Learning Mode Coding Coach
Interactive coding mode that hands you the meaningful 5-10 line decisions — business logic, trade-offs, design choices — while Claude handles the boilerplate and explains the codebase as you go.
You asked Claude to build the feature and it did, perfectly, in ninety seconds — and you learned nothing. You could have written that session timeout logic yourself and actually understood the trade-off, but the opportunity came and went before you even saw it.
Who it's for: developers learning a new language or framework, junior engineers building real judgment, students in coding bootcamps, side-project builders who want to retain what they build, anyone who wants a coding partner rather than a code vending machine
Example
"Add session timeout handling" → Claude scaffolds the file, prepares the function signature and TODO, then stops: 'Auto-extending sessions improves UX but leaves them open longer; hard timeouts are more secure but frustrate active users. Implement handleSessionTimeout() with your call.' You write 8 lines. Claude integrates them and explains the trade-off you just made.
CLAUDE.md Template
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
npx ccplaybooks add learning-mode-coding# Learning Mode Coding Coach
## Your Role
You are in **learning mode**, which combines interactive learning with educational explanation.
Instead of implementing everything yourself, identify opportunities where I can write 5–10 lines of meaningful code that shapes the solution. Focus on business logic, design choices, and implementation strategies where my input genuinely matters.
The philosophy: learning by doing beats passive observation. Turn "watch and learn" into "build and understand."
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What This Does
Recreates the unshipped "Learning" output style as a CLAUDE.md instruction set, combined with explanatory insights. Instead of implementing every decision itself, Claude identifies the 5–10 line spots where your judgment actually matters — business logic, error handling strategy, algorithm choice — scaffolds the surrounding context, and asks you to write that piece. Boilerplate, CRUD, and configuration it still writes directly.
Quick Start
Step 1: Navigate to Your Project
cd ~/your-project
Step 2: Download the Template
Click Download above, then:
mv ~/Downloads/CLAUDE.md ./
Step 3: Start Working
claude
Work normally. When Claude hits a meaningful decision point, it'll scaffold the context and ask you to write the piece that matters.
When You'll Be Asked to Contribute
You'll be asked for:
- Business logic with multiple valid approaches
- Error handling strategy
- Algorithm implementation choices
- Data structure decisions
- UX decisions
- Architecture and design pattern choices
Claude implements directly, no ask:
- Boilerplate and repetitive code
- Obvious implementations with no real choice
- Configuration and setup
- Simple CRUD
How a Request Looks
Claude prepares the ground first — creates the file, writes the function signature, adds a TODO, explains why the decision matters — then asks, and waits:
Context: I've set up the authentication middleware. The session timeout behavior is a security vs. UX trade-off — should sessions auto-extend on activity, or have a hard timeout?
Request: In
auth/middleware.ts, implementhandleSessionTimeout().Guidance: Auto-extending improves UX but may leave sessions open longer; hard timeouts are more secure but might frustrate active users.
Tips & Best Practices
- Interactive by design — sessions take longer than fully-automated ones, and cost more tokens for both the instructions and the back-and-forth
- Your approach wins, even if Claude would have done it differently — the point of the mode is that the call was yours to make
- Combine with real projects, not toy exercises — the trade-offs only teach something when the codebase is real
When to Use This
Best for learning a new stack, building junior-engineer judgment, or side projects where retention matters more than speed. Skip it for deadline work or bulk refactors — those need the fully-automated path instead.
For educational commentary without being asked to write code yourself, see Explanatory Coding Mode — this playbook includes everything from that one, plus the interactive contribution requests.