07:23Tristen O'Brien · Tutorial
The 6 Claude Slash Commands to Get You Ahead of 90% of People Using AI
A 7-minute field guide to the built-in shortcuts most Claude Code users never touch — and one custom command recipe worth stealing.
June 14thThe argument in one line.
Claude Code mods let anyone describe a missing feature in plain language and have Claude build it directly into the app's own interface, no coding required.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You already use Claude Code regularly and want to customize how it looks or behaves, not just what it can access.
- You've found yourself annoyed by the scrolling tool-call noise, or by retyping /model and /effort every session.
- You run multi-agent jobs in Claude Code and want visibility into what each sub-agent is doing.
- You're curious what separates a mod from a skill or a connector and when to reach for each one.
SKIP IF…
- You don't have a paid plan that includes Claude Code, since mods require it.
- You only use Claude through the regular chat interface, where mods don't run at all.
The full version, fast.
Claude Code mods, shipped October 1, 2026, let you describe a feature you wish Claude Code had and have Claude build it directly into the app: new buttons, panels, slash commands, even a mini game. Unlike a skill (tells Claude how to do a job) or a connector (plugs Claude into another app), a mod runs inside Claude Code and can change what's on screen, because it listens for the internal events Claude fires and can watch, change, or fully intercept them. The creator demos five mods he built in a week: a clean checklist view that hides tool-call noise, a one-click model/effort toolbar, a multi-agent dashboard, a Higgsfield-powered photo and video studio, and a racing game to play while Claude works. Building one just means describing it and saying yes to a reload; saving it as a plugin keeps it permanent. Mods add no extra cost beyond a Claude Code plan, but a running mod still spends normal subscription credits.
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00:00 – 00:30
01 · Cold open
Claude shipped Claude Mods, which the host calls one of its biggest updates yet: describe a feature you wish Claude Code had, and Claude builds it right into itself, from buttons to a mini game.
00:30 – 00:52
02 · What a Claude mod is
A mod is a small add-on that changes how Claude Code looks and works. It shipped October 1 and runs in the Claude Code terminal and the desktop app's Code tab, but not in regular Claude chat.
00:52 – 01:15
03 · Mods vs skills vs connectors
Skills tell Claude how to do a job and connectors plug Claude into another app, both working from the outside. A mod runs inside Claude Code itself and can change what's on screen.
01:15 – 03:01
04 · Mod 1: Clean View
Clean View hides the scrolling tool calls and code Claude normally prints, showing a simple plan-and-checklist instead. The host explains the mechanism: every Claude action fires an event, and a mod can watch, change, or handle that event itself.
03:01 – 03:47
05 · Mod 2: Employee Control Panel
Replaces typing /model and /effort with a one-click toolbar for switching model and thinking effort, with the status bar updating immediately.
03:47 – 05:12
06 · Mod 3: Agent Dock
Adds a /dock command to pick a sub-agent team size, up to 50, and a model tier (fast-and-cheap or the main model), with each agent getting its own progress card. Demoed on a 50-task bakery dashboard; a bigger team burns plan usage faster.
05:12 – 05:31
07 · Bonus: the Session Bar
An unreleased mod showing a sidebar of all active Claude Code sessions you can jump between, teased pending viewer interest.
05:31 – 08:11
08 · Mod 4: Claude Photos & Videos
A full photo/video generation interface built on the Higgsfield MCP connector (the video's sponsor). Shows credit balance, lets you pick a model like Nano Banana Pro, aspect ratio and resolution, expands a short description into a detailed prompt, confirms credit cost before running, and saves the result straight to disk.
08:11 – 08:40
09 · Mod 5: Road Trip
A mini racing game playable inside Claude Code while a prompt runs, with pop-up quiz questions about Claude Code concepts like the CLAUDE.md file.
08:40 – 09:34
10 · How to build your own mods
Update to Claude Code 2.1.287 or newer, describe the mod in plain language, say yes when it asks to reload. Mods are temporary by default; ask Claude to save one as a plugin to keep it, and shared mods install the same way via /plugin.
09:34 – 10:00
11 · What mods cost
No extra charge beyond a paid plan that includes Claude Code, but a running mod still spends normal subscription credits. Closing recap and sponsor thanks.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Claude Code mods let you describe a feature you want and Claude builds it directly into the app itself, no coding required.
