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AI 101
What`s a CLAUDE.md file? 📋

On my first Claude Code project, I spent a whole session explaining what I wanted. The next session remembered none of it. Pure Groundhog Day.

CLAUDE.md fixes that. It`s a short note in your project folder that Claude Code reads at the start of every session.

Think standing orders in the ED: chest pain gets an ECG at triage, every patient, every shift. Written once, followed every time.

To make one, ask Claude Code to write it, or type /init. Then read it and ask for changes.

Keep it under 200 lines. It fills the context window on every turn, and long files are followed less reliably.

Full post: link in bio.

#AI101 #AIFluency #ClaudeCode #CLAUDEmd #StandingOrders ...

AI 201
Build a PubMed literature monitor for your topic 📚

Keeping up with the literature by hand means saved searches, email alerts, and tabs you never get back to.

I built a monitor with Claude Code instead. It:

1. Searches PubMed for new papers on my topic
2. Grades each one read now, skim, or skip
3. Sorts the keepers into themes, with a short summary for each
4. Saves every paper to a Google Sheet library

Mine has 300 papers in 11 themes. Reading 11 summaries is something I can actually do.

Next time, I just say "run the monitor."

These are just the highlights. The full step-by-step guide, with every prompt you can copy and paste, is in the blog post.

Full post: link in bio.

#AI201 #AIFluency #ClaudeCode #PubMed #AcademicMedicine ...

AI 101
5 things to do when setting up Claude Code 🛠️

AI chat is mostly a brain with eyes. Claude Code is an AI agent with a brain, eyes, and most importantly, arms! It can work on files on your computer and interact with websites for you.

So set it up first:

1. Get a paid plan. Claude Code isn`t on the free plan.
2. Set your privacy.
3. Learn what the icons mean, and start in Manual mode.
4. Install Git, so you can undo changes.
5. Connect GitHub, to keep a copy online.

You`ll do most of this by clicking or by asking Claude Code in plain English.

Full post: link in bio.

#AI101 #AIFluency #ClaudeCode #AIAgents #GitHub ...

AI 101
Git vs. GitHub 🗂️

Two different things that work together.

Git is a free program on your computer. It`s a paper trail for your files. Each time you commit, it saves a version with a note on what changed, who made the change, and when. You can go back to any earlier version.

GitHub is a website that keeps a copy of your files and that history online. Think Dropbox, with two differences: it only updates when you push, and it keeps every saved version. Mine is free and private. My other Mac pulls from it to get the same work.

You don`t type Git commands. Tell Claude Code "commit this" or "push to GitHub."

Full post: link in bio.

#AI101 #AIFluency #ClaudeCode #Git #GitHub ...

AI 101
What is a context window? 🧠

In medicine we talk about cognitive load. Hold too much in your head and you start dropping things. AI has its own version.

The context window is the AI`s working memory: everything it can hold in mind at once in one conversation. Your messages, its replies, every file it read.

When it gets too full, the AI gets less reliable. In my long sessions, Claude Code skips instructions I gave earlier.

My rule: when a session gets long, I have Claude Code write a summary file and start a fresh session from it.

Full post: link in bio.

#AI101 #AIFluency #ClaudeCode #ContextWindow #WorkingMemory ...

AI 101
What`s a .md file? 📝

When I started with Claude Code, I kept seeing files that ended in .md. CLAUDE.md. README.md. I didn`t know what the letters meant.

They stand for Markdown: plain text with a few symbols for structure. # makes a heading. **two asterisks** make bold. A dash makes a bullet.

If you`ve seen an AI reply full of # and ** before it finished formatting, that was Markdown.

AI writes in it and reads it easily. It`s how I hand notes from one AI session to the next.

Full post: link in bio.

#AI101 #AIFluency #ClaudeCode #Markdown #PlainText ...

AI 101
What is a token? 🧩

The first time Claude Code told me how many "tokens" I`d used, I had no idea what I was counting.

AI doesn`t read words. It reads tokens: small chunks of text. A common word like "pneumonia" is one token. A rarer one like "bronchiolitis" gets chopped into four.

Rough math: 1 token is about ¾ of a word. So 1,000 tokens is about 750 words.

Tokens set how much the AI can hold at once, and what API use costs.

Full post: link in bio.

#AI101 #AIFluency #ClaudeCode #Tokens #LLM ...

AI 201: Have a second AI check the first 🔍

I have Codex, OpenAI`s version of Claude Code, review what Claude Code builds and writes. I give it a role: editor, adversarial reviewer, or skeptic. It finds holes the first AI missed. I still make the final call.

Full post: link in bio.

#AI201 #AIFluency #ClaudeCode #Codex #AIReview ...

Claude Code told me to "add your app password to your .env file." I couldn`t find it.

A .env file is a hidden file in your project folder that holds your passwords and keys. Claude Code only needs each password`s name (or label). The password itself stays in the file.

To see it on a Mac, open your project folder in Finder and press Command + Shift + . (period). It shows up in gray.

Full post: link in bio.

#AIfluency #AI101 #ClaudeCode #MedEd ...