The weekly update: Mastering Claude Code https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/ 2026-10-19T00:00:00+10:00 Richard Sauer Week 22: Check the thing itself https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-22/ 2026-10-19T00:00:00+10:00 This week is about checking the real thing before acting on an assumption about it. Week 21: Say only what actually happened https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-21/ 2026-10-12T00:00:00+10:00 This week is about the gap between what was said and what was really true or really done. Week 20: Do the part that is yours https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-20/ 2026-10-05T00:00:00+10:00 Work kept landing back with the user when the assistant should have carried it. Week 19: The user’s view is the one that counts https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-19/ 2026-09-28T00:00:00+10:00 What the assistant can see is not always what the user is looking at. Week 18: The model of the thing, not the thing https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-18/ 2026-09-21T00:00:00+10:00 The assistant worked from its own picture of things when the real thing was right there. Week 17: The check that reported success https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-17/ 2026-09-14T00:00:00+10:00 A check can run, pass, and never touch the thing it was meant to check. This week is about making sure it does. Week 16: The fact nobody checked https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-16/ 2026-09-07T00:00:00+10:00 This week’s work was built confidently on facts that were assumed rather than checked. Week 15: The loop that never told anyone what it was costing https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-15/ 2026-08-24T00:00:00+10:00 Some systems keep reporting success long after the thing you care about has stopped being true. Week 14: The gate that was only a sentence https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-14/ 2026-08-17T00:00:00+10:00 Intending a check is not enforcing one. A rule that must hold cannot live in prose written by the thing it constrains. Week 13: What’s true after the turn ends https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-13/ 2026-08-10T00:00:00+10:00 This week is about the gap between when the assistant stops looking and when you look. Week 12: The report nobody drains https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-12/ 2026-08-03T00:00:00+10:00 Nothing errored and every report was right. The failure lived only in the repetition. Week 11: The map is not the territory https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-11/ 2026-07-27T00:00:00+10:00 Every lesson this week is a case of trusting a description of the system over the system itself. Week 10: Quiet failures that report success https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-10/ 2026-07-20T00:00:00+10:00 The quiet failures are the ones that report success. Nothing errored, and something was lost every time. Week 09: Failures in disguise https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-09/ 2026-07-13T00:00:00+10:00 Concurrency and defaults fail in disguise. The real cause never shows up in the error. Week 08: Look before you act https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-08/ 2026-07-06T00:00:00+10:00 Most of this week’s mistakes came from acting before looking at what was already known. Week 07: Self-healing background runs https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-07/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00+10:00 A background run can do more than report. It can guard a risky live change and undo it if the change does not take. Week 06: Mine your history for hooks https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-06/ 2026-06-15T00:00:00+10:00 The best source of new hooks is your own session history. Group past sessions by what went wrong, and the top failures are your backlog. Week 05: The other assistant in the room https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-05/ 2026-06-08T00:00:00+10:00 A second AI assistant working beside yours needs territory, not walls. Plus: ship without asking, read the mode before the command, and look before you ask. Week 04: Workflows, skills and hooks https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-04/ 2026-06-01T00:00:00+10:00 Into the guide: scripted multi-agent workflows, skills that fire before the work starts, and a hook fault that only shows with two sessions open. Week 03: Defaults and sources https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-03/ 2026-05-25T00:00:00+10:00 Rewriting one cautious sentence changed more than a pile of exceptions. A few standing defaults about how to act matter most. Week 02: Defensive rules pile up https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-02/ 2026-05-18T00:00:00+10:00 Cautious rules can quietly add up to an assistant that asks before every step. The fix is to rewrite the default, not to add another rule. Week 01: A new baseline https://claude-guide.sauer.com.au/weekly/week-01/ 2026-05-11T00:00:00+10:00 The guide was rewritten from the ground up for people who have never used Claude Code. This is the new baseline.