- A mod differs from a skill or a connector because it runs inside Claude Code and can change what's on screen, not just how Claude behaves from the outside.
- Every action Claude takes fires an internal event, and a mod listening for that event can watch it, change it, or take it over completely.
- A mod called Clean View hides every tool call and code snippet Claude would normally print, replacing it with a plan and a progress checklist.
- Switching Claude's model or thinking effort can shrink from two separate slash commands to a single click in a mod-built toolbar.
- A mod can let you pick how many helper agents work on a job, up to 50, each with its own visible progress card.
- Running a large agent team, like 50 agents on one job, burns through plan usage noticeably faster than a single agent does.
- Claude Code mods can wrap an existing MCP connector, like Higgsfield, into a full in-app photo and video generation interface.
- A mod can turn one short sentence into a fully detailed, model-specific image prompt before it ever asks to spend credits.
- Mods can pause and require explicit confirmation before spending paid credits, which stops an agent from burning a balance unsupervised.
- A mod can add a genuinely playable mini-game inside the Claude Code terminal to fill the wait time while a task runs.
- Mods Claude builds for you are temporary by default and disappear unless you explicitly ask Claude to save one as a plugin.
- A saved mod installs and reloads exactly like any other Claude Code plugin, including ones other people share with you.
- Mods require no extra subscription cost beyond a paid plan that includes Claude Code, but a mod running in the background still spends normal subscription credits.
- Claude Mods only work in the Claude Code terminal and the Code tab of the desktop app, not in regular Claude chat.
What Claude Code mods actually change
HOW MODS WORK
A mod is a small, describable add-on that changes what you see and do inside Claude Code itself, built by listening for the events Claude already fires.
02What a Claude mod is
- A mod is a small add-on, not a new app: it changes how Claude Code looks and behaves without replacing it.
- Mods only run in the Claude Code terminal and the Code tab of the desktop app, never inside ordinary Claude chat.
03Mods vs skills vs connectors
- A skill only tells Claude how to approach a task; it doesn't touch what you see on screen.
- A connector links Claude to an outside app's data and actions but still leaves Claude Code's own interface untouched.
- A mod is the only one of the three that can add buttons, panels, or change the interface itself, because it runs inside Claude Code.
04Mod 1: Clean View
- Claude Code fires an internal event every time it calls a tool or runs a command, and a mod can listen for that exact event.
- A mod has three options when it catches an event: let it through unchanged, alter it, or intercept it and replace the normal behavior entirely.
- Clean View intercepts every tool-call event and swaps the raw scrolling output for a short plan and a checked-off progress list.
05Mod 2: Employee Control Panel
- Frequent settings like model choice and thinking effort can be collapsed from two separate slash commands into one toolbar click.
- The status bar updating immediately after a toolbar change confirms a setting actually applied before you send the next prompt.
06Mod 3: Agent Dock
- Splitting one big job across many helper agents only helps if you can see what each agent is doing and pick how many to use.
- A mod can expose sub-agent count and model choice, fast-and-cheap versus the primary model, as one command before the next prompt runs.
- Each agent getting its own visible card and progress bar turns an opaque multi-agent job into something you can actually monitor.
- A larger agent team finishes faster but consumes plan usage noticeably quicker, so team size is a real cost tradeoff, not a free lunch.
07Bonus: the Session Bar
- An always-visible list of active sessions solves a real multitasking problem: jumping between several running Claude Code sessions without losing track of any one.
- This specific mod wasn't released as installable, a reminder that not every demoed mod is something you can copy immediately.
08Mod 4: Claude Photos & Videos
- A mod can wrap an existing MCP connector in a dedicated interface, turning a general-purpose connector into a purpose-built in-app studio.
- Letting Claude expand one plain sentence into a long, model-specific prompt removes the need to learn each image model's prompting quirks yourself.
- Surfacing the credit balance and pausing for explicit approval before spending is a safeguard worth copying into any mod that spends real money.
- Generated output saving straight to a local file keeps the workflow inside one tool instead of requiring a separate download step elsewhere.
09Mod 5: Road Trip
- A mod doesn't have to be productivity-focused: a genuinely playable mini-game is a legitimate way to make a long wait feel shorter.
- Quiz questions baked into idle time is a low-effort way to reinforce what you're learning about the tool while you wait.
