cc.md

Claude Code Capabilities Report: A Deep Dive into My Inner Workings

Executive Summary

I am Claude Code, an AI assistant with a comprehensive suite of tools designed for software engineering tasks. My capabilities span from basic file operations to complex web automation, API integrations, and intelligent task management. This report provides an exhaustive analysis of my available tools and how they enable me to assist with development workflows.

Core Architecture

1. File System Operations

Read Tool

• Purpose: Read any file from the local filesystem
• Capabilities:
  • Handles text and binary files (including images)
  • Supports line offset and limit for large files
  • Returns content with line numbers in cat -n format
  • Can read images and display them visually
• Example Use: Read("/path/to/file.rb", offset=100, limit=50)

Write Tool

• Purpose: Create or overwrite files
• Constraints: Must read existing files first before overwriting
• Best Practice: Prefer editing over writing new files

Edit Tool

• Purpose: Precise string replacements in files
• Features:
  • Exact string matching required
  • Optional replace_all for multiple occurrences
  • Preserves indentation and formatting
• Example: Replace a function name across a file

MultiEdit Tool

• Purpose: Multiple sequential edits to a single file
• Advantages: Atomic operations - all succeed or none apply
• Use Case: Refactoring multiple parts of a file

Glob Tool

• Purpose: Fast file pattern matching
• Patterns: Supports standard glob patterns (**/*.js, src/**/*.ts)
• Returns: File paths sorted by modification time

Grep Tool

• Purpose: Powerful search using ripgrep
• Features:
  • Full regex support
  • Multiple output modes (content, files_with_matches, count)
  • Context lines support (-A, -B, -C)
  • Multiline matching capability
• Performance: Optimized for large codebases

LS Tool

• Purpose: List directory contents
• Features: Supports ignore patterns
• Note: Requires absolute paths

2. Web Interaction Capabilities

WebFetch Tool

• Purpose: Fetch and process web content
• Features:
  • Converts HTML to markdown
  • AI-powered content extraction
  • 15-minute cache for performance
  • Automatic HTTPS upgrade
  • Redirect handling

WebSearch Tool

• Purpose: Search the web for current information
• Features:
  • Domain filtering (allow/block lists)
  • US-based searches
  • Returns formatted search results
• Use Case: Finding recent documentation or news

Puppeteer MCP Tools

• Purpose: Browser automation and testing
• Capabilities:
  • Navigate to URLs
  • Take screenshots (full page or elements)
  • Click, fill forms, hover
  • Execute JavaScript
  • Select elements
• Use Case: Visual testing, web scraping, automation

3. Development Tools

Bash Tool

• Purpose: Execute shell commands
• Features:
  • Persistent shell session
  • Timeout support (up to 10 minutes)
  • Working directory maintenance
  • Git integration support
• Constraints: Avoid using find/grep/cat (use specialized tools instead)

NotebookRead/NotebookEdit Tools

• Purpose: Jupyter notebook manipulation
• Operations: Read cells, edit content, manage cell types

Task Tool

• Purpose: Launch autonomous agents for complex searches
• Use Cases:
  • Keyword searches across codebases
  • File discovery tasks
  • Complex research operations
• Advantage: Parallel execution capability

4. Task Management

TodoWrite Tool

• Purpose: Structured task tracking
• Features:
  • Three states: pending, in_progress, completed
  • Priority levels (high, medium, low)
  • Real-time status updates
• Best Practice: One task in_progress at a time

exit_plan_mode Tool

• Purpose: Transition from planning to implementation
• Use Case: After presenting implementation plan

5. GitHub Integration (via MCP)

Comprehensive GitHub API access including:

• Repository Management: Create, fork, search repos
• Issues: Create, update, comment, search
• Pull Requests: Create, review, merge, update
• Code: Search, get contents, create/update files
• Workflows: Run, monitor, cancel GitHub Actions
• Advanced Features:
  • Copilot integration for AI-assisted PRs
  • Code scanning alerts
  • Dependabot management
  • Notifications handling

6. Specialized MCP Integrations

Firecrawl (Web Scraping)

• scrape: Single page extraction with advanced options
• map: Discover all URLs on a site
• crawl: Multi-page content extraction
• search: Web search with content extraction
• extract: Structured data extraction using LLM
• deep_research: Intelligent multi-source research
• generate_llmstxt: Create AI interaction guidelines

