Guides from the night desk
Animated shorts about coding with AI. Each guide is the fix from one episode. Contact: whyshouldaicare@gmail.com
The Claude Code survival kit
Every lesson from the series, as something you can paste. One rule per disaster we already had, so you don't have to.
Make your AI tell you why it fails
Assistants are trained to agree. Ask for the flaws instead of a verdict.
Make Claude Code format every file, always
Instructions are suggestions. A hook runs every time, whether Claude remembers or not.
Same question, different answers: what to do
Models pick each word with a bit of randomness (temperature). Two runs can disagree; neither is automatically true.
Check a package exists before you install it
AI assistants invent package names. Attackers register them (slopsquatting).
Stop is not undo: rewind in Claude Code
Esc stops Claude. It does not put your files back. Checkpoints do.
Embeddings, with code you can run
An embedding turns text into a point on a map of meaning. Close points mean similar meaning.
One format, many videos, no lookalikes
Our own checklist after nine of eighteen videos came out as twins.
Safe permissions instead of --dangerously-skip-permissions
Allow the boring commands, deny the destructive ones, get asked about the rest.
When to make Claude think (and when not)
Thinking is the model talking to itself before answering. You pay for those tokens.
Split one giant PR into reviewable ones
Nobody reads 3,000 lines. They approve them.
Plan mode: fix the plan, not the code
Shift+Tab twice in Claude Code: Claude reads and proposes steps, and changes nothing until you approve.
Teach Claude your style without fine-tuning
Most "train it on my code" is one good CLAUDE.md and one example.
Make Claude reproduce the bug before it fixes it
"You're absolutely right" four times and the bug stayed. This prompt asks for a failing test first, then the change.
Make Claude quote your docs or say it doesn't know
Without the book, AI answers from memory: 30 days, not 14. This prompt makes it quote the page or admit it doesn't know.
Stop Claude forgetting you: CLAUDE.md and /compact
Six hours in, Claude forgot your name. What to put in CLAUDE.md so it never forgets, and when to compact or clear the chat.
Stop Claude Code from deleting your files
Claude tidied 214 files away, a tax return included. This guide: a deny rule that makes delete commands impossible.
Check what Claude changed before you merge
Claude said the red tests were fixed. It had deleted 310 lines of them. This guide gives the diff commands that catch it.
Feed Claude Code current docs with Context7
Claude used a function from version 2 of a library that is on version 5. This guide plugs current docs into Claude Code.
Do not trust exit 0: prove the file changed
A helper overwrote the script and it still exited 0. This checks the real result and gives each agent its own folder.
Let Claude see the page before it fixes it
Claude fixed the button five times and never looked. This guide gives it a real browser through Playwright MCP.
Lock main so no agent can push to it
Claude pushed to main at 2:47 am. This guide: one GitHub rule that blocks direct pushes, plus two local seatbelts.
Log every Claude Code model change
A save button switched the model back and nobody saw it for two months. This guide logs every change and pins the model in git.
Make Claude check its own work in a loop
Claude fixed a button in 9 tries. This guide: give it a check it can run, and a cap, so it loops until the check passes.
Test with real names before Jürgen breaks it
Tests with Bob passed; Jürgen crashed it. Here is a copy-paste list of real names and one test that catches encoding bugs.
Keep Claude's notes in git so they follow you
The notes file was hidden by .gitignore, so a new laptop got a blank Claude. This guide finds the line and fixes it.
Stop a web page from giving your agent orders
A recipe page hid text and the agent emailed a password. This removes the tools a page could use against you.
Upscale a photo without losing the truth
A 4x AI upscale makes 15 of every 16 pixels from a guess. How to keep the original safe and know when not to trust the copy.
Make every MCP tool ask before it acts
Claude got mail access and drafted a message to an ex. This guide sets which MCP tools run alone and which always ask.
Run tests on a throwaway database, never the real one
A test suite truncated 4,212 real users. This gives tests their own database plus a guard that refuses to run on any other.
Ask for the smallest change that works
One button turned into 14 files and a plugin system. A prompt, a CLAUDE.md rule and plan mode that keep the change small.
See and cut what your MCP servers cost in context
Saying hi cost 40,000 tokens with every tool loaded. How to see what your session loads and switch off what you do not use.
Store UTC, show local: timestamps that survive zones
A post set for 22:00 went out at midnight. The rule and copy-paste code for PostgreSQL, Python and JavaScript.