AI Engineering Intermediate Pro

Claude Code: Models, Cost, and Context

Choosing the right model and effort level, understanding what fills the context window, and controlling what you spend

27 min read 7 views

Claude Code gives you real levers over capability, latency, and cost: which model runs, how hard it thinks, whether it runs faster for more money, and how aggressively it manages its own context window. This subject teaches you those levers precisely — model aliases vs. pinned IDs, effort levels, fast mode, the advisor tool, prompt caching mechanics, subagent model routing, and the concrete habits that separate a $3/day session from a $30/day one — so you can make deliberate tradeoffs instead of accepting whatever the defaults hand you.

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Practice questions (12)

Choosing Model and Effort for Four Task Profiles

Intermediate · Free

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What Actually Happens When You Edit CLAUDE.md Mid-Session

Intermediate · Free

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Compaction Failure Modes on a Four-Hour Session

Advanced

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Budgeting a 200-File Security Audit

Advanced

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Designing an Organization Model Policy

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Quizzes (1)

Claude Code: Models, Cost, and Context Quiz

0 attempts · 15 min · Pass 70% · Intermediate

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