The Explore → Plan → Code → Commit Workflow

Why a workflow beats a single giant prompt

The most common beginner mistake is to type one big request ("build me a billing system") and hope. Claude will try, but it has to guess at your conventions, your edge cases and what "done" means. The fix is a simple rhythm that experienced Claude Code users follow almost by instinct:

1. Explore: understand the relevant code before deciding anything.
2. Plan: agree on an approach while changing nothing.
3. Code: implement in small steps, verifying as you go.
4. Commit: write a clean commit or pull request with a real description.

Phase 1: Explore

Point Claude at the area you care about and ask it to read, not write:

read the files that handle invoices and summarize how an invoice moves from draft to paid.
don't change anything yet.

Reading costs context, so for wide-ranging investigations Claude will often hand the search to a built-in Explore subagent, which reads many files in its own context and returns just the findings.

Phase 2: Plan

Switch to plan mode with Shift+Tab (the status bar shows plan mode on), or start your prompt with /plan. In plan mode Claude researches and proposes, but it can't edit your files.

This is where you catch misunderstandings cheaply. Push back: "Don't touch the PDF yet." "Fees should compound monthly." Press Ctrl+G to open the plan in your editor and edit it directly.

Phase 3: Code, with a check

Approve the plan and let Claude implement. The single most important thing you can do here is give it a check to run: a test command, a build, a linter, a screenshot to compare.

implement step 1 and 2. after each step run `npm test -- invoices` and fix failures before moving on.

When Claude can see real test output, it fixes its own mistakes instead of announcing success.

Phase 4: Commit

Claude is excellent at git. It reads the diff and writes descriptive messages:

commit this with a descriptive message
create a pr

With the GitHub CLI (gh) installed and signed in, "create a pr" pushes a branch and opens a pull request with a summary of what changed and why. Later, claude --from-pr 1234 resumes the session linked to that PR.

Check your understanding