Domain 3

Claude Code Configuration & Workflows

6 build exercises to practice the concepts in this domain.

3.1Beginner30 minutes

3.1 — Build a Multi-Level CLAUDE.md Configuration

What you will learn

User, project, and directory CLAUDE.md files all load. None of them replaces another.
How @ path imports split project standards into smaller files.
How .claude/rules/ holds a topic that should not live in the root file.
How /memory shows which instruction files actually loaded.
Why a new teammate misses instructions that live only in a personal file.

3.2Intermediate30 minutes

What you will learn

Project commands and skills live under .claude/ and are shared. Personal ones live under ~/.claude/.
SKILL.md frontmatter can set context: fork, allowed-tools, and argument-hint.
Conventions belong in CLAUDE.md. A repeatable workflow belongs in a skill or command.
How to check that a shared command is visible to the team and a personal one is not.
How context: fork keeps a long skill result out of the main conversation.

3.3Intermediate30 minutes

What you will learn

YAML frontmatter with a glob loads a rule only for matching paths.
The same rule can cover files that are spread across directories.
Path rules cost tokens only when they apply. A root CLAUDE.md costs them always.
Use a path rule when the convention follows a file pattern, and a directory CLAUDE.md when a whole folder shares one context.
How /context shows whether a rule loaded.

3.4Intermediate45 minutes

What you will learn

Choose plan mode from how ambiguous the task is, not from a blanket rule.
Plan, then execute, for a migration that touches many files.
Use the Explore subagent so discovery output stays out of the main thread.
Name the complexity before the first edit, instead of discovering it mid-change.
A hard task can still be unambiguous. Ambiguity is what calls for a plan.

3.5Beginner30 minutes

What you will learn

When interpretation drifts, add a concrete example before adding more prose.
A failing test is clearer feedback than a paragraph about what "better" means.
Interview an unfamiliar domain before you ask for the implementation.
Batch feedback when the issues are independent. Iterate one at a time when each fix changes the next.
Two or three examples are enough for the pattern to generalise.

3.6Advanced45 minutes

What you will learn

claude -p is the non-interactive flag. Without it, CI waits for input.
--output-format json and --json-schema shape findings a script can parse.
Generation and review should not share a session.
An incremental review reports what is new or still open, not the whole history again.
CLAUDE.md is how a CI run learns the project's standards.