Bigger Projects | Claude Code Guide

Your project has grown. What started as four HTML pages now has a dozen files across several folders. Maybe you've added a blog section, or a portfolio gallery, or integrated some third-party tool. Claude Code handles big projects well. But the way you use it needs to evolve. The casual "fix the page" instructions that worked with four files need more precision when you have forty. ## Context Management: Fresh Sessions The most important habit for bigger projects: start fresh sessions often. Every time you type `claude`, you get a new conversation. Claude reads your files, reads your CLAUDE.md, and starts with a clean slate. No baggage from yesterday's confused session. No leftover assumptions from a conversation that went sideways. **Start a new session for every new task.** Fixed a bug? Start fresh. Adding a new page? New session. Changing the design? New session. You don't have to close and reopen Claude Code every time. Type `/clear` to reset the conversation while staying in the terminal. If a session is getting long but you want to keep going, `/compact` compresses the context instead of wiping it. This sounds wasteful. It's the opposite. Fresh sessions are fast (Claude reads your files in seconds) and reliable (no accumulated confusion). Long sessions drift. Fresh sessions focus. ## Be Specific About Files With five files, "fix the header" probably means one thing. With fifty files, it could mean any of ten different headers. Always name the file: ```text In pages/contact.html, fix the header spacing. The heading is too close to the navigation bar. ``` Not: ```text Fix the header spacing. ``` The more files in your project, the more important this becomes. Claude can search through everything, but pointing it at the right file first is faster and more accurate. ## Commands Pay Off at Scale Remember custom commands from Module 3? They become essential as projects grow. With a small project, typing a review prompt manually is fine. With a bigger project, you want consistent, thorough reviews every time: **/project:review** runs a standardized code review. **/project:check-links** verifies all navigation and links work. **/project:mobile** checks every page at mobile width. Create commands for any task you repeat more than twice. Notice yourself typing the same kind of instruction? Turn it into a command. The bigger the project, the more commands save you. Each command encapsulates expertise. "Check all 15 pages for accessibility" isn't something you want to type from memory every time. ## Break Big Tasks into Steps "Add a blog section to the website" is a big ask. It involves creating templates, styling, navigation updates, content, and possibly restructuring your project. Break it into pieces: ``` Step 1: Create a blog listing page at blog/index.html that shows a list of post titles and dates. Use the same style as the rest of the site. No actual posts yet, just the listing page structure. ``` Build step 1. Review. Save a snapshot. Then: ``` Step 2: Create a template for individual blog posts at blog/post-template.html. It should have the post title, date, content area, and a back link to the blog listing. ``` Build, review, save. Continue step by step. Each step is small enough to review thoroughly. If something goes wrong, you know exactly where it happened. If you need to undo, you only lose one step, not the whole thing. ## Agents for Big Analysis When you need to analyze or check something across many files, tell Claude to use parallel agents (Module 2, Chapter 7): ```text Use parallel agents to check all HTML pages for: - Missing page titles - Missing meta descriptions - Broken image paths - Links that don't go anywhere Work through all files and give me one combined report. ``` Claude can check multiple files simultaneously. For a project with 30 HTML files, this is much faster than going one by one. You can explicitly tell Claude to run checks in parallel. It's usually smart enough to figure it out on its own, but being explicit doesn't hurt. ## CLAUDE.md Grows With Your Project Small project CLAUDE.md: ``` Personal portfolio website. Dark theme. Four pages. ``` Bigger project CLAUDE.md: ```bash # Portfolio & Blog ## Structure - pages/ - Static pages (home, about, projects, contact) - blog/ - Blog listing and posts - css/ - Stylesheets (main.css, blog.css) - images/ - All images - js/ - JavaScript (if any) ## Design - Dark theme (#0f172a background) - Accent: #38bdf8 - Font: Inter - Max width: 900px ## Important - Blog posts use blog/post-template.html as the base - Navigation is consistent across all pages - New pages must include meta title and description - All images go in images/ with descriptive names ``` More files means more context Claude needs. Keep CLAUDE.md updated as your project evolves. It's the map that keeps Claude oriented. ## Signs Your Project Needs Structure Cleanup Watch for these signals: - **Claude edits the wrong file.** Your project probably has ambiguous naming. Rename files or reorganize folders. - **You can't remember where something is.** If you can't find it, Claude might struggle too. Better folder structure needed. - **Same style defined in multiple places.** Consolidate your CSS. One file should be the source of truth. - **CLAUDE.md hasn't been updated in weeks.** It probably doesn't reflect your current project. Update it. When you notice these, ask Claude to help: ``` Audit the project structure. Are there files in the wrong places? Duplicate styles? Anything that would confuse someone seeing this project for the first time? Suggest improvements. ``` ## How I Work on a Big Project My website has over 200 files. Every time I start Claude Code, I specify exactly what I'm working on: "In `public/css/components/nav.css`, fix the mobile menu animation." Without that specificity, Claude might look at the wrong nav-related file. I also break every big feature into small tasks. "Add a tools section" becomes: create the model, create the controller, create the listing view, create the detail view, add the routes, update navigation. Each task gets its own session. The project is too big for any single session to handle entirely. But it's perfectly manageable when you focus each session on one clear task. That's the secret to scale: not bigger sessions, but more focused ones. > Next up: the final module. Staying safe, building good habits, and figuring out what to build next.

Making Claude Code Work on Bigger Projects

Context Management: Fresh Sessions

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