10How to build your own mods
- Building a mod starts the same way every time: update Claude Code, then describe the feature you want in plain language.
- Mods Claude builds are temporary by default, so a mod you like has to be explicitly saved as a plugin or it won't return next session.
- A saved mod installs and shares exactly like any other plugin, so a mod someone else built installs with the same slash-plugin command.
11What mods cost
- Mods add no separate subscription fee, but they only work if your existing plan already includes Claude Code.
- A mod running in the background still draws from your normal subscription usage, so an always-on mod isn't actually free to run.
- Because a mod has the same access to your machine that Claude Code does, installing one built by someone else carries real trust requirements.
Terms worth knowing.
- Mod
- A small add-on, described in plain language, that changes how Claude Code looks and works, such as adding a button, panel, or custom view.
- Skill
- A set of instructions that tells Claude how to approach a specific job. It changes Claude's behavior from the outside, not the Claude Code interface itself.
- Connector
- A plug-in that links Claude to another app's data and actions, such as a photo-generation service, without changing Claude Code's own interface.
- Plugin
- The installable package format a saved mod ships as. A mod becomes permanent, and shareable, once saved as a plugin and installed.
- Event
- A signal Claude Code fires internally every time it takes an action, like calling a tool. Mods listen for these events to know when to act.
- CLAUDE.md
- A project notes file Claude Code reads automatically for context about a project, referenced in the video's in-app quiz game.
- Effort level
- A setting that controls how much Claude 'thinks' before responding, normally changed with the /effort command or, with a mod, a single toolbar click.
- Higgsfield
- A third-party AI photo and video generation platform with its own Claude connector, used as the engine behind the video's Claude Photos & Videos mod.
- Nano Banana Pro
- An image-generation model available inside Higgsfield's connector, selected in the video for making a photo from a single text description.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
00:05
“if you could think of a feature that you wish Claude Code had and you can describe it, well, Claude Code will build it right into itself”
02:38
“It can watch it. It can change it. or can handle it itself.”
05:00
“If you do select a big team, like 50 agents, you will go through your plan a lot faster.”
09:49
“a mod is just a feature that you describe and Claude is going to build it right inside Claude code for you”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
metaphoranalogy
So Claude has just given us one of the biggest updates that they have ever given us. They call it Claude Mods. And basically, if you could think of a feature that you wish Claude Code had and you can describe it, well, Claude Code will build it right into itself, which means that you can turn Claude Code into pretty much any tool that you want it to be.
And in this video, I'm going to walk you through how you can build your own mods. I'm going to walk you through the six Claude Mods that I built for myself this week. But to kick off this video, let's go through what Claude Mods are and what Anthropic actually is.
announced. So a mod is just a small add -on that changes how Cloud Code looks and how Cloud Code works. It came out on October 1st, and if you've already updated your software, then it's turned on for you and it's ready to use.
Now it works in the Cloud Code terminal and also works in the Cloud tab inside of the desktop app, but it doesn't work inside of the Cloud chat. So you do want to make sure that you're using this inside of Cloud Code. Now you might be thinking, Well, I already have skills and I already have connectors.
And that's true. But those work from the outside. A skill tells Claude how to do a job.
A connector plugs Claude into another app. But a mod runs inside of Claude code itself. So it can change exactly what you see on the screen, which means that you can add buttons.
You can add a panel. You could add a mini game that you can play while you wait for Claude to finish, which takes me to the first mod that I built, which I call Clean View. Now, when I'm working on a project, sometimes I don't want to see all that text flying by when I'm using.
cloud code. I don't necessarily care about the code that's behind it. I don't care about the tools that it's calling.
I just want to see what it's working on, how far along it is, and what else it has to do. And with this mod, when you take a look down here at the bottom right, it says Tristan's Tools. Now, we're going to go through all of these in a bit, but one of them is Clean View.
Now, since that's turned on, I'm going to type a prompt like build me a weather dashboard for New York City. And then I'm going to hit enter. And you're going to see that all of that noise that's usually there is gone.
All I get is a simple checklist. It thinks about what I asked. It comes up with a plan.
It shows me every step of the way, what it's doing, how much is left. And then when it's done, it's going to give me the dashboard that I asked for. Now, that's not the point, though.