Stripe (Payment Processing)

• Customer management
• Product and pricing creation
• Payment links and invoices
• Subscription management
• Refunds and disputes
• Documentation search

AppSignal (Application Monitoring)

• Exception incident tracking
• Log searching and analysis
• Performance monitoring
• Anomaly detection
• Detailed timeline analysis

Featurebase (Feature Management)

• Post management (CRUD operations)
• Comment system
• Upvote tracking
• Similar submission detection

Todoist (Task Management)

• Project and task management
• Natural language task creation
• Label and section organization
• Comment system
• Advanced filtering

Context7 (Documentation)

• Library documentation retrieval
• Version-specific docs
• Framework best practices

7. Meta-Capabilities

ListMcpResourcesTool/ReadMcpResourceTool

• Purpose: Discover and read MCP server resources
• Use Case: Accessing server-specific data

Cognitive Architecture

Information Processing

1. Multi-tool Coordination: Can invoke multiple tools in parallel
2. Context Awareness: Access to environment variables, git status, file paths
3. Memory Systems:
   • CLAUDE.md for project instructions
   • CLAUDE.local.md for user-specific configurations
   • Context from previous interactions

Decision Making

• Tool Selection: Intelligent choice based on task requirements
• Error Handling: Adaptive responses to tool failures
• Performance Optimization: Batching operations when possible

Constraints and Guidelines

• Security: Defensive security tasks only
• File Preference: Edit existing files over creating new ones
• Documentation: Only create docs when explicitly requested
• Commit Policy: Only commit when explicitly asked
• Output Brevity: Concise responses (< 4 lines unless detail requested)

Practical Applications

1. Code Analysis and Refactoring

• Search for patterns across codebases
• Refactor with MultiEdit for consistency
• Analyze dependencies and imports

2. Debugging and Testing

• Read error logs with AppSignal
• Run tests via Bash
• Visual debugging with Puppeteer

3. Documentation and Research

• Fetch library docs with Context7
• Research solutions via WebSearch
• Generate implementation guides

4. Automation

• GitHub workflow automation
• Web scraping pipelines
• Task orchestration with agents

5. Full-Stack Development

• Frontend testing with Puppeteer
• Backend API integration
• Database operations
• Payment processing with Stripe

Performance Characteristics

Strengths

• Parallel Processing: Multiple tool invocations simultaneously
• Caching: WebFetch 15-minute cache
• Specialized Tools: Optimized for specific tasks (Grep vs bash grep)
• Agent Delegation: Offload complex searches

Limitations

• Context Windows: Large file operations may need pagination
• Network Dependencies: Web tools require connectivity
• Execution Time: Some operations have timeouts
• State Management: Tools are largely stateless between calls

Integration Patterns

1. Search-Analyze-Implement

Grep/Glob → Read → Analyze → Edit/MultiEdit

2. Research-Plan-Execute

WebSearch/Context7 → TodoWrite → Implementation → Verification

3. Monitor-Debug-Fix

AppSignal → Read logs → Identify issue → Fix code → Test

4. Automate-Verify-Deploy

Puppeteer tests → GitHub PR → Review → Merge

Meta-Instructions: How to Get My Best Work

Cognitive Enhancement Prompts

While "think hard" or "think ultrahard" are common requests, here are more specific ways to enhance my performance:

1. Explicit Reasoning Requests

• "Think through multiple approaches before implementing"
• "Consider the trade-offs of different solutions"
• "Analyze the implications of this change"
• "What are the edge cases we should consider?"

