Slash commands & managing context

🎯Goal. Drive a session with slash commands and keep the context window small so Claude stays fast and cheap.

1. 1Type / to see all commands. Essentials: /help, /clear (start fresh between unrelated tasks), /resume (return to a past session), and /rewind or double-tap Escape (restore code and conversation to an earlier checkpoint).
2. 2Watch context with /context and /usage. When switching to unrelated work, /clear — stale context wastes tokens on every message. Use /compact Focus on test output to summarize while keeping what matters.
3. 3Shortcuts: Tab completes commands, ↑ recalls history, Shift+Tab cycles permission modes.

✓You'll see. A session you steer deliberately — clearing between tasks, rewinding a bad change, and keeping the context lean.

💳Cost. /clear and /compact directly cut token use; /usage shows where your tokens go (skills, subagents, MCP servers).

💡Takeaway. A few slash commands — /clear, /rewind, /compact, /usage — keep long sessions fast, recoverable, and affordable.