Modern Creator Network
Alex McFarland · YouTube · 10:05

3 Claude Code Commands Every Writer Should Know

A 10-minute screen-share walkthrough of the three Claude Code slash commands that actually matter for writers -- live demo, real file tree, no developer jargon.

Posted
4 months ago
Duration
Format
Tutorial
educational
Channel
AM
Alex McFarland
§ 01 · The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

Anthropic dropped ten-plus updates in one cycle. Alex McFarland ignored nine of them. What he kept -- /context, /stats, /plugins -- is a three-command toolkit for writers who use Claude Code as a writing system, not a compiler. This is the non-developer briefing the rest of YouTube skipped.

§ · Stated Promise

What the video promised.

stated at 00:07I really wanna focus on three that I think make the biggest impact on writers and content creators.delivered at 09:10
§ · Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:0000:29

01 · Intro -- writer-first framing

Alex positions against developer-focused Claude Code content. States the three commands up front. Shows Cursor setup with Claude Code Cheat Sheet visible on the right.

00:2902:35

02 · /context -- what is eating your window

Live demo of /context token-level breakdown. Key surprise: two MCPs (Airtable + Notion) consume 21.6% of context. Custom agents take only 0.1%. Full file tree of writing system revealed.

02:3504:32

03 · /context -- MCP deep-dive and agent roster

Actual MCP token costs shown (Notion tool-by-tool on screen). Six agents: content repurposing, social media writer, newsletter writer, researcher, community engagement, marketing writer. Plans to scale to 15-20 agents.

04:3205:55

04 · /stats -- usage dashboard

325 sessions, Opus 4.5 dominant, current streak, active days, peak hours. Validates $200/month Max plan for all-day use without rate limits.

05:5509:10

05 · /plugins -- Discover page and Notion integration

Official Anthropic plugins gallery (40 plugins). Highlights Notion workspace integration. The on-screen cheat sheet was built live using the Notion MCP. Project-level install scoping recommended.

09:1010:05

06 · frontend-design plugin and CTA

Brief demo of frontend-design plugin for production-grade HTML. Dual CTA: Substack paid tier for cheat sheet and starting folder, plus master classes.

§ · Storyboard

Visual structure at a glance.

open
hookopen00:00
/context live
value/context live01:40
MCP costs
valueMCP costs03:30
/stats
value/stats04:58
/plugins discover
value/plugins discover06:05
Notion install
valueNotion install07:10
frontend-design
valuefrontend-design08:30
CTA
ctaCTA09:40
§ · Frameworks

Named ideas worth stealing.

01:40model

Context Window Audit

  1. System prompt
  2. System tools
  3. MCP tools
  4. Custom agents
  5. Memory files
  6. Messages
  7. Free space

Run /context to see token consumption by category. MCPs often surprise -- each installed server loads ALL its tool definitions into context even if unused in-session.

Steal forAny Claude Code setup video. The token breakdown visual lands hard on screen.
07:55concept

Project-scope vs Global plugin install

Install plugins at project scope to keep different client projects clean. Global installs bleed context into every future session.

Steal forClaude Code onboarding content, agency workflows, anyone doing client work
§ · Quotables

Lines you could clip.

00:07
Unlike all of the other creators out there, I really wanna focus on three that I think make the biggest impact on writers and content creators.
Instant positioning against the dev-focused content wave.TikTok hook
03:10
The MCP tools take up so much. They take up 21.6%. I was also pretty surprised to see that the agents only take up 0.1%.
Counterintuitive data point. MCPs heavier than agents surprises most people.IG reel cold open
05:28
I really have the $200 a month max plan, and I never even get close to running into limits, and I work all day long inside of Claude code.
Practical cost-per-output testimonial for heavy users.newsletter pull-quote
08:45
Non generic AI aesthetics, which everybody is getting tired of and which is pretty pretty terrible at this point.
Relatable frustration shared by creators sick of cookie-cutter AI outputs.TikTok hook
§ · Pacing

How they spent the runtime.

Hook length29s
Info densitymedium
Filler10%
§ · Resources Mentioned

Things they pointed at.

01:28linkClaude skills + Chrome extension video
03:40toolAirtable MCP
03:48toolNotion MCP
07:10toolNotion workspace integration plugin
08:30toolfrontend-design plugin
§ · CTA Breakdown

How they asked for the click.

09:30newsletter
If you are not subscribed to my Substack or YouTube, make sure to do that. Paid subscribers get access to this Claude Code cheat sheet.

Soft and earned. The cheat sheet has been on screen for 10 minutes. By the time the CTA hits the viewer already knows what they want.

§ · The Script

Word for word.

