You can't break anything with these. That's the first thing to know. Every one of them is either reversible or does nothing but show you information. Nobody's ever wrecked a project by typing /context.
I build AI systems into businesses for a living, and these 10 commands are the ones I actually use every single day. The rest you can ignore for now.
1. /clear
Wipes the conversation and starts fresh.
This is the one nobody tells beginners about, and it's the one that fixes the most problems. When Claude starts giving you weird answers, forgetting what you said, or going in circles, it's usually because the conversation got too long and cluttered.
/clear and start over. Nine times out of ten that's the whole fix.
Your files are untouched. It only clears the chat.
Rest of it's yours
Drop your email and the whole thing opens up right here. No waiting on a confirmation, no download, nothing to install.
You'll also get the new ones as I make them. Leave whenever, no hard feelings.
2. /context
Shows you how much room is left in the conversation.
Claude has a memory limit for a single conversation. When you get close to it, quality drops. This tells you where you stand before it becomes a problem.
If you're up near the top, /clear and keep going.
3. ultrathink
Not a slash command. Just type the word in your message.
It tells Claude to think harder before answering. Use it when the thing you're asking is genuinely difficult, when you've already gotten a wrong answer once, or when getting it wrong would cost you real money.
Don't use it for everything. It's slower. Save it for the hard stuff.
4. /rewind
Takes you back to an earlier point in the conversation.
You asked for something, it went sideways, and now three more things are broken on top of it. Instead of trying to untangle it, /rewind back to before it went wrong and take a different run at it.
This is the closest thing to an undo button, and it's the one that'll save you the most frustration.
5. /init
Run this in a new project folder.
It reads through your project and writes a file called CLAUDE.md that describes what's in there. From then on, Claude reads that file automatically every time you open the project, so you're not re-explaining your setup every session.
Already have one? Run it again after the project has grown and it'll tell you what's missing instead of overwriting your file.
Ten seconds. Pays you back forever.
6. # (just the hashtag)
Start a message with # to save something to memory permanently.
# I use PowerShell on Windows, not bash
Now it knows that in every future conversation. Anything you find yourself repeating, save it this way and stop repeating it.
One catch: it asks which file to save to. One option applies to every project on your computer, the other only to the one you're in. Rules about how you work go in the global one. Anything about a specific business or project goes in the project one, or it follows you into every other job you open.
7. /model
Switches which version of Claude you're talking to.
Different models, different speeds and strengths. If something feels slow for a simple task, or not sharp enough for a hard one, this is the lever.
8. @ (the at sign)
Type @ and start typing a filename to point Claude at a specific file.
Instead of "look at my pricing spreadsheet," you type @pricing.xlsx and it goes straight there. Way faster than describing where things are, and no chance it opens the wrong file.
You can also just drag a file into the window.
9. Escape
Hit the Escape key to stop Claude mid-answer.
You'll watch it start heading the wrong direction. Don't sit there waiting for it to finish being wrong. Hit Escape, correct it, keep moving.
Small thing. You'll use it constantly.
10. /resume
Picks up a previous conversation where you left off.
You were building something Tuesday, life happened, and now it's Friday. /resume gets you back into that exact conversation with everything it knew still intact.
No re-explaining. No starting over.
The honest part
These won't make you a developer, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. What they do is stop the 10 things that make beginners quit in the first week. The circling, the forgetting, the "it broke everything and I don't know how to go back."
You'll still get stuck. You'll still ask for something and get back something dumb. That's normal and it happens to me daily.
But you can't break it. Worst case you type /clear and start again.
Start with /clear, /rewind, and #. Those three alone will change how this feels.
Jordy Baze. AI for people who run real businesses.
jordybaze.com