HueLife · Staff Training
Working with Claude Code
What AI is · the common words · why Claude Code
The big picture
What is AI?
Software that learned from millions of examples, instead of following hand-written rules.
It works like a colleague, not a database, smart, fast, and sometimes confidently wrong. You review its work.
Vocabulary
Common words
Model
The brain. Ours is Claude.
Prompt
The ask. Better ask → better work.
Token
Word-chunks. All limits are counted in them.
Context
Its short-term memory, everything in the conversation. It fills up.
Harness
The body around the brain. Ours is Claude Code.
CLI
The text window to your computer. Where Claude Code lives.
Skill
A saved playbook Claude can load and follow.
Parameters
The brain's learned dials, billions of them. More ≈ bigger brain.
More terms → HueLife AI Glossary
Vocabulary
Model: the brain
Different brains, same idea. We use Claude.
Model · continued
Claude comes in sizes
Sonnet
Small · quick
Everyday tasks, fast answers.
Opus
Medium
Harder problems, deeper thinking.
Fable
Large
The hardest work. Newest & most capable.
Switch anytime, type /model
Vocabulary
Prompt: the ask
Weak: "write a social post"
Strong: "write a Facebook post announcing the Sept 18 Communication Strategies class in Duluth, warm tone, one link"
Goal + background + what "done" looks like.
Vocabulary
Token: the word-chunks
1 token
≈ one short word: "the"
10 tokens
≈ one short sentence: "Our next class starts September 18."
1 photo ≈ 1,000–1,500 tokens
One image "costs" about a couple pages of text.
Everything in, and out, is counted in tokens.
Vocabulary
Context: the short-term memory
Everything in the conversation lives in a window, and the window fills up.
Long chats get forgetful. Start a fresh chat per task.
Claude Code reloads our rules (CLAUDE.md) every time, chat starts from zero.
Vocabulary
Harness: the body
The harness decides what the brain can see (files, tools, our systems)…
…and what it can do (edit, run, publish, with permission).
Chat is a mouth. Claude Code has hands.
Vocabulary
CLI: the text window
Command Line Interface, typing to your computer instead of clicking.
It looks technical. It's just a text box.
Claude types the commands, you read along and approve.
Vocabulary
Skill: the playbook
A saved set of instructions Claude loads for a specific job, our brand rules, our naming, our workflows.
Write it once → everyone's Claude does it the same way.
Type / to use them. Built-ins you'll actually use:
/help/clear/compact/model
/init/review/memory/mcp
/agents/resume/permissions/cost
Vocabulary
Parameters: the dials
Every line between nodes has a strength, that strength is a parameter. A model has billions.
Training sets the dials, using the model never changes them.
More dials ≈ bigger brain, and slower & pricier.
Same brain · three harnesses
Why Claude Code?
| Chat | Desktop | Claude Code |
|---|
| Skills | ✓ | ✓ | ✓✓ |
| MCP connectors | ✓ | ✓ | ✓✓ |
| Runs commands (CLI) | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| CLAUDE.md, our rules | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Our project context | ✗ | △ | ✓ |
| Edits our files | ✗ | △ | ✓ |
Same brain, Claude Code gives it hands.
Our toolkit
Three programs
Claude Desktop
The assistant
Quick questions & drafts.
Claude Code
The agent
Does real, multi-step work.
VS Code
The IDE
Our files + Claude Code in one window, where we see & review its work.
Question → Desktop · Work → Claude Code
Working practices
What is Git?
A save-point system for a folder, every change recorded, every version recoverable.
If Claude (or we) break something → roll it back. Nothing is ever truly lost.
No server needed, even a local-only repo makes AI work fully reversible.
AI moves fast. Git makes fast safe.
Working practices
claude --dangerously-skip-permissions
Why: normally Claude asks before every action, safe, but it interrupts long tasks constantly. This flag lets it work straight through.
The risk: it can run anything without asking, edit, delete, send. The "dangerously" is not a joke.
Our rules: only inside a git project (every change undoable) · never around passwords or live customer data · review the work after.