HOOKopening / re-engagementCTAthe pitch
00:00HOOKAnthropic just dropped over 10 updates inside of Claude Code. But unlike all of the other creators out there, I really wanna focus on three that I think make the biggest impact on writers and content creators, or really anybody who uses Claude Code for nondevelopment work and for content creation workflows. Okay? So today, we're gonna be using I'm gonna be using cursor
00:21HOOKwith Claude code. Now you could be using any code editor tool that you want, but this is what we use for building out our writing system. Now the first update that we wanna look at is the context update. So here on the right side of the screen, you can see I made a Claude code cheat sheet for writers, which will be available to my subtext subscribers, and this is a quick reference for the commands and shortcuts.
00:43HOOKBut what we're gonna look at is the slash context one. So here, we have Claude code launched already activated, and we're gonna do slash context. And what this is gonna give us is a visualization of all of the current context that we're using inside of our system here. Alright? And this is very helpful whenever you start, you know, seeing that the quality is degrading or really you're just trying to get a good bird eye view of what is going on inside of your system, you know, what it is using,
01:10what is taking up the most space. So slash context, and we're gonna run it, and you're gonna see that this is what I have here. Now before we start looking at this, if you're not familiar with building up a writing system inside of ClaudeCode, I have some other videos on that that you wanna check out, like my Claude Code master class for writers. I also have another one on Claude skills and using the Chrome extension.
01:30Everything I do inside of Claude Code is for writers and content creators and and sort of non development work like that. Now on the left side, you're gonna see what my system looks like. We have the Claude the dot Claude file, and this holds the agents that I have. Alright. I have various agents there, my Claude skills. I also have all my context here, context profiles, if you're not familiar with that, JSON
01:53context profiles, which give, you know, these this information in context about my businesses, about my voice, my my ideal client profiles, stuff like that. We have some deployments that I have, some sites in different, you know, different apps that I created from with inside of my system. I have a knowledge base, and this holds, like like, what it sounds like all of the different knowledge for my system. I have lead magnets. I have my newsletters, visual assets, YouTube transcripts, everything like that.
02:23Then we have the Claude dot m d file, which is our system instructions. I have a to do list just for you to have an idea of everything I have inside of this system here. Right? So now, you know, before, that was great. I can see it all there, but I can't really see, you know, what is taking up the most space, what is using the most contacts tokens, but now we can do that. So the first thing you're gonna see here is a visualization
02:45of your contacts usage. We're gonna see that I use Cloud Opus 4.5. We can see how many tokens that's taking and then a breakdown. So we have my system prompt, which is using 3,100 or 1.6%. We can see my system tools, my MCP tools, my custom agents, my memory files, messages, and free space.
03:05And, really, the first thing I noticed right away when I saw this was that the MCP tools take up so much. Right? So they take up 21.6%. I was also pretty surprised to see that the agents only take up 0.1%, and the the prompt actually takes up 1.6%. So there were some surprising things that I never really had insight into as, you know, a nondeveloper working inside of here. But, you know, now I can see that. And the MCP tools is important because, really, I only have two MCPs installed here.
03:34The first one is Airtable, which gives my system and CloudCode access to all of my analytics, my Airtable databases. And I also use Notion here, which gives it access to all of, my front facing content and these different pages that I create on Notion. Example, this this Cloud Code cheat sheet for writers,
03:52which is a Notion page that I give to my subscribers and followers. So if you ever start using a lot of MCPs and and you, you know, start running into context problems, then you would be able to decide which ones to get rid of or include. My agents, you can see all here, I have a content repurposing agent, a social media writer, a newsletter writer, a researcher, community engagement agent, and a marketing writer. Very little space, which is good because I plan on expanding this more and more to hopefully eventually having ten, fifteen, 20 agents doing different writing operations.
04:25So that is really what the context allows you to see. Really cool, really important feature. You should definitely, you know, check-in on that all the time. Now the second one that I think is important for writers and content creators is the slash stats command. Alright? And this allows you to view your usage dashboard. So both of these first two are really just about seeing inside of Cloud Code and what you are doing and and what is being used up in your activity. So when we do slash stats, we can see an overview, a monthly overview of our usage. We could see our favorite model, the total tokens we've used.
05:00You know, here I have 325 sessions, current streak, active days, the longest session, longest streak, and and, you know, like, my peak hours. So you really get some insights into what you're writing and content creation looks like inside of Cloud Code. If you hit tab here, you're gonna see the model usage. For me, you can see a lot of it is Opus 4.5.
05:22I really use Opus 4.5 for everything, for all of my content writing and operations. And that's because I use the max plan on Claude, which allows me to have the, which can translate over into Claude code, transfer over into Claude code. So I really have the $200 a month max plan, and I never even get close to running into limits, and I work all day long inside of Claude code. So really, you should have no problems there using Opus 4.5.
05:46So that is the second essential command that we wanna look at, update that we wanna look at. And the third and last one has to do with plugins. So this third one, if you put slash plugins, this is what allows you to install plugins inside of Cloud Code. Now, plugin can be a lot of different things. It can be a package of tools. It can be Cloud skills. It can be MCP servers.
06:09And now, what we have is when you first type in slash plugin, you're gonna see this discover plugins page. And these are the official Anthropic plugins that they included here. Now you can go through these. There's 40 of them here right now, and there are a couple that really are helpful specifically for writers and content creators and anybody doing that type of nondevelopment work. The first would be something like Asana, allows you to do project management integration,
06:35not something I use myself, but I know a lot of people do. And then the one that I think most of you will be interested in is the if we come down here, we should see a Notion, the Notion workspace integration. Now Notion is a huge one. Notion, one of the top tools for writers and content creators. So this Notion plugin, if you click enter here, you're gonna see that it's a Notion workspace integration
06:58that allows you to search pages, create and update documents, manage databases, and access your team's knowledge base directly from Cloud Code for seamless documentation workflows. If you look on the right side of my screen here, you can already see that I have Notion. This is where this Claude code cheat sheet is, and I literally created this with the Notion MCP inside of Claude code. So as I was planning up this video with Claude code here on the left, it was connected to my Notion, and in the end, I told it, you know, to make up this Claude code cheat sheet for writers,
07:30and it created that. You know, it can create that by itself inside of Notion. I can also pull information from Notion. You could store, you know, all your newsletters or your articles or your content, digital products. All of that can be directly connected to your writing system inside of Claude code now very easily. So what you would do here is just install it. You have a couple different options. You can install it just for yourself inside of this project here. So inside of this folder, inside of this Claude Claude
07:58workflow here, or you can install it across your entire local device so that all every time you start new Claude projects now, it's also going to be included. I recommend just installing it on your project, especially if you're doing different work for different clients or different purposes. That way, just stays clean and separated. And all you're gonna do is click install. It's gonna install the plug in, and then you're gonna have to connect and and authenticate it through Notion, which is pretty simple. Just logging into Notion, and it will kinda set that up automatically for you.
08:27So that is the third one. We have all these different ones. Another, you know, one I would recommend for writers and content creators is the front end design tool. So this one allows you to create distinctive production grade front end interfaces with high design quality. This allows you to generate creative polished code that avoids generic AI aesthetics, and it works incredible. So if you're familiar with any of my other videos or any of my other content, sometimes I have these really nice presentations,
08:55I have these really nice HTML sites, and this is all using Claude Coats front end design skill, which is connected here to my system. And, for example, in my folders here, I can have, like, my branding guidelines, my colors, I can have the different visual assets. And inside of Cloud Code, I can combine all of that that context and visual assets and guidelines
09:17CTAwith this front end design skill to create, you know, hyper personalized sites or, you know, apps with non generic AI aesthetics, which everybody's getting tired of and which is pretty pretty terrible at this point. So those are the three updates that I think are super important for writers and content creators. Definitely check them out. If you are not subscribed to my Substack or YouTube, make sure to do that. And paid subscribers get access to this Cloud Code cheat sheet, but also many other
09:46CTAdifferent digital assets and resources, such as the, you know, starting folder right here for you to use inside of Cloud Code, check out the master classes, and then, yeah, you can start using this for now on. But context stats and plugins, the three new updates from Cloud Code that you should really know about for writing operations.
§ · For Joe

