code With Its Creator Boris Cherny (YC Lightcone) · Y Combinator

Separate investigations when their task histories would distract one another. For example, ask one investigation to check behavior and another to inspect the implementation, then bring their findings together for review. Give each investigation a clear scope and decide how its findings will be used. Review the combined result before assuming that the extra contexts improved quality or reduced token use.

How should an agent team review its work?

as a team, with roles, with process, with review.

How to Make Claude Code Your AI Engineering Team · Y Combinator

Give each bounded task a role, a deliverable and a review question. Inspect the evidence before integrating the work, and have someone reconcile conflicting findings. Choose a coordination process suited to the task, with a clear point for that review. Several completed assignments still need a judgment about whether the combined result meets the original request.

How should you check whether a workflow is more efficient?

we're tracking those deterministic metrics over time.

Tool, skill, or subagent? Decomposing an agent that outgrew its prompt · Claude

Choose a comparable repository task, state its expected behavior, run an observable check and review the result. Record turns, latency and token count alongside whether the acceptance criterion was met. Use that record to improve the next attempt. Keep comparisons tied to the same expected behavior: fewer tokens or a shorter run alone does not demonstrate a better result.

Episodes this draws from

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FAQ

How can Claude Code verify work?

State the expected behavior before starting and provide a way to run and inspect the result. Compare the observed interaction or output with that expectation, and review what each check actually establishes before accepting the work.

When should I use a skill for testing?

Use reusable instructions when your team repeats the same testing procedure. Include the steps, acceptance checks and evidence to return. A skill describes the process; the agent still needs access to the tools and application that carry it out.

Why separate agent contexts?

Separate contexts can isolate the histories of distinct investigations. Give each a bounded task and bring the findings together for review. Review the combined result before assuming that adding agents improved quality or reduced token use.

How do I evaluate a workflow’s efficiency?

Compare similar tasks and record turns, latency and token count together with whether the expected behavior was achieved. Review the quality of the result before drawing an efficiency conclusion. Use the observed results from your tasks to set a target rather than assuming savings in advance.

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