Claude Code (desktop)

What it is

The Code side of the desktop app is Claude’s agentic coding environment — the same engine as the Claude Code CLI, with a real interface around it. You point a session at a folder, describe what you want, and Claude edits files, runs tests, commits and opens PRs while you watch the diff.

Each conversation is a session: its own chat history and its own project folder, independent of every other session. You can run several in parallel.

Where to find it

On desktop

The top of the window is a two-way toggle — Claude on the left, Code on the right. Click Code.
Code has a sidebar of its own: New (⌘N) · Artifacts · Customize · More, then your sessions. There’s no Projects, Scheduled, Dispatch or Design row over here.
The landing page is a stats card — an Overview / Models view switch and an All / 30d / 7d date range — above the session composer, whose input is labelled Prompt.
The inactive half of the toggle carries a coloured dot when something wants you: blue for unread activity, amber when a session is waiting on your input.

How to use it

Start a session

Code → New.
Set up the session in the row directly above the composer — which environment it runs in, and which folder or repository it works on. The control names here follow Anthropic’s documentation.
Describe the task in the composer and submit. The Model and Effort controls sit at the bottom right of the composer.

Choose where it runs

A session can run in four places, which is the single most useful thing to know about Code on desktop:

Local — on your machine, with direct access to your files.
Cloud — on Anthropic-managed infrastructure. The session keeps going even if you close the app.
SSH — on a remote machine you connect to: your own servers, cloud VMs, dev containers.
WSL (Windows) — inside a WSL 2 distribution, using its Linux toolchain and native paths.

The integrated terminal is local-only, and the file pane works in local and SSH sessions but not cloud ones.

Work in the panes

Inside a session you can arrange panes for the chat, the diff, a browser, a terminal and a file editor side by side, and:

Review and comment on diffs, then watch the resulting PR through CI.
Preview your running app in the Browser pane while Claude verifies its own changes, and open external sites alongside it.
Watch Claude run and test an iOS app in the iOS Simulator pane.
Ask a side question that uses the session’s context without derailing it.
Let Claude check on, message or archive your other sessions.
Connect external tools like GitHub, Slack and Linear.
Let Claude open apps and control your screen.

Schedule work

More → Routines → New routine sets up recurring work: choose Cloud for a routine that runs whether your machine is on or not, or Local for a desktop scheduled task with access to your files.

Good to know

Session isolation needs Git. Most Macs ship with it; git --version in Terminal tells you.
The pane layout, terminal, file editor and view modes need build 1.2581.0 or later.
Linux is in beta alongside macOS and Windows (x64 and ARM64).
Connectors are shared with the rest of the app. Customize → Connectors is the same source of truth, and the Code sidebar has its own Customize row so you don’t have to leave.
The inspected mode switch is Claude / Code. The Code home exposes a Local environment, worktree option and Add another folder; session internals were not opened in this review.

What’s changed recently

2026-10-07 — The mode switch reads Claude / Code. The Code home shows Local, worktree, Add another folder, Auto, model and effort controls; session panes were not rechecked.
2026-09-13 — The top-level toggle reads Chat and Cowork | Code, not “Home | Code” as this page said. The Code sidebar’s first row is New, not “New session”. Anthropic’s docs have expanded considerably in the meantime, and this page now covers what they describe: sessions run Local, Cloud, SSH or WSL; the workspace is a set of arrangeable panes (chat, diff, browser, terminal, file editor) plus an iOS Simulator pane; Claude can now check on, message or archive your other sessions; and Routines, under the sidebar’s More menu, creates either a cloud routine or a local scheduled task. Session isolation requires Git — the older Windows-specific Git requirement has gone from the docs. The “Local / repo / branch / worktree chips” description has been dropped; we could not verify it this time.
2026-07-12 — Top-level nav changed to a two-way toggle; Code stopped being a third standalone tab.