The Claude Code Commands You Skip Are All the Same Command
There are over 60 built-in slash commands. Most people use four. Sort the ones you are missing by what they actually do and a pattern appears — almost all of them exist to manage one resource, and it is the one quietly wrecking your long sessions.
- #claude-code
- #workflows
- #context
Almost everyone's Claude Code vocabulary is /clear, /model, /init and /compact. There are over sixty built-in commands. That's fine — nobody needs sixty.
But group the ones people skip by what problem they solve and something jumps out: the large majority manage your context window. Not features, not integrations. Context. Which is exactly the resource that silently degrades a long session while you blame the model.
Here's the map, sorted by the symptom that should make you reach for each one.
"This session has gotten dumb"
/context— the one to learn first. Renders current context usage as a coloured grid, so the thing you've been guessing at becomes visible. Stop estimating./compact [instructions]— summarise the conversation to free space. The optional instructions argument is the underused half: you can tell it what to preserve./clear [name]— new conversation, project memory kept. Cheaper than compacting when the last hour is genuinely irrelevant./rewind— roll back code and conversation to a checkpoint. This one surprises people: it isn't only undo for the transcript, it's an escape from a session that has gone down a bad path with files already changed.
"I don't want to pollute this session"
/btw [question]— pose a question on the side, and it never enters the history. Perfect for "wait, what does this flag do" mid-task./subtask— hand a side task to a subagent. The searching, log-reading and file-scanning happens in its context, and you get back the summary./branch [name]— branch the conversation to try a different direction without losing this one./fork [prompt]— copy the conversation into a new background session.
"I want it to keep working without me"
/goal [condition]— set a condition and Claude works until it's met. Pairs with a check it can't argue with, like a test command./background [prompt]— detach the session as a background agent./batch <instruction>— orchestrate large-scale parallel changes./tasks— list the background work this session started./loop [interval] [prompt]— run a prompt repeatedly on a schedule.
"It keeps asking permission" / "it's burning tokens"
/permissions— the approval rules themselves./fewer-permission-prompts— scans your actual usage and proposes an allowlist. Better than guessing at patterns./effort [low|medium|high|xhigh|max]— the effort dial. Most tasks do not need the top of it, and this is the most direct cost lever you have./usage— token usage and cost./model— switch model and save as default.
"Something is broken"
/doctor— diagnose setup problems./debug [description]— turn on debug logging and troubleshoot./status— current session status.
Two worth knowing about that aren't context at all
/code-review [level] [--fix]— reviews your working diff for bugs, with an apply mode. Distinct from/review, which is a fast read-only pass over a GitHub PR. People mix these up constantly./security-review— checks the diff for vulnerabilities specifically.
One thing that changed
Custom commands and skills have merged. A file at .claude/commands/deploy.md and a skill at .claude/skills/deploy/SKILL.md both give you /deploy and behave the same way — existing commands/ files keep working. Skills just add options: a directory for supporting files, frontmatter controlling whether you or Claude invokes them, and automatic loading when relevant.
The practical consequence is about context again: a skill's body only loads when it's used. So reference material that would be expensive sitting in CLAUDE.md costs almost nothing as a skill. If a section of your CLAUDE.md has grown from a fact into a procedure, that's the signal to move it.
Do this today
Run /context right now, in whatever session you already have open. Look at how much of the window is gone and what's holding it.
Then pick your next big-search question and route it through /subtask instead of asking it directly. Compare the grid before and after. That's the whole argument for learning these, in one measurement.
Sources
Keep reading
More guides like this one.
A Good Handoff Is Mostly a List of Dead Ends
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Stop Watching AI Demos. Read Their Transcripts.
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Your Rules Expire at Compaction. Here's Exactly Which Ones.
When a long session compacts, some of your instructions come back from disk and some silently do not. The split is documented and almost nobody knows it — which is why Claude "forgets your rules" three hours in.