Reference Multiple Files at Once with @ Mentions

Why describe files when you can just point at them? The @ syntax lets you reference multiple specific files in a single prompt, giving Claude exactly the context it needs — no guessing, no searching.

@src/auth/middleware.ts @src/auth/guards.ts "These two files are out of sync — 
make them consistent and update the shared types"

Claude loads the full contents of each referenced file before responding, so it can reason across all of them simultaneously.

A few patterns that work well:

# Cross-file consistency
@routes/api.php @controllers/UserController.php 
"Add input validation to all the user endpoints"

# Debugging across layers
@models/Order.php @services/OrderService.php @tests/OrderTest.php
"The test is failing — find the mismatch between the model and the service"

# API contract review
@openapi.yaml @src/handlers/payments.ts
"Check whether the implementation matches the OpenAPI spec"

You can use tab completion to fill in file paths quickly, so building a multi-file prompt doesn't mean typing out long paths from memory.

This is much more reliable than describing files by name in natural language and hoping Claude picks the right one — especially in larger codebases with similar file names.

Use @ references to give Claude a precise, narrow window into exactly the files that matter.