Tag Archives: claude code

Claude AI Usage Limits: What Changed and How to Make Them Last

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TL;DR: Claude’s usage limits felt tighter in March 2026 because they were. The short version: Anthropic had more demand than GPU capacity. Millions of new users arrived as word got around about how good Claude is and especially after the OpenAI Pentagon boycott, the off-peak 2x promotion ended March 28, and multiple Max subscribers report usage meters jumping from under 50% to 100% on single prompts. Below: what the limits actually are, why they felt worse that spring, and specific

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MCP Server Token Costs in Claude Code: Full Breakdown

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TL;DR: Every MCP server you connect to Claude Code silently costs tokens on every single message, even when idle. A typical 4-server setup runs about 7,000 tokens of overhead. Heavy setups with 5+ servers can burn 50,000+ tokens before you type your first prompt. Here’s the exact cost of every tool across four common MCP servers. Why MCP Servers Cost Tokens MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers let Claude Code interact with external tools: browse the web, query databases, send emails,

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Claude Code /context Command: See Exactly Where Your Tokens Go

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TL;DR: Type /context in Claude Code to see a full breakdown of where your context window tokens are being spent. It shows system overhead, MCP tools, memory files, conversation history, and free space. Use it to find bloated MCP servers, oversized CLAUDE.md files, and know when to run /compact. What Is /context? If you’ve ever had a Claude Code session start strong and then slowly degrade, the context window is probably the reason. Every message you send carries invisible overhead:

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Claude Session Handoffs: How to Keep Context Across Conversations

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TL;DR: Even with memory and context compaction, AI assistants still lose the detailed state of your project between sessions. A simple two-file system plus a handoff prompt takes seconds at the end of a session and saves minutes of re-explanation at the start of the next one. This works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or any AI assistant. Likewise, this can help keep you from wasting tokens by letting a conversation run on for too long. Use handoff/handover prompts to

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How to Drag Files into Claude Code in VS Code (Paste with Context)

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TL;DR: In the Claude Code VS Code extension, hold Shift while dragging a file from the Explorer panel into the Claude Code prompt box. This attaches the file as context so Claude can read and reference it directly. Without Shift, VS Code just opens the file in a new tab. Hold Shift and drag a file into the prompt. The “Hold Shift while dragging to drop files into Claude Code” tooltip confirms you’re doing it right. What Is Paste with

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How to Change Claude Code Effort Levels in VS Code (/effort)

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TL;DR: In the Claude Code VS Code extension, type /effort in the prompt box and press Enter to cycle through four reasoning levels: Low, Medium, High, and Max. Each level controls how deeply Claude thinks, how many tool calls it makes, and how many tokens it burns. On Windows, it’s just /effort, Enter, done. The effort level picker in Claude Code for VS Code. This shows Max with all four dots lit up. What Are Effort Levels? Effort levels control

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How 25,000 Junk Folders Were Breaking My AI Doc Organizer (Garbage In, Garbage Out)

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How 25,000 Junk Folders Were Silently Breaking My AI Document Organizer (Garbage In, Garbage Out) Thousands of (somewhat) zombie Quicken folders taken care of via compressing them into one 7z archive: Details: My AI File Organizer Was Fighting 25,000 Phantom Folders (And Losing 😜) For a while, my automated document filer was misbehaving. Scan an insurance card — it suggests filing it in a folder called Q-Final. Scan a bank statement — it wants to put it in Attach. The

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Claude AI Custom Instructions: A Real Example That Actually Works

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TL;DR: Here’s a custom Claude instruction that works well for most people: *Just a note about the “unlimited resources“, Claude tends to UNDER estimate what it is capable of, and maybe even what you are capable of. Like when it estimates a task will take 4-10 hours or multiple days of sessions and then proceeds to knock it out in a few minutes. SO, sometimes it helps to be a bit aspirational in your instructions. 💪💪 Why this works: Claude

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