Get more out of Claude Code: plan mode, subagents and routines (with free prompts)

Free guide from Found Motive. Based on Anthropic’s Claude Code docs (Common workflows), checked Oct 17, 2026. The docs have no date, and commands change between versions, so check them if something doesn’t match.

1. Plan before you edit

Plan mode lets Claude read your files and propose a plan without changing anything until you approve.

Start in it: claude --permission-mode plan
Or press Shift+Tab mid-session until the status bar shows “plan mode on”.

Prompt

Don’t edit anything yet. Read the relevant files and give me a step-by-step plan to [goal]. List the files you’d touch, the risks, and what you’d test. Wait for my approval.

2. Send research to a subagent so your main chat stays clean

Exploring a big codebase fills your context with file reads. A subagent reads in its own context window and returns only a summary.

Prompt

Use a subagent to investigate how [feature, e.g. our auth system handles token refresh]. Report back a summary with file names, not the full contents.

3. Run parallel sessions without collisions

claude --worktree feature-auth starts a session in its own git worktree and branch. Open a second terminal with a different name to work on another task at the same time. (The repo needs at least one commit first.)

4. Pick up where you left off

claude --continue resumes the most recent session in the current folder.
claude --resume, or /resume inside a session, lets you choose from a list.

5. Put Claude on a schedule

Anthropic’s docs list four options: Routines (run in the cloud, even when your computer is off), Desktop scheduled tasks (run on your machine), GitHub Actions, and /loop (polls inside a running session). Write the prompt so it says what success looks like and what to do with the result, because scheduled runs can’t ask you questions.

Prompt for a scheduled task

Review open PRs labeled needs-review, leave inline comments on any issues you find, and post a one-paragraph summary to [where]. If there are none, do nothing.

6. Reference files fast

Type @ to pull in a file or folder: “Explain the logic in @src/utils/auth.js”. A folder reference shows the file listing, not the contents.

More free prompts from the same docs

“give me an overview of this codebase”, then “explain the main architecture patterns used here”
“find deprecated API usage in our codebase”, then “refactor utils.js to use modern features while maintaining the same behavior”, then “run tests for the refactored code”
“find functions in [file] that are not covered by tests”, then “add test cases for edge conditions”

Want more?

Get the weekly Found Motive newsletter for AI news, new features, tool how-tos and free prompt playbooks:

Newsletter delivered by beehiiv. Prefer a plain page? Subscribe here. See our privacy page.