Use Extended Thinking
Suppose you are working on complex architectural decisions, challenging bugs, or multi-step implementation planning that requires deep reasoning.
Extended thinking is disabled by default in Claude Code. You can enable it on demand using the Tab key to toggle thinking, or by using prompts like “think” or “think hard”. You can also permanently enable it by setting the MAX_THINKING_TOKENS environment variable in settings.
Provide Context and Let Claude Think
> I need to implement a new authentication system using OAuth2 for our API. Think deeply about the best approach for implementing this in our codebase.Claude will gather relevant information from your codebase and use extended thinking, which will be visible in the interface.
Refine the Thinking with Follow-Up Prompts
> think about potential security vulnerabilities in this approach> think hard about edge cases we should handleTips for getting the most value from extended thinking:
Extended thinking is most valuable for complex tasks such as:
- Planning complex architectural changes
- Debugging intricate problems
- Creating implementation plans for new features
- Understanding complex codebases
- Evaluating trade-offs between different approaches
Use the Tab key to toggle thinking on and off during a session.
The way you prompt for thinking produces different levels of depth:
- “think” triggers basic extended thinking
- Intensifiers such as “think hard”, “think more”, “think a lot”, or “think longer” trigger deeper thinking
For more extended thinking prompting tips, see Extended Thinking Tips.
Claude will display its thinking process above the response in italic gray text.
