Your Command Cheat Sheet

Arun Nagarathanam · 31 Aug 2026 · Template · 52 of 59 in this course

An exclusive resource for students of Arun's Claude Code Course.

Everything you type on this page is saved in this browser, on this device only.

Fill this in from your own project, not from a demo. The readings only teach you something when the numbers are yours.

Your four readings

Run these in the project you shipped, and write down what came back.

CommandWhat it tells youYour reading
/usageWhat the work in this session has cost
/contextHow full the conversation has become, and what is taking up the space
/modelWhich brain you used, and what else you could have picked
/memoryWhat the project remembers between sessions

Date you took these readings

The five you reach for day to day

CommandWhat it doesWhen you reach for it
/clearWipes the conversation so the next task starts with nothing behind itEvery time you start something unrelated to what you just did
/usageThe meterBefore a big task and again after it, so you learn what that kind of work costs
/contextHow full the room isAny time a search or a large file read might have poured into the conversation
/modelSwitches which brain is workingDeep model for planning, faster one for carrying out a settled plan
Esc EscOpens the rewind menu on an empty input lineWhen Claude did something you did not ask for and you want to stand at an earlier point

The rest of the shelf

Waiting for the day you need them, and not before.

CommandWhat it does
/helpLists every command available to you
/statusWhat Claude currently knows about your setup, the model, the project, the account
/compactSqueezes the conversation into a summary and keeps working from that. Add an instruction after it, like keep the database decisions and drop the styling chatter, and it keeps what you named instead of guessing
/configWhere your preferences live
/memoryThe project's long-term notes
/effortHow hard Claude thinks before it answers
/btwA side question that never enters the history Claude carries forward. Try it once in your own setup before you lean on it
/exportLifts a whole conversation out as a file, to keep or to share
/rewindThe typed version of Escape twice
/desktopHands the current terminal session over to the desktop app, history intact
/add-dirAdds another folder alongside the one you started in

Clear or compact

Both free up space. Compact is crushing the trash down so it takes less room in the can. Clear is carrying the bag out to the curb and starting with an empty can.

A summary quietly drops details you did not know you needed, so keeping the important things in a document you control is the safer habit. Lean on clear, and steer compact when you do use it.

Your own notes

What surprised you about your readings:

What you want to try differently next session:


Everything you type on this page is saved in this browser, on this device only.

See Where You Stand

This resource is one piece of a much bigger system.

Take the free Claude Code Readiness Quiz. It is 15 short situations, scored out of 100, and it tests how you handle a job rather than what you know about a tool, so you can take it without ever having opened Claude Code.

Take the Claude Code Readiness Quiz →

15 situations · Scored out of 100 · Free