After a year of using Claude Code daily, a short list of habits has done nearly all of the heavy lifting.
What actually earns its keep
A tight CLAUDE.md, a few hard rules about what not to touch, and a habit of reading the diff before accepting it. Everything else is optional.
- Keep CLAUDE.md under a page
- Use skills for repeatable tasks, not one-offs
- Never let the agent write a migration unreviewed
The biggest shift: treating the agent like a very fast junior rather than an oracle. It's been a better collaborator ever since.