Stage 3 · Lesson 4 of 7
Plan before code
For any change that touches several files, or where you are unsure of the approach, ask the tool to read the code and propose a plan before it edits anything: which files change, in what order, and what could go wrong. Correct the plan, then let it build.
In , press Shift+Tab to cycle to , use /plan, or start with claude --permission-mode plan; Ctrl+G opens the plan in your editor. In Cursor, press Shift+Tab to rotate to Plan mode, or use agent --plan in the . In Copilot, use /plan or the Plan agent in , and Shift+Tab in the Copilot CLI. Fixing a wrong plan takes a minute; fixing wrong code across eight files takes an hour.
Common trapplanning trivial changes: if you can describe the in one sentence, skip the plan.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it
Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- CoursePaidGrokking Prompt Engineering for Software Engineers
Design Gurus · Beginner · Subscription
A structured course on prompting for engineering work: specs, context, examples and iteration
- GuideFreeAnthropic Prompt Engineering Documentation
Anthropic
Free and model-agnostic in spirit: be clear and direct, give examples, let the model think
Keep handy
Also worth your time
Explore, plan, code, commit; specific prompts; and managing context aggressively
- Claude Code in ActionGo deeper
Anthropic's free follow-on course: steering long sessions, lean CLAUDE.md files and skills