Slash Commands & Shortcuts

Claude Code has a set of built-in slash commands and keyboard shortcuts that make your workflow faster. These are worth memorizing early — they’ll save you time on every session.

Built-in Slash Commands

Type / in the Claude prompt to see all available commands:

Session Management

Command	Description
/clear	Clear conversation history and start fresh
/compact	Compress the conversation to save context window space
/continue	Continue the last conversation
/cost	Show token usage and estimated cost for this session

Configuration

Command	Description
/model	Switch the active model (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku)
/memory	View and manage Claude’s persistent memories
/help	Show help and available commands

Workflow

Command	Description
/commit	Stage and commit changes with an AI-generated message
/review	Review code changes

Custom Slash Commands (Skills)

Beyond built-ins, you can use Skills — custom slash commands that expand into full prompts. We’ll cover these in depth in the Skills module, but here’s a preview:

/commit         → Stage and commit with a good message
/review-pr 123  → Review pull request #123
/simplify       → Review changed code for quality issues

Keyboard Shortcuts

In the Prompt

Shortcut	Action
Enter	Send message
Shift+Enter	New line
Up Arrow	Recall previous message
Tab	Autocomplete file paths
Ctrl+C	Cancel current generation
Ctrl+D	Exit Claude Code
Escape	Cancel current input

During Tool Execution

When Claude is executing tool calls:

Shortcut	Action
y or Enter	Approve the tool call
n	Deny the tool call
Escape	Stop generation

The Power of /compact

The /compact command deserves special attention. It compresses your conversation while preserving key context. Use it when:

• Your session is getting long and responses slow down
• Claude starts forgetting earlier context
• You’ve changed topics within a session
• You see a warning about approaching context limits

You can also add a message to guide the compression:

/compact focus on the authentication refactor we've been doing

Exercise

1. Start a Claude session
2. Use /model to see available models
3. Ask Claude to create a simple file
4. Use /cost to check token usage
5. Use /compact to compress the conversation
6. Use /cost again — notice the reduced context