The core loop: plan, act, verify

Underneath every smooth session is the same loop: plan, act, verify. Once you can see it, you can steer it.

Plan

Before it touches anything, have it think out loud. Ask "what is your plan?" or just let it propose steps. A good plan you can read is your chance to catch a wrong turn before any work happens. If the plan is wrong, fix it here, where it is cheap.

Act

Now it does the work: edits files, runs the steps, makes the change. You are not writing the steps yourself, but you are still the one who said go.

Verify

Then you check. Did it actually do what you wanted? Read the change, run the thing, open the file. Do not assume. The verify beat is what separates people who trust the tool blindly from people who use it well.

Permissions, briefly

Claude Code asks before it does anything risky, like deleting files or running a command that reaches outside the folder. You approve or deny. Keep those approvals deliberate. Reading a quick "it wants to run X, allow?" and thinking for one second is the entire safety model, and it works.

This is the same loop you already used in Cowork, where "Ask before acting" is the act-and-approve beat. Plan, act, verify is universal. Learn it here and it carries everywhere. The last page in this track helps you decide when Code is even worth it over Cowork.