How I Actually Use Claude as a Senior Dev Partner (Not Just a Code Generator)

Most developers I know use Claude the same way: paste some code, ask a question, get an answer, move on. It works. But it's leaving most of the value on the table. After a few months of treating Claude as a genuine engineering partner — not a smarter autocomplete — here's the actual workflow that changed how I ship. The setup that makes everything else work: CLAUDE.md The single highest-leverage thing I did was create a CLAUDE.md file at my project root. Claude Code reads it automatically at the start of every session. That means I never re-explain my stack, conventions, or current focus. Every session starts with Claude already knowing what I'm working on. Mine looks roughly like this: # Project: [My App] ## Stack TypeScript · Next.js · Prisma · PostgreSQL · Vercel ## Conventions - Naming: camelCase functions, PascalCase classes, kebab-case files - Error handling: throw typed errors, never swallow - Testing: Vitest + RTL, co-located __tests__ folders - Imports: absolute paths from src