I'm wondering if there's a way to tone down the agent-like behavior in Claude code. While it's generally effective, sometimes it just keeps generating code non-stop, making it difficult to stay on track. Is there a way to control this, maybe by prompting or adding to claude.md? Has anyone had experience with this?
4 Answers
Have you tried getting Claude to create a todo_list.md and work from that? It can be useful for organizing implementation plans, but I sometimes wish I could give it direction without losing everything it’s already done.
You could turn off auto-accept and ask Claude to implement one change at a time instead. That might help keep things under control.
Try pressing shift+tab a couple of times to enter plan mode. Then you can refine the plan and document it in an .md file, using phases and checkboxes. Implement the project step by step with auto-accept, and make sure to ask it questions if anything's unclear.
Haha, I'm a fan of the agentic Claude code myself! But I totally get where you're coming from. Telling it to plan and implement one thing at a time, or making a list of what you want it to do, really helps.
I need to give that a shot! I’ve just been adding 'No code!' to every prompt until I got the refinement and planning right.