Yes, this dashboard looks pretty nice. But back in Cloud Code, the point I'm trying to make is that I get a short summary of what it did. And that's really all I want.
It's clean. It's minimalistic. And it's what I typically appreciate.
But how does a Claude mod change what's on my screen? Well, every time Claude does something like run a file or run a command, it sends out a little signal called an event. A mod is just a small piece of code that listens for those events.
And when one of those events comes through, the mod can do one of three things. It can watch it. It can change it.
or can handle it itself. So the normal thing that you're expecting to happen never happens. So with the clean view mod, the one that we're looking at right now, every time Claude is about to show one of those technical rows, one of those tools that it needs to call, the mod is going to step in and it's going to hide it.
Then when Claude finishes the step, the mod is going to check it off the list. Now the good news here. is that Claude Code has a built -in skill that teaches Claude how to build these mods.
All you're going to have to do is describe what you want, and then Claude is going to build it for you. But more on that later. Let's jump over to the second mod I built, which I call Employee Control Panel.
Now, normally, if you want to switch models, you would have to type in slash model and then pick the one from the list. Or if you want to change how hard Claude thinks, then you had to type in slash effort and then do the same thing. Now, those work for sure.
But to be honest, I hate typing in the slash commands just to change the model. effort so with this mod i'm going to click tristan's tools at the bottom here and you're going to see that the model and effort are right there for me to change and when i change them you can take a look at the status bar below it changes right away so i don't have to take the time to type in slash commands just to pick the model or effort i want i'm just going to go to my toolbar and it's right there for me to change now i know this one is small but it does make my day easier i think it's going to make your day easier too but the next mod is going to .
And I call it the agent doc, which actually is pretty awesome. When you give Claude a big job, it can hand pieces of those to helper agents.
Now, these little agents are just extra copies of Claude that can each take a small piece of the work. But the problem here is that you don't always get to see what the agents are doing, and you usually don't get to select how many agents you want to work on your project at any given time. But with this mod, if I type in slash doc, I'm going to get to pick how many agents I want on my team for the very next prompt that I give Claude.
And I'm going to select up to 50 agents. Now I'm going to give it a real job here to test this out.
This is for a new bakery called Golden Crumb. And what I want to do is I want to create a dashboard that tracks 50 different tasks before the grand opening. Now in my little toolbar down here, you can also pick what type of helper you're going to use for these agents.
You can either use fast and cheap. Or you can use the same model that you're using, like Opus 5 .5. But take a look at this.
Every agent gets its own card and its own task with its own progress bar. Now, we selected 50. 20 of them are showing right now.
10 are working. The rest are just waiting their turn. And when they're all done, Claude is going to pull everything together in one dashboard.
Now, heads up on this one, though. If you do select a big team, like 50 agents, you will go through your plan a lot faster. My mod does warn me about that before I go too big, but it is worth knowing in case you build this yourself.
Now, the next mod is one that I use every single day. But before I show you what that is, take a look at the session bar over here on the left -hand side. You can see which sessions are actively running.
You can jump to whichever session that you want to jump into. And this is something that I built. And if you like it, please go ahead and subscribe and comment session bar.
If I do get enough comments, I'll go ahead and shoot a video on that one as well. But let's get back to mod number four, which is clawed photos. Now, I make AI photos and videos every single day, but we know that clawed can't make them on their own.
Now, what that normally means is that you have to leave Claude and go into a different tool like Gemini or ChatGPT or any other tool that's running CDance 2 .5. But I don't do that. I use...
one tool, which is Higgs field. Now, the reason why I like Higgs field so much is because yes, it has every top image and video and audio model on one place, but they have a connector right inside of Claude. So it just made sense to build a mod right on top of it.
And full disclosure, I did reach out to Higgs field to see if they want to partner on this video and they are sponsoring it, which makes sense since this whole mod runs on top of Higgs field. Now, if I type in slash create, take a look at this. I get a full photo and video experience right inside of Cloud.
On the top right, I get to see how many Higgs field credits I have. Then I get to describe the type of video or photo that I want. Now, I'm just going to ask it to make a photo of me riding a train.
It can pick my outfit. It can pick my expression, whatever. This is just for a demo.
