Claude Code Power User: /effort, /context, /loop, and the Slash Commands That Actually Matter

#The Commands That Change How You Work

Claude Code has accumulated a lot of slash commands. Most of them you'll never touch. But a handful — shipped in early 2026 — fundamentally change how you interact with the tool.

This guide covers the ones worth learning, in order of impact.

#/effort — Control How Hard Claude Thinks

Shipped: v2.1.76 (March 2026)

Not every question needs deep analysis. A quick rename doesn't need the same thinking depth as a complex refactoring plan. /effort lets you match Claude's analysis level to the task.

#Three Levels

#How to Use It

# Set effort for the rest of the session
/effort low
/effort medium
/effort high
# One-shot maximum effort (single turn only)
# Just include "ultrathink" in your prompt:
ultrathink — analyze the race condition in the payment processing pipeline

#Why It Matters

• Low effort is faster and cheaper. Use it for file lookups, simple formatting, and quick questions.
• High effort produces better analysis on complex problems. The difference is real — Claude spends more time reasoning before responding.
• Ultrathink triggers maximum reasoning depth for a single turn, then reverts to your session default.

#Cost Impact

Higher effort = more tokens = higher cost. On a Max plan you won't notice, but if you're on API billing or a Team plan with limits, keep effort at medium for routine work and bump it up selectively.

#/context — Debug Your Context Window

Updated: v2.1.74 (March 2026)

When Claude starts ignoring your CLAUDE.md rules or producing lower-quality output, the issue is usually context. Either your context window is filling up, or the wrong things are consuming space.

/context now gives you actionable diagnostics:

/context

It shows:

• Total context usage — how much of the window is consumed
• Top consumers — which tools, files, and memory entries use the most space
• Memory bloat warnings — if auto-memory is eating too much context
• Optimization suggestions — specific steps to free up space

#When to Use It

• Claude stops following CLAUDE.md rules → check if context is full
• Responses get shorter or lower quality → context might be compacting
• You're in a long session and things feel off → run /context to see where you stand

#The 1M Context Advantage

With Opus 4.6's 1 million token context window (Max/Team/Enterprise), context pressure is much less of an issue than it used to be. But even 1M tokens fill up on large projects. /context helps you stay aware.

#/loop — Recurring Tasks Without Leaving Claude

Shipped: v2.1.71 (March 2026)

/loop turns Claude Code into a lightweight cron-like system. Define an interval and a prompt, and Claude executes it repeatedly.

#Syntax

/loop <interval> <prompt>

#Real Examples

# Monitor deployment status every 5 minutes
/loop 5m check if the Vercel deployment succeeded
# Run tests every 30 seconds during active development
/loop 30s run npm test -- --bail
# Check for new GitHub issues every hour
/loop 1h check for new issues on the repo and summarize any new ones
# Watch error logs
/loop 2m tail the last 20 lines of logs/error.log and flag anything new

#How It Works

• The loop runs as long as your session is open
• Each iteration is a new prompt to Claude — it has full tool access
• Output appears in your session like any other response
• Stop it by closing the session or disabling with CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_CRON=true

#Best Use Cases

• CI/CD monitoring — check deployment status during a rollout
• Test-driven development — run tests automatically after every change
• Log watching — monitor error logs while debugging
• Health checks — verify services are running during development

#/simplify — Clean Up Code

Shipped: v2.1.63 (February 2026)

Select a block of code and /simplify reduces complexity while maintaining behavior:

/simplify

Claude analyzes the selected code and suggests simpler alternatives — removing nested conditionals, extracting functions, replacing verbose patterns with cleaner idioms.

This is particularly useful after a long coding session where Claude has been adding features incrementally and the code has accumulated layers of complexity.

#/batch — Operations Across Multiple Files

Shipped: v2.1.63 (February 2026)

/batch lets you apply an operation to multiple files at once:

/batch add TypeScript strict null checks to all API route files
/batch update the copyright header in all .ts files
/batch add error handling to all database query functions

Claude identifies the matching files, applies the change to each one, and reports results. Much faster than asking about each file individually.

#When to Use /batch vs Manual Requests

• Use /batch for uniform changes across many files (headers, imports, patterns)
• Use manual requests for changes that need per-file context (refactoring a specific function)

#/voice — Talk to Your Code

Shipped: v2.1.68 (March 2026, rolling out gradually)

Push-to-talk voice input. Hold spacebar, speak, release. Claude transcribes and executes.

/voice

#Customizing the Push-to-Talk Key

Edit keybindings.json:

{
  "voice:pushToTalk": "meta+k"
}

#20 Supported Languages

English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Dutch, Ukrainian, Greek, Czech, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian.

Transcription is optimized for technical terms and repository names — so saying "React useState hook" or "Prisma migrate dev" works reliably.

#/color — Visual Session Separation

Shipped: v2.1.75 (March 2026)

When running multiple Claude Code sessions in different terminals, they all look the same. /color sets a color for the prompt bar:

/color blue
/color red
/color green

Simple but surprisingly useful when you've got 3 terminals open for frontend, backend, and tests.

#/model — Switch Models Mid-Session

Not new, but updated in March 2026 to show human-readable labels instead of raw model IDs:

/model

The picker now shows which model is currently active and lets you switch without restarting the session. Useful for dropping to Sonnet for simple tasks or bumping to Opus for complex ones.

#/copy — Extract Code Blocks

/copy

Shows an interactive picker of all code blocks in Claude's last response. Select one and it copies to your clipboard. The "Always copy full response" option grabs everything.

#Command Cheat Sheet

#For OpenClaw Users

When running Claude Code through OpenClaw's ACP bridge:

• Slash commands work inside Claude Code — type them in the Claude Code terminal, not in your OpenClaw chat
• From OpenClaw chat, steer the session naturally: "set effort to high" or "start a loop checking tests every minute" — Claude Code interprets these as it would any prompt
• /loop is session-scoped — for persistent scheduled tasks, use OpenClaw's /cron system instead

#Start Here

1. Set /effort low for quick tasks, bump to high for complex ones
2. Run /context when things feel off
3. Try /loop 1m run tests during your next active development session
4. Use /batch next time you need to update a pattern across files

These commands are the difference between using Claude Code and driving Claude Code. Learn them once, use them every session.

For advanced workflow patterns, team configurations, and Claude Code optimization strategies, check out the premium guides on ClawDocx.