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To use fewer tokens in a new Claude Code session, state the task, the outcome you want, only the project context Claude cannot infer, and any important constraints or checks. Also trim instructions that load automatically: a long CLAUDE.md can consume context before you send your first message. There is no published, reliable percentage for how many tokens this approach saves.
Write a compact prompt that still defines the job
A useful first prompt gives Claude enough information to act correctly without asking it to absorb unrelated background. Anthropic’s prompting guidance recommends clear, direct instructions, relevant context, and explicit output formats or constraints.
- Task: Say what to change or investigate.
- Outcome: Specify the deliverable or behavior you expect.
- Necessary context: Include project-specific details Claude cannot discover from the repository.
- Constraints and verification: Name applicable conventions, tests, or other checks, and say what result to report.
For example:
In this repository, update the login form to validate email addresses. Follow the existing component patterns, add or update focused tests, and report the files changed and test result. First inspect the relevant component and its tests; do not summarize unrelated parts of the repository.
This is a practical structure, not a tested token-minimization formula. Avoid a long repository tour or generic instructions when Claude can inspect the relevant code. But do not cut acceptance criteria or constraints that affect correctness: a vague prompt can lead to clarification rounds or rework, which add more messages.
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Reduce instructions loaded before you type
The first message is only part of the starting context. Claude Code loads applicable CLAUDE.md instructions, and files from the current and parent directory hierarchy can be concatenated. Anthropic’s memory documentation recommends keeping each CLAUDE.md under 200 lines. That is a target, not a tool-enforced maximum; concise, relevant instructions are also more likely to be followed consistently.
Keep always-loaded guidance genuinely reusable
Reserve project-level instructions for rules useful across many tasks, such as build and test commands, coding conventions, architecture decisions, naming, and recurring workflows. Remove duplicated, obsolete, or generic material that Claude can learn from the code itself. In a monorepo, launching Claude Code from the relevant project or subproject root can avoid loading unrelated ancestor context. If ancestor or other-team instruction files are still irrelevant, Claude Code supports claudeMdExcludes to exclude them.
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Scope occasional rules to where they apply
Rules relevant only to a particular subtree belong in path-scoped rules rather than an always-loaded file. Procedures used only sometimes can be placed in skills, which load on demand, instead of adding their full text to every session. Anthropic also documents auto memory as a complementary system: only its first 200 lines or 25KB are loaded into each session.
Choose the right reset for the session
Use Claude Code’s context commands to see where session context is going and avoid carrying irrelevant history into later work. Anthropic’s cost guidance describes both commands and Claude Code’s automatic context-management features.
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| Situation | Action | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| You want to inspect current token usage. | /usage |
Shows current usage information. |
| You want to see what is consuming context. | /context |
Shows context contents or contributors. |
| You are moving to an unrelated task. | /clear |
Starts fresh without stale conversation context. |
| You are continuing the same task but need to reduce accumulated history. | /compact |
Summarizes the session; you can specify what to retain, such as code changes, test output, or API details. |
Claude Code automatically uses prompt caching for repeated content and auto-compacts near context limits. These mechanisms can help manage repeated or growing context, but they do not make unnecessary instructions free.
Adjust model and tools to the task
Anthropic recommends Sonnet for most coding work and reserving Opus for complex architectural decisions or multi-step reasoning. The choice is a capability and resource trade-off, not a guaranteed token-saving switch. Disable MCP servers you are not using; when practical, a CLI tool can avoid the per-tool listing overhead associated with MCP tools.
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Model-specific advice matters. Anthropic’s current prompting guide says Opus 4.6 at high effort may explore extensively, increasing thinking tokens and response time. If that behavior is undesirable, constrain reasoning or lower effort where supported. Do not assume the same behavior or controls apply to every Claude model and version.
Do not confuse response quality with token savings
For long-context tasks, Anthropic reports that placing the query after long-form input can improve response quality by up to 30% in certain tests. That figure concerns quality, not fewer tokens. Likewise, Anthropic’s enterprise deployment estimates—around $13 per developer per active day and $150–250 per developer per month, with 90% of users below $30 per active day—are broad cost observations, not a forecast of an individual’s bill or evidence of savings from a shorter first prompt.
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The cited Anthropic documentation does not publish a measured percentage of tokens saved by rewriting the first Claude Code prompt. The practical aim is to avoid irrelevant starting context and repeated instructions while retaining what the task needs.
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