In a recent LinkedIn post, Ruben Hassid offers a detailed breakdown of how to leverage the full capabilities of Claude, an AI assistant, moving beyond basic usage to advanced integration. Hassid frames Claude not as a single tool, but as a suite of six distinct functionalities, urging users to adopt a more strategic approach to prompt engineering and feature utilization.
Unpacking Claude’s Multifaceted Capabilities
Hassid begins by dispelling the notion that Claude is a monolithic tool. He emphasizes that it comprises six key components: Chat, Projects, Code, Cowork, Skills, and Connectors. For users who do not engage in coding, Hassid points to ‘Cowork’ as a particularly powerful feature.
“Claude isn’t 1 tool. It’s 6. Chat, Projects, Code, Cowork, Skills, Connectors. If you don’t code, Cowork should be the go-to one.”
This initial framing sets the stage for a deeper dive into optimizing interactions with the AI.
Strategic Prompting and Model Selection
A core theme in Hassid’s post is the importance of selecting the right Claude model for specific tasks. He outlines a hierarchy:
- Opus 4.8: Best suited for complex thinking, analysis, and planning.
- Sonnet 4.6: Recommended for tasks involving grammar, brainstorming, and formatting.
- Haiku 4.6: Ideal for handling large volumes of text, particularly with its 1 million token input capacity.
Hassid also advises enabling the ‘High Effort’ setting within Opus 4.8 for tasks requiring deep internal monologue or extensive reasoning. Furthermore, he advocates for brevity in prompts, suggesting a 29-word structure: “I want to [task] so that [goal]. Read the files first. Ask me questions via AskUserQuestion before executing.” This contrasts sharply with the common practice of writing lengthy, convoluted prompts.
“Stop writing 500-word prompts. Write 29 words: ‘I want to [task] so that [goal]. Read the files first. Ask me questions via AskUserQuestion before executing.'”
Leveraging Cowork and Global Instructions
For more substantial work, Hassid strongly recommends using the ‘Cowork’ feature over the standard ‘Chat’ interface, provided the user has a Desktop or Pro subscription. Cowork allows Claude to read local files and create documents, running for extended periods, which he likens to “minutes while you grab coffee.” He suggests organizing Cowork by creating three essential folders: ‘ABOUT ME/’ for identity and rules, ‘TEMPLATES/’ for reusable structures, and ‘CLAUDE OUTPUTS/’ for final deliverables. This organizational strategy, he notes, can reduce prompt length to as little as 10 words.
To ensure consistency, Hassid highlights the utility of ‘Global Instructions,’ which can be set once in the settings. A sample instruction he provides is: “read ABOUT ME first, save in CLAUDE OUTPUTS, use AskUserQuestion when unclear, don’t over-explain.” This proactive setup minimizes repetitive instructions within individual prompts.
Maximizing Efficiency with Connectors and Skills
Hassid points out that Claude’s ‘Connectors’ are available at no extra cost and encourages users to enable them. These integrations, including Slack, Gmail, Drive, and Notion, allow Claude to access and process information from these platforms directly within a conversation, eliminating the need for manual copy-pasting.
“Connectors are free. Turn them on. Slack, Gmail, Drive, Notion, Figma, Granola + 50 others. Claude reads your emails and messages mid-conversation. Zero copy-paste.”
Furthermore, ‘Skills’ are presented as a replacement for traditional prompt libraries. By turning recurring workflows into slash commands (e.g., `/negotiation-prep`), users can trigger complex actions that pull data from connected services, significantly streamlining task execution.
Context and Tool Selection for Optimal AI Use
Hassid’s overarching philosophy is that “Context > Prompts.” He argues that feeding Claude relevant files and data is far more impactful than crafting elaborate prompts alone. He backs this by offering his own resources, including infographics and prompts, via how-to-ai.guide.
He also advises using the right tool for the job, noting that while Claude excels in text-based tasks, users should turn to other AI tools for specific functions. For realistic image generation, he suggests ChatGPT’s image tool, and for real-time information, Grok (connected to X). For video generation, he recommends Google Veo-4. This pragmatic approach, according to Hassid, prevents “wasting tokens” on tasks better suited to specialized AI models.
In summary, Ruben Hassid’s LinkedIn post provides a tactical guide for users aiming to elevate their interaction with Claude, emphasizing structured organization, efficient prompting, strategic model selection, and leveraging the full suite of integrated tools and features.
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by Ruben Hassid on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on June 9, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →