Claude Code Clearly Explained (and how to use it)

So, you want to use Claude Code. You

want to get the most of it, but you

don't know exactly how. This is a crash

course how to master Claude Code, and we

explain it in the most simple way. There

are thousands, literally thousands

[music] of other Claude code tutorials

on the internet, but there are none as

simple as this. I brought on Professor

Ross Mike. He comes on and he shares it

in the simplest way so that anyone could

create jawdropping

startups and software using cloud code.

We're going to give you the exact steps

[music]

for how you can set it up, thinking

about the beginner, how to think about

[music] the terminal, how to think about

prompting. But if you stick around to

the end of this episode, there's a tips

and tricks section, which I think is

super valuable. And uh I can't wait to

see what you build.

>> [music]

[music]

>> We got Ross Mike on the pod. By the end

of this episode, what are people going

to learn?

>> Hopefully, you're going to not feel

overwhelmed with claude code. I know the

terminal is scary and it's a big

boogeyman, but I'm going to give you the

blueprint, how to use it. I'm also going

to share, consider this the ultimate

crash course on how to use Claude Code

or any agent effectively.

Okay, let's let's get into it.

>> So, I mean the best way to start these

episodes is with sharing our screen. So,

when we think of building applications

using AI, using some sort of agent like

cloud code or open code or codec,

whatever it is, there's a couple of

things that you always have to keep in

mind. You know, the principles never

really change. One thing that it's

important for us to understand is

however good your inputs are will

dictate how good your output is. Right?

We're getting to a point where the

models are so freakishly good that if

you are producing quote unquote slop,

it's because you've given it slop,

right? Um there was a time where the

models weren't good enough. There was a

time where, you know, we had serious

qualms and issues with the quality of

code the models gave us. But now we're

starting to get to a point where even

myself like I'm reviewing a lot more

code than I write. And I never thought

I'd be able to say that in the early uh

months of 2026. So very important for us

to understand our inputs, how good they

are, how precise they are, how

articulate they are are just as good as

our outputs and will dictate just how

good our outputs will be. And the way I

want people to think about this is Greg

is like imagine you were communicating

this to a human to a human engineer,

right? If you give them sparse

instructions and if anyone is in like

client work, you realize that most

clients they they they tell you one

thing but you have to sort of extract

the deeper thoughts of what it is they

want. Um it's the same way when we work

with these agents. When we work with

claude code, we need to be really really

precise with how we build our inputs.

Now, what do I mean by inputs? What I

mean is our PRDS or our to-do list or

our plans, right? Like there's, you

know, people are giving you different

names. Um, it doesn't really matter.

It's all the same thing, right? And when

we think of a PRD or when we think of a

to-do list or when we think of a plan, I

want us to think in such a way as this.

Let's say I'm trying to build this

product, right? Let's say um I don't

know, Greg, any product ideas um that

>> me have product ideas?

>> Yeah, that's actually the best best

person to ask, right? [laughter]

Um let's say I go on idealbrowser.com

and

>> I was just going to it. I was just going

to it. Yeah, pick pick the idea of the

day from idea browser. Says it's a

diagnostic tool for appliance text

losing hundreds of repeat visits. See, I

have no idea what that means, but let's

say I know what that means. Essentially,

when thinking of this idea and looking

to build this into a full-fledged

product, generally the way you're going

to think is, okay, if the if product X

does Y, Z, A, B, and C, how I would

reach that is I'm going to think of

features, right? So, let's say there's

four core features to this application

that um Greg just mentioned. And if I

have these four features built out, we

can safely assume that we have said

product, right? The way we are to design

our PRDs, to-do lists, and plans is such

that we want the agent, the model to

build out all these features, right?

Because all these features put together

is our product. You see, a lot of times

people will describe a product, um, not

describe features, and will be

frustrated with AI. Like AI is supposed

to magically know what you're thinking

about. Um, by the way, Greg, am I making

sense so far, or am I

>> 100% I'm with you.

>> Yeah. So, we really need to think in

features. But here's the cool part. When

developing features, often times the

issue with models is like you'll develop

a feature or like let's say the model

develops a feature. We don't know if it

works. We don't know if it did it the

right way. That's where with all the

cool Ralph stuff that's happening, we

can introduce tests, right? So let's say

uh the model the agent bu builds feature

one. Before moving on moving on to

feature two, what I'm going to do is I'm

going to get the model to write a test.

If that test passes, then we'll work on

the second feature. If that test passes,

we work on the third feature. Right? So

we're finally entering an era where you

can really build something serious with

these models. So, instead of telling you

about just uh planning, why don't we do

actual planning together? So, I'm going

to pop up my terminal. So, I know

everyone's afraid of the terminal, but

in all honesty, if you don't know how to

use a terminal, ask AI. Like, it's the

like simplest thing. And if not, you can

even download the Cloud Code app and go

on code section, give it a specific

folder you want to work on and use the

app. Like, there's literally no excuse

to not use cloud code. If you're afraid,

boohoo, just jump into use AI. have all

the tools. That being said, I'm just

going to type in Claude and we're going

to have uh Claude code open. And usually

how people plan is they'll click shift

tab, right? And then you have plan mode

on and you can say, let's say I want to

build

um Tik Tok UGC

generating app for my marketing agency.

I see like these UGC apps everywhere.

Um, please help me create a plan. Write

this in the

in uh PRD.MD

file. So, this is how most people have

planning set up, right? you'll tell

Claude Code or Cursor or whatever agent

uh to do the plan for you and you ask it

to be in some file and like it says it'd

be happy to help you plan this out and

it'll ask you some questions etc etc.

But I found that there's a better way to

get an even more concise plan. And this

way it actually gets you to think a lot

more about tradeoffs, concerns, UIUIUX

decisions because most of the time

you're sort of allowing the AI to have

free reign over certain decisions which

I think uh will lead you with a finished

product that you're not excited about.

And that's invoking a special tool. Um I

was going to show you guys the tweet but

unfortunately Twitter's down right now.

But Claude Code has a specific tool

called ask user question tool. And

essentially what this tool does, it

starts to interview you about the

specifics of your plan. Right? So I'm

going to drop this prompt where it says

read this plan file. Interview me in

detail using the ask user question tool

about literally anything. Technical

implementation, UI, UX concerns, and

trade-offs. I spelled implementation

wrong. Do not judge me. Um, and what

this is going to do is it's going to go

past the plan that we have and start to

ask us about minute details. So, let's

finish off this plan first. I'm just

going to accept um this is internal use

uh text. We'll use React. I just want

core features. We'll submit answers. And

then cloud code, you'll see might ask us

a few more questions, but this will

generally be the plan,

>> right? So it's it's not just it's not

just the plan, it's the right plan,

right? Like to what you were saying like

go back go scroll back up here the

features and yeah the features and test

like the way I think about this and I

don't know if you agree is like if you

ask claude code to build you a car it

doesn't really know what a car is. It

doesn't understand like you need a

steering wheel and a you know a radio

and you need wheels. So the the the hard

part is trying to figure out is

basically explaining what those things

are in a really succinct and clear way.

And that's what this interview is

basically doing. It's it's explaining

each of them and then we're going to

test each of those features. Exactly.

Like think of think of it this like a

simple example. Let's say you ask the AI

agent to build you a specific feature,

right? How is it going to present that

specific feature? Did you want it in a

dashboard? Did you want it to be a

modal? Did did it have to be a separate

page? Like when you don't specify these

minute details, it will make the

assumption for you. And with Ralph loops

and all these type of things, like you

might have a whole application built out

and it's not exactly to the liking or

the expectations you had. Right? So, let

me continue. I'll just make some

selections here just so we can move on.

Um, and then hit submit. And then I'm

going to pause this planning here and

then I'm going to paste this. I'm going

to say read this plan file and I'm going

to tag the plan file. It's called

prd.md.

We have that right here. Um, and I'm

going to say interview me the details

about this question or I don't even need

to tag it because it has it in its

context. But I just want to show you how

annoyingly

uh annoying this is going to get.

Meaning it's going to keep asking me

questions about said plan or said uh app

idea. So notice how it says round one

core workflow and technical foundation,

right? And some of the questions it

might even ask you are things that you

might not know about cuz you're not

technical. So what do I do when I don't

know something, Greg? I'm going to copy

this and I'm going to go to the chatbot

of my choice, whether it's claude, chat,

GBT, whatever, and I'm going to ask it

questions. So if you remember earlier,

it asked me generic questions about the

app. Now it's saying, "What's your ideal

workflow for generating UGC video from

start to finish?"

Like notice how the questions are even

more specific now. So it says linear

stepbystep template based batch

processing iterative conversational. So

let's say I select that and it says how

should the app handle agent API cost and

usage. So now it's talking about cost

right again most of the times when you

just have a basic plan this is not

included in the plan. Right? Let's say

we want to have a hard hard budget. Um

what database and hosting approach do

you want to use? Most of you probably

watching this have no idea. So I can

copy this over, go to Chad GBT and ask

what's the best decision. This is my

current situation. And then you keep

going. You keep going and you submit

answers. So when you use this ask user

question tool, the questions become more

granular. So it asks me about core

workflow and technical foundation. Now

it's going to ask me about UI, UX, and

script generation. If you notice the

first plan that it came up with, the

default plan for claude code, it was

pretty basic. Now it's asking me, okay,

what AI do I want to use for the script

generation? I'll use Claude. Uh, what UI

style aesthetic are you going for?

Minimal clean, dashboard heavy, creative

tool field, chat first. Right. So

hopefully, Greg, I'm making sense with

like how much more questions I'm being

asked when I'm invoking this ask user

question tool.

Yeah, it makes complete sense. You're

also you're also going to use less

tokens in the end, right? Because you're

right.

>> Yeah. Because the thing is the better

your plan, the better your input, the

better the initial set of documents that

you give the model, um the the better

the outcome. And if the better the

outcome, there's no back and forth,

right? Most people will have a Ralph

loop running. It'll be a basic plan and

it'll do what you told it to do, but you

weren't specific. So now you're going

back and then maybe you're running

another loop or you're going back and

doing all these changes. But if you get

it done right, if you invest the time in

the planning stage, I 100% believe

you'll save a lot more money. And this

will help you clear up a lot of ideas.

So like for example, this idea that we

just had, this Tik Tok UGC farm, um, how

do we want it set up? Do we want it to

be flat with search? Do we want it to be

client campaign assets? There's a lot of

like these minute details that you're

not thinking about and because you're

not thinking about it, you're allowing

cloud code to make those assumptions for

you, right? Which at the end after it's

burned through a ton of tokens, now

you're going back to change, right? We

can save so much headache if we do the

proper planning from the beginning. And

hopefully um people see value in this um

ask user question tool. Make sure you

specify it in your prompt. And

hopefully, Greg, that that made sense.

>> It does.

>> So, I would say step number one for this

Claude C crash course is I would get

good at planning. I would get really

really good at planning. I would get

good at generating these, right? Like

look, it it keeps on asking me

questions. If you notice the very first

plan that we generated with Claude, it

was two sets of questions and it was

ready to build. But with this, it's

asking me, do I want basic avatars,

custom avatars, multi-seene videos? How

do I want to handle storage? Do I want

to download the videos instantly? Cloud

storage, external storage, like there's

so much to software engineering. And I

think in our last video, you um someone

shared this on Twitter. I don't know if

it was you or someone else. Like

software um building personal software

is easy, but building software others

are going to use is very, very

difficult. And if you don't have the

audacity or the decency to to set up a

little time, a little extra time to

plan, then I guarantee whatever you

generate is going to be AI slop. And you

might blame the model, but really the

problem is you. So invest in your plans.

Spend time using planning. Um don't use

the generic plan uh mode that cursor or

claude code has. I would use claude

code. And then I would specify the ask

user question tool. um it's going to

continue to know you with questions like

it keeps asking, right? Cuz until it

knows exactly what it is you want, it

won't start building. Um so I would say

that's step number one to building with

cloud code. Step number two, and

everyone's talking about Ralph and it's

exciting. Um but I wouldn't use it. I

wouldn't use Ralph. And the reason I

wouldn't use Ralph if I was just

starting out, Greg, is because um how

are you going to like imagine this, like

imagine not knowing how to drive, but

then buying a Tesla for uh like the

self-driving stuff. Like cool in theory,

but maybe it's a great idea to know how

to drive, how to steer, how to hit the

corners, how to maybe yell at someone

when they cut you off before you get the

full automated version. I say this to

say because when you get good at

developing plans and then working with

the AI to build each feature and testing

each feature, you you start to develop

this sense on product building on on

like you know even uh I heard someone

call vibe QA testing. You get this sense

by going one-on-one yourself. And this

is why a lot of people who were fighting

with claude code all these months are

really really good at using it now

because they spent the time building

without using these crazy automation

loops. So if you're using cloud code for

the first time or you're just getting

into it good plan number one and number

two get your reps in by not using Ralph.

So develop the features one by one. Now

that you have your plan, you can

literally tell Claude Code, hey, okay,

let's build the first feature. Um, you

know, go ahead and do it. And then once

the feature is done, you can test it

out. Ask it, how can I test this? How

can I run this app? I wouldn't jump into

using Ralph right away. Um, build

without Ralph. But let's say you've

built these reps now and you're you're

comfortable with Cloud Code. Now you

hear about all these things. skills MCP

uh prompt MD agent MD um what else is

there something MD you you hear all

these conventions plugins um you have

Ralph all these things so what do I need

to perfectly uh build something um using

cloudc any agent I'll be honest with you

most of these things are all the same

prompt MD and agent MD are just markdown

files um plugins

are skills with you know a little bit

extra. What you need to build

successfully using these agents is first

of all you need a good plan right which

are documents which is the prd we just

generated and then you need um to

document um the progress that's being

made. Um for anyone who's familiar with

for with Ralph you know what I'm talking

about. For those who aren't, what's cool

about a Ralph loop is as follows. A

Ralph loop is basically you have a list

of things that need to be get that need

to get done. Uh the uh whatchamacallit

the prd or the plan you give it to the

AI model. The model works on the first

task. It finishes it then documents it

in another file and then it it goes

again and it stops until it's completed

the whole list. Now, this isn't anything

special, but the reason why it's now

super powerful is because the models are

getting so so good. But here is the

issue. If you have a terrible plan, if

you have a terrible PRD, this doesn't

matter. You're just donating money to

Enthropic and I wish you the best of

luck if that's what you want to do. But

if you want to make sure that your

tokens are not wasted, you're going to

invest in a good PRD. MD file or a good

plan file.

Greg, am I making sense so far?

>> 100%.

>> Okay,

>> you're driving the point home.

>> Yes. So, I'll talk a little bit about um

Ralph uh now. So, with Mr. Ralph Wiggum,

um how do we use this? Now, there's a

lot of different um iterations like

people are coming with their own style.

I'm going to share with you my Ralph

setup in a second. Um Greg, um one thing

I will say is Cloud Code has a plugin, a

Ralph Wigum plugin. I wouldn't use that.

And the reason I wouldn't use that is

even the person who invented the whole

Ralph system um is against it. It's not

the best use of Ralph. But I just want

to share this concept of how Ralph

works. It's essentially going to go

through our plan and it's going to build

out each feature step by step. And it's

not going to stop until it's done. This

is cool when your plan rocks. If your

plan sucks, then it's terrible. It

doesn't matter. Now, in terms of how to

set up um Ralph Wigum, I have my own

setup, and I don't want anyone to think

I'm shilling my own setup for any

reason, but the reason why I built my

own setup is there's a couple things my

Ralph loop does. The first thing is it

makes sure that there's a plan, a prd

file, and there's a progress.txt file.

But it also every feature it builds, it

then writes a test and it then lints.

And basically what this does is it makes

sure that every feature that's built

actually works, right? Cuz there's no

point on working on feature two if

feature one doesn't work. If feature one

doesn't work, if the test fails, guess

what the AI model is going to do? It's

going to go back to working on feature

one. And once the test passes, we work

on feature two. And then once feature

two test passes, we work on feature

three. Right? All this is awesome, but

I'm going to go back to the same point.

If your plan sucks, then the Ralph loop

won't matter. Now, in order to set up

this loop, um you can find the uh get up

here. How to set it up, you honestly,

I'm not even going to explain it. Uh

Greg, people can literally copy the

link, pass it to Claude, and then be

like, I want to run this Ralph loop, and

it will tell you exactly what to do.

That's how good the models have become.

But I'll show you an example of this

running. So I have a simple prd file.

It's nothing crazy. It's just to show

you the point. But basically there are a

couple tasks here. I want to build a

basic server that has some basic

endpoints. And I just want to show you

how my Ralph loop works. So when I run

this Ralph loop and again if you don't

know how to run this the you paste the

GitHub URL in cloud code in your agent

and ask it and it will tell you how to

do it. I have a few different

configurations. I can use open code if I

want. I can use codeex if I want. But

I'm just going to use cloud code. And

I'm just going to run this script. And

basically what it's going to start doing

is it's going to start running through

each task as you can see. And it's going

to update the PRD and it's just going to

continue to work. Now I can go and

leave, right? I can go about my day,

hang with um hang with uh Greg and this

loop will continue to work and I'm going

to see that at some point whether it's 5

minutes, 3 minutes, 10 minutes, however

long this is, this is going to finish

all the tasks. I'm going to have a

working product built and all this is

cool, but it doesn't matter if I'm going

to go back to the original document if

the plan isn't good. Now, skills are

great, MCPs are great, all these

different markdown files are great. You

would do yourself a serious service if

your

if your plan is good. So, the key to

successfully building with cloud code is

you have an absolutely great plan. And

if you use the ask user question tool,

you will spend so much time on the plan

where it starts to get annoying. It

doesn't get fun. But those of us who

focus on this will end up having better

outputs. Um, let's continue. If you

notice here, my Ralph loop is continuing

to go and it took care of the first

task. I can see some files already

generated. If I go to the progress.txt

file, you can see Greg, it's started to

make some progress. It's documenting

that. And this is just going to continue

to work. This is just going to continue

to run. So, people have different

iterations. I know the AMP code people

have their own iteration. Um, and

different people have their own

iteration. It doesn't really matter,

right? Someone's Ralph is could be

better, someone's can be worse,

someone's could be all of that is cool,

but don't get stuck in the weeds. The

main sauce is how you can articulately

perfectly in a beautiful presentation

create the perfect input because if you

create the perfect input, we have

reached a point where the models will

give you perfect output. So that's my

main uh tip crash course for people. Use

the ask user question tool. Build

without using Ralph. And if you are

going to use Ralph, understand if your

plan sucks, you're just donating money

to Anthropic. And I think Anthropic has

enough money that they don't need your

money being donated to them.

>> Amen.

>> Amen. Is there anything else people need

to know? Like little tips and tricks. I

notice you know you're not using the Mac

terminal. You're using ghosty.

>> Yes. Yes. So, honestly, it's all

preference, right? So, like the terminal

you use and all this stuff is all

preference. Here's what I would say.

Like, let's have a tips and tricks list.

Tips and tricks. So, first I would say

is my goodness spelling today. First I

would say is use the ask what was the

specific tool? I just want to make sure

I don't forget. ask user questions tool.

Slept on. I don't know why no one's not

talking about it. It literally I saw the

tweet from the Enthropic team. 100% I

would use that when planning. Uh number

two, um don't over obsess

obsess on uh MCP skills, etc., etc. I'm

not saying don't get into these. I'm not

saying don't read about them. I'm not

saying don't use them. But I I can

almost guarantee you these things are

not the reason why your product isn't

working. Right? Most of the time it's

your plan sucks. Right? That's number

two. Um number three, I would use Ralph

after I've built something without. And

the reason being is again listen if you

are a baller shot caller and you have

all the money to blow and you don't care

and you want to donate money to

Anthropic, go ahead and use Ralph. But

if we were to sit here eye to eye and

you haven't built anything, deployed

anything, there isn't a URL that I

myself or Greg can click on that you've

built, you have no business using Ralph.

You literally have no business using

Ralph. I would first get good at

prompting and building something using a

plan, whether it's whatever AG1, cloud

code, open code, whatever. Once you have

something deployed to Verscell or like

there's a URL and we can use it, then

you can use Ralph. Number four, um this

is a little in the weeds, but context is

more important than ever. And a lot of

times cloud code or even cursor will

tell you what percent of context has

been used. Um I generally wouldn't go

over 50%. Meaning like the enthropic

model opus 4.5 has a 200,000 token

context limit. The moment in my opinion

you've got over a 100,000 tokens meaning

you're using the same session it starts

to sort of deteriorate that's when you

have people Greg who say oh like I

started off good but it started going

bad. That's because you've filled it

with so much context. And the best way

to think about this is like yourself

right? Like let's say we went to some

English class and or some you know

whatever class and the professor just

kept dumping information information at

some point we're going to feel

overwhelmed and we're going to actually

start forgetting stuff um and I'm not

saying that's how the models work but

that's how the models act right so

context is very much important the

moment you see 50% or even 40% I would

start a new session and last but not

least um have audacity and what I mean

by that is software development is

starting to become easy but software

engineering is very very hard and what

do I mean by that? Um to architect

software to make sure things are usable

to create great UX UI to have great

taste to make something that people

actually use requires time and in order

to spend time it requires audacity. I

know the models are good and you can

clone a $6 billion software but if all

of us can do it now what makes software

different I think thinking about those

things and thinking about the art of

building products and building something

that's tasteful is very very important

and I think anyone who uses these five

uh tips should kick cheeks in 2025 2026

sorry

>> um I agree on the audacity thing I think

like it's for me it's like about

creating scroll stopping software

You know what I mean? Like there's so

many people and there's a lot of

tutorials about this like cloning

billion dollar software. You know, I

cloned a $4 billion software. Look at

me. But that's not the type of software

that's going to work in 2026, right? Um

I saw this uh let me just share it real

quick. I saw this guy who created a

running app based on how you're feeling.

So it's like how are you feeling?

Stressed, angry. Um, and it's an AI

assisted running app that interprets

your current emotions to generate a

personalized route. And I just thought

it was interesting, you know what I

mean? Like I had never seen an app like

this. And I think that like as you know,

you call it Audacity. I think this is an

audacious app, right? It's scroll

stopping. You haven't seen it before. So

I think push you want to push Claude

code to like get you to this basically.

And and and this is why I'm like so pro

people not using Ralph if they haven't

built anything fully cuz like now we're

people are getting to a point where they

they want the model to think for them,

right? Where like if you look at the app

you just shared the animations and how

things were floating and like even the

colors used for the different emotions

like that required thought, right? And

that's what stops people now. Like if

building the AI chat interface is easy,

what's going to make your app different?

I think a little bit of audacity, a

little bit of thought and care, and a

little bit of taste goes a long way

nowadays. Um, and more than the models

getting better, cuz it's going to get

easier, it's going to get better, it's

going to get faster. But unfortunately,

if you don't change, then it doesn't all

matter.

>> Yeah. And don't be afraid to use pen and

paper. Like this this person literally

just like started sketching out the

features.

>> Yeah.

>> Like how should this thing work?

>> Yeah. How should it feel? Like And I

love it. I love it. Right. And and this

is why the app if I don't know the

metrics, but I'm willing to bet it's

doing really really well because all

this stuff matters. Like we could clone

something like this feature-wise, but

I'm willing to bet like the feel, the

animations, the colors, we would not be

able to get it exactly like this.

>> 100%.

All right, man. Thanks for coming on.

You got me fired up. I actually I didn't

know about that uh interview tool, so

thanks for sharing that with me. Um,

>> yeah, just a heads up, it will ask a lot

of questions. I shared it with a couple

friends and a couple people got annoyed,

but it's worth it, right? Especially if

you wanted to build something end to end

or you're building a very like like very

minute detailed feature, then it's

really really worth it. I wouldn't use

the general plan personally. Um, so just

a heads up, but it's really really worth

it and I would love to hear people's

feedback in the comments.

>> Sounds good. We'll be in the comments.

uh you got to come back on in a few

months or whenever people want you. Uh

it's always an absolute privilege to

have you here. I'll include links where

you can follow uh and you should follow

uh Msia Rasmike. Uh his YouTube channel

is X. I'll include the link to Ralphie.

Even though if you're a beginner, don't

even click that link. I I wouldn't like

I know there's maybe some degenerates

who do, but I highly suggest you don't

because if you haven't even built

without it,

>> then [clears throat] no point.

>> Have some willpower, folks. Come on. You

know, don't click the link. But I'm

putting it in there cuz I want to see

who's tempted and uh thanks again for

coming on. I'll see you uh I'm coming to

Toronto in April, so let's hang out.

>> Well, we'll see. We'll see each other

then. And again, as always, it's a

pleasure. Thank you so much, you know,

for bringing me on.

>> Of course. Later. Have a go one.