Build the lead magnet live on screen.

Non-dev Claude Code playbook

The most powerful thing in this video is not a slash command -- it is the Notion cheat sheet sitting on screen for ten straight minutes while Alex demoed other things.

  • Open with this is not for devs, it is for your audience -- one sentence that makes the right people lean in and everyone else self-filter.
  • Use your real system as the demo. Show your actual file tree, your actual agents, your actual token counts. No mock-ups.
  • Build your lead magnet inside the session you are recording. The audience watches it get made, which is more persuasive than any sales copy.
  • Keep a sticky prop pinned in the corner for the entire runtime. Silent CTA for every minute of watch time.
  • The /context MCP-cost reveal is a repeatable format: run a diagnostic, surface the surprising number, explain why it matters. Works for any tool with hidden overhead.
§ · For You

What to actually do with these three commands.

If you use Claude Code for writing

Most Claude Code tutorials assume you are building software. These three commands tell you what is happening inside your writing system and let you fix it.

  • Run /context when your Claude responses start feeling less sharp -- it shows which files or MCPs are eating the most tokens so you can trim.
  • Run /stats to understand your actual usage: which model you are really on, how long sessions run, and whether the $200 Max plan makes sense.
  • Use /plugins to browse and install official integrations -- especially Notion if your writing lives there -- without touching any config files or code.
§ · Frame Gallery

Visual moments.

§ · Watch next

More from this channel + related dossiers.