Working With Claude Code on Vic Boomer

Working with Claude Code: Complex Projects

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You have a monorepo with 340 files. The API layer uses an outdated error handling pattern — try/catch blocks that return error codes as strings instead of throwing your custom AppError class. The pattern lives in 47 files spread across six directories. You open Claude Code and type: “Refactor all error handling in the API to the AppError pattern.”

Claude starts enthusiastically. It reads the first five files, modifies them, reads three more, modifies two, reads ten, and somewhere midway through the session the quality starts to drop. The context fills up. Claude forgets the pattern it applied in the first files. The thirty-sixth modification is inconsistent with the fifth. You’re stuck with a half-refactored codebase.

Working with Claude Code: Effective Steering

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You open Claude Code, type “make a login page,” and get something back. It works, technically. But it follows none of your existing patterns. It uses a different CSS approach than the rest of your app. The error handling deviates. The naming is inconsistent. You can fix it — but that takes about as much time as writing it yourself.

The problem isn’t the model. It’s the prompt.

Intent versus instruction

There are two ways to steer Claude Code. The first is instruction: telling the model step by step what to do. The second is intent: describing what you want to achieve and why, and letting the model determine the execution.

Working with Claude Code: First Steps

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You have Claude.ai open in a browser tab. You copy a block of code, paste it into the chat window, describe the problem, get an answer, copy it back to your editor, test, notice it’s wrong because Claude doesn’t know the rest of the file, copy more context, paste again, and repeat. After half an hour you have a working fix. After an hour you no longer know which version is in your editor and which is in the chat.

Working with Claude Code: MCP Servers

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You’re working in Claude Code on a feature that needs data from your PostgreSQL database. You write a SQL query, copy it to a terminal tab, run it against the dev database, copy the output back to Claude Code as context, and ask Claude to finish the feature based on that data. Two steps later the data is outdated and the context no longer holds.

This is the problem MCP solves.

Working with Claude Code: Tools and Permissions

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You give Claude Code the instruction to run a database migration. The model generates the SQL statement, opens a bash session, and executes npx prisma migrate dev. You saw the diff, clicked accept, and two seconds later Claude has modified your database schema. In production.

That didn’t happen — Claude Code’s permission system stopped it. But it could have happened if you don’t understand that system. Tools and permissions are the two mechanisms that determine what Claude Code can do and what it may do. The difference matters.