But then I get to pick whether I want this as a photo or video. so of course i'm going to pick photo and then i get to pick the model that i'm going to use now i'm going to select nano banana pro because i think it's one of the best ones that's out there i get to pick my image size which would be 16 by 9 and i'm going to pick that i want this in 4k then i also can do some of the extra settings here which is where i can upload a photo of me so it knows what i look like with that said claude is going to take that one sentence and turn it into a much bigger and more detailed prompt that's written exactly for the model that we chose And of course, you can change the prompt if you want.
But it's a much more detailed prompt than I would have ever used. So when I hit enter, it has the tasks already lined up for me. Now, one thing it's going to do is it's going to tell me how many credits this is going to use.
And it's going to pause there until I click yes. Now, I did that on purpose because I don't want a crazy amount of tokens or credits being used without my approval. But once I hit that, it's going to do one interesting thing.
Now, since this is running in the terminal, it's going to give me this little pixel preview, which I thought was just. Just fun to add in. You know, you can remove that if you don't want to use it.
But down here is where you click and see the real photo. And that is me on the train, just like I asked. But I never had to leave Claude.
And this photo is already saved on my computer. Now, of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Hicksfield. We all create images.
We all create videos. If you've never been to Hicksfield's website, you should definitely check it out. They have some of the coolest and most popular AI videos.
that you can just copy the prompt and make it yourself if you want to. And most of them are the videos that you see that are going viral online. So if you haven't checked them out, check it out.
The link is in my description to try out Higgs field, but that does take us to the fifth mod and I call it road trip. Now this one I built just for fun, but I do like it and I had been using it. It's a mini racing game that plays right inside of Claude code while you wait for Claude to build your project.
So let's say that you ask Claude to make your weather dashboard better while it's running. you can just click play. And now you're driving, you're playing the game.
And every so often in the game, it's gonna ask you a quiz question about Claude, which by the way, let me tell you, is a lot better than just staring at the screen waiting for Claude to finish. Those are five mods that I built this week. Now, you're probably wondering how you can build these yourself.
You're gonna wanna make sure that Claude code is up to date because Claude mods needs version 2 .1 .287, I believe, or newer. Then all you have to do is open up Claude code and just describe the mod that you want. Claude code is going to start building it.
And then it's going to ask you to reload. When it does that, you're going to want to say yes. And when you do that, your mod is going to show up as soon as Claude finishes.
If you don't like something, you can just talk to it like a normal human. You just tell it what you don't like and what you want changed. It's going to change it for you.
Now, one thing to keep in mind is a mod is just a type of a plugin, which means that it installs the same way a plugin does. So if somebody shares a mod with you, you can type in slash plugin and search for it and install it just like any other plugin. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that a mod.
that Claude builds for you are temporary by default, which means that as you're building these and you find the ones that you like, you're going to ask Claude to save it as a plugin and install it. That way it's going to be there for you every single time that you open up Claude. Now mods don't cost anything extra, but you do need a paid plan that includes Claude code.
And of course, if a mod is running in the background, it is using your subscription credits as well. And that's it. And just remember that a mod is just a feature that you describe and Claude is going to build it right inside of Claude code for you.
So thanks again for watching. Thanks again to Higgsfield for sponsoring this video. and check out the link in the description and if this helped please leave a comment like the video and i will see you in the next one
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Claude Code just shipped a way to describe a missing feature and have Claude build it directly into itself. The host spends ten minutes walking through five mods he built in a week, then the exact steps to build, save, and share your own.
Named ideas worth stealing.
02:38list
What a mod can do with an event
- Watch it
- Change it
- Handle it
Every Claude Code action fires an internal event; a mod listening for that event can let it through unchanged (watch), alter it (change), or fully intercept it so the normal behavior never happens (handle).
Steal forUnderstanding why mods like Clean View can replace Claude's default tool-call output instead of just reacting to it
08:48list
How to build a Claude mod
- Update Claude Code to 2.1.287+
- Describe the mod in plain language
- Say yes when Claude asks to reload
- Ask Claude to save it as a plugin to keep it
The repeatable loop for turning a described feature into a permanent part of Claude Code.
Steal forAny Claude Code customization, not just the five mods shown in this video
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
09:43link
“check out the link in the description to try out Higgs field”
A soft sponsor mention lands mid-video around the Higgsfield mod, then the outro pairs an explicit 'link in the description' with a standard comment/like/subscribe ask, a normal end-card combo rather than a hard pitch.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
