Settings

What it is

Settings configures your account, capabilities and app preferences. It opens over your current view and includes a Search settings field.

The 7 October inspection found an important difference from the unified rollout guide: Instructions for Claude is visibly under Account, although the guide still directs readers to General. The locations below follow the inspected UI. No settings were changed.

Where to find it

On desktop

Open Settings from the account menu or Claude → Settings…. The rail contains General, Account, Privacy, Billing, Usage, Capabilities, Memory, Design systems, Reflect, Time and focus, Claude Code and Claude in Chrome.

Desktop adds a This computer group with System, Extensions and Developer. The Customize group contains Skills, Connectors and Plugins. Platform → API keys links to Claude Platform.

On the web

Open Account menu → Settings. The same account and product panes are present, without the This computer group. There is no separate Cowork pane in either inspected settings rail.

How to use it

Pick a pane from the rail. The visible controls are:

General — appearance, chat font, transcript text size and width, motion, Tasks and preferred browser, plus voice Language, Style and Speed. Desktop Tasks also exposes Trusted folders → Manage. Lower down are notification controls for response completion, scheduled tasks, Code notifications and permission requests, cloud-session emails and Dispatch messages.
Account — profile photo and name fields, Instructions for Claude, logout and account deletion. Desktop also shows Require trusted devices. Both platforms show Local devices, Trusted devices and Active sessions sections. Personal details and device records were not inspected.
Privacy — Location metadata, Help improve our AI models, data export and management links for shared chats, artifacts, uploaded files and feedback. Memory preferences → Manage is visible on both platforms after scrolling.
Billing and Usage — plan/payment controls, invoices and usage-credit controls. Usage includes current session, this week, Fable this week, resets and cloud session credits. Lower Usage shows Usage credits, Buy more usage, Monthly spend limit, and a product breakdown for Claude Code, Chats, Cowork and Other. The inspection excludes personal balances and payment information.
Capabilities — tool access mode, connector search, flagged-message model switching, Artifacts, AI-powered artifacts, inline visualizations and cloud code execution. Both platforms show network egress, domain allowlist, additional allowed domains and a notice that Skills moved to Customize.
Memory — chat reference, memory generation, sensitive-topic memory and import controls. See Memory.
Design systems — search, New design system, and Name / Usable by / Published columns. No design system was created.
Reflect — Time range and Regenerate reflection controls. Both captures showed a loading state; completed reflection behavior is unverified.
Time and focus — Break reminders with hours/minutes selectors and Quiet hours weekday controls. Their effect was not tested.
Claude Code — session classification, flagged-message model switching, code themes and font, interface font and transcript settings. Desktop also shows Connect new sessions to Remote Control. The web pane also exposes branch prefix, automatic pull-request creation and Auto-fix. Desktop has bypass permissions, Dynamic workflows, keep-awake, prompt suggestions, auto-archiving, worktree location, Output style and local sandbox controls. Lower down are authorization-token headings, server-side session deletion and sharing settings. None were changed.
Claude in Chrome — extension enablement, default site policy and blocked-sites controls; the page says site permissions also apply to the built-in desktop browser.

This computer (desktop only)

System shows the desktop build, startup behavior, quick-access/voice/dictation shortcuts, menu bar, Keep computer awake, Storage folder, Dispatch and Browser use. The inspected build is 2.26454.0. Lower down are Open links in built-in browser, Allowed sites, and Computer use (Beta). Computer-use controls include Enable computer use, Unhide apps when Claude finishes, Background / Full control, Denied apps, Accessibility and Screen recording. See Computer use.

Extensions provides Browse extensions, an installed section, Advanced settings and a .MCPB / .DXT drop target. Developer shows Local MCP servers, Edit config, command/arguments labels and View logs. Server values were excluded from