Complete Guide to Claude Concepts

ReferencePro35 minupdated 2026-10-21

A conceptual overview of how Claude Code's features work and fit together - architecture diagrams, decision tables, and comparisons across Slash Commands, Subagents, Memory, MCP, Skills, Plugins, Hooks, and more.

How to use this guide: this page explains the concepts - what each feature is, how it works internally, and when to reach for it. The copy-paste templates and full reference material live in the numbered modules (01- through 10-), which each section links to. Start here to build a mental model, then go to the module to actually configure something.

Slash Commands - [module](01-slash-commands/)
Subagents - [module](04-subagents/)
Memory - [module](02-memory/)
MCP Protocol - [module](05-mcp/)
Agent Skills - [module](03-skills/)
Plugins - [module](07-plugins/)
Comparison & Integration
Summary Table
Quick Start Guide
Hooks - [module](06-hooks/)
Checkpoints and Rewind - [module](08-checkpoints/)
Advanced Features - [module](09-advanced-features/)
Models and Reasoning Effort - [module](10-cli/)
Resources

Slash Commands

Overview

Slash commands are user-invoked shortcuts stored as Markdown files that Claude Code can execute. They enable teams to standardize frequently-used prompts and workflows.

Architecture

Terminal

graph TD
    A["User Input: /command-name"] -->|Triggers| B["Search .claude/commands/"]
    B -->|Finds| C["command-name.md"]
    C -->|Loads| D["Markdown Content"]
    D -->|Executes| E["Claude Processes Prompt"]
    E -->|Returns| F["Result in Context"]

File Structure

Terminal

graph LR
    A["Project Root"] -->|contains| B[".claude/commands/"]
    B -->|contains| C["optimize.md"]
    B -->|contains| D["test.md"]
    B -->|contains| E["docs/"]
    E -->|contains| F["generate-api-docs.md"]
    E -->|contains| G["generate-readme.md"]

Command Organization Table

Location	Scope	Availability	Use Case	Git Tracked
`.claude/commands/`	Project-specific	Team members	Team workflows, shared standards	✅ Yes

This guide continues on the Pro plan

You have seen the introduction and the first example. With Pro you unlock this guide and every other one - updated every day, with ready-to-copy examples.

In this guide (Pro): Subagents · Memory · MCP Protocol · Agent Skills · Claude Code Plugins · Comparison & Integration · Customer Support Request Flow · Summary Table · Quick Start Guide · Hooks · Checkpoints and Rewind · Advanced Features · Models and Reasoning Effort · Resources

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Open-source community guide (MIT) · curated and maintained by Doutor AI.

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