Advanced Prompting Techniques

Master system prompts, multi-turn strategies, and programmatic control for expert-level Claude Code usage

title: Advanced Prompting Techniques description: Master system prompts, multi-turn strategies, and programmatic control for expert-level Claude Code usage

This guide covers advanced prompting techniques for power users who want to maximize their effectiveness with Claude Code. These techniques go beyond basic prompting to give you fine-grained control over Claude's behavior.

System Prompts and CLAUDE.md

Understanding CLAUDE.md

The CLAUDE.md file in your project root acts as a persistent system prompt that shapes Claude's behavior throughout your session.

Basic CLAUDE.md structure:

Advanced CLAUDE.md Patterns

Pattern 1: Behavioral Constraints

Pattern 2: Domain Knowledge

Pattern 3: Error Prevention

Multi-Turn Conversation Strategies

Building Context Progressively

Round 1: Establish understanding

Round 2: Define the problem

Round 3: Implement iteratively

Round 4: Refine and polish

Context Anchoring

When returning to a topic, anchor Claude's memory:

Branching Conversations

Explore alternatives without losing context:

Programmatic Control

Using Hooks for Automation

Claude Code supports hooks that run automatically at specific points:

.claude/hooks/pre-commit.md:

.claude/hooks/post-file-edit.md:

Custom Slash Commands

Create reusable workflows:

.claude/commands/review-security.md:

.claude/commands/implement-feature.md:

Conditional Instructions

Use conditional logic in your prompts:

Meta-Prompting

Self-Correction Instructions

Confidence Calibration

Thinking Out Loud

Advanced Patterns

The Socratic Method

Instead of asking Claude to implement, ask questions:

Constraint Tightening

Start loose, then tighten constraints:

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Negative Examples

Show what you don't want:

DO something like:

INVARIANTS (never violate these):

1. User balance can never be negative
2. Order total must equal sum of line items + tax + shipping
3. A product cannot be in both "active" and "deleted" state
4. Authentication must happen before any API operation

When implementing features, ensure these invariants are maintained. If a change would violate an invariant, refuse and explain why.

Bug: Users occasionally see stale data after updating their profile.

Analyze this systematically:

1. List all caching layers between update and display
2. Identify where staleness could be introduced
3. Check for race conditions in concurrent requests
4. Examine cache invalidation logic
5. Propose fixes ordered by likelihood of being the root cause

I suspect the memory leak is caused by event listeners not being cleaned up in useEffect.

To test this hypothesis:

1. Find all useEffect hooks with addEventListener
2. Verify each has corresponding removeEventListener in cleanup
3. Check for closures that might prevent garbage collection
4. Suggest a test to confirm the hypothesis