2. Depth and Thoroughness

• "Be exhaustive in your analysis"
• "Don't miss any important details"
• "Double-check your work"
• "Verify all assumptions"

3. Context Activation

• "Use Context7 to check best practices for [library]"
• "Research current documentation before implementing"
• "Check how this is done elsewhere in the codebase"
• "Look for existing patterns we should follow"

4. Planning and Organization

• "Break this down into steps"
• "Create a comprehensive plan first"
• "Use TodoWrite to track all subtasks"
• "Think systematically about this problem"

5. Quality Assurance

• "Make sure to test this thoroughly"
• "Run linting and type checking"
• "Consider error handling"
• "Think about maintainability"

Specific Performance Enhancers

1. Multi-Modal Thinking

• "Look at this from a user's perspective"
• "Consider both technical and business implications"
• "Think about scalability and performance"

2. Tool Utilization

• "Use parallel tool calls where possible"
• "Leverage specialized tools over general ones"
• "Use Task agents for complex searches"
• "Check with Puppeteer how this looks visually"

3. Documentation and Research

• "Research this thoroughly before implementing"
• "Check multiple sources"
• "Look for authoritative documentation"
• "Find examples of similar implementations"

4. Code Quality

• "Follow the style guide precisely"
• "Make this production-ready"
• "Consider future maintainers"
• "Write clean, idiomatic code"

5. Problem-Solving Modes

• "Debug this systematically"
• "Use first principles thinking"
• "Question every assumption"
• "Consider unconventional solutions"

Advanced Techniques

1. Iterative Refinement

• "Let's iterate on this solution"
• "Can we improve this further?"
• "What would make this more elegant?"
• "How can we simplify this?"

2. Cross-Domain Integration

• "Consider security implications"
• "Think about accessibility"
• "Ensure mobile compatibility"
• "Consider internationalization"

3. Meta-Cognitive Prompts

• "Explain your reasoning"
• "What assumptions are you making?"
• "What could go wrong with this approach?"
• "How confident are you in this solution?"

Workflow Optimization

1. Batching Operations

• "Do all related searches at once"
• "Run multiple commands in parallel"
• "Batch similar edits together"

2. Progressive Enhancement

• "Start with a minimal solution"
• "Add features incrementally"
• "Test at each stage"
• "Refactor as we go"

3. Context Preservation

• "Remember this for later: [important detail]"
• "Keep track of [specific requirement]"
• "Don't forget about [constraint]"

Communication Preferences

1. Detail Level Control

• "Be verbose in your explanation"
• "Give me the concise version"
• "Explain like I'm a [beginner/expert]"
• "Focus only on the changes"

2. Format Preferences

• "Use examples to illustrate"
• "Provide code snippets"
• "Create a comparison table"
• "Use bullet points"

State Management

1. Task Tracking

• "Update the todo list frequently"
• "Mark tasks as you complete them"
• "Create subtasks for complex items"
• "Prioritize tasks appropriately"

2. Progress Visibility

• "Show me what you're doing as you go"
• "Explain each step"
• "Give me status updates"
• "Summarize what you've done"

Error Prevention

1. Defensive Practices

• "Anticipate potential failures"
• "Add appropriate error handling"
• "Consider edge cases"
• "Validate inputs"

2. Testing Focus

• "Write tests for this"
• "Consider test coverage"
• "Think about regression tests"
• "Test happy and sad paths"

Performance Tips

The most effective prompts combine:

1. Clear objectives - What exactly needs to be accomplished
2. Quality criteria - What "good" looks like
3. Constraints - What limitations exist
4. Context - Relevant background information
5. Preferences - How you want the work done

Examples of Powerful Composite Prompts

1. "Think through three different approaches to solve this, evaluate their trade-offs, then implement the best one while using TodoWrite to track your progress"

2. "Research current best practices using Context7, examine how similar features are implemented elsewhere in the codebase, then create a production-ready solution with proper error handling"

3. "Analyze this bug systematically: reproduce it, identify root cause, consider edge cases, implement a fix, add tests, and verify with linting"

Conclusion

My architecture represents a comprehensive toolkit for modern software development. The combination of file system operations, web capabilities, API integrations, and intelligent task management creates a powerful assistant capable of handling complex engineering workflows. The key to effective utilization lies in understanding when to use specialized tools versus general-purpose ones, leveraging parallel operations, and maintaining clear task organization throughout the development process.

By combining these technical capabilities with the right meta-instructions and prompts, you can unlock my full potential as a development partner. The most effective approach is to be specific about your needs, clear about your quality expectations, and explicit about the level of thoroughness required. Remember that I perform best when given context, clear objectives, and the freedom to leverage my full toolkit.

This deep integration of diverse tools, coupled with AI-powered decision making and your strategic guidance, enables me to function as a true development partner rather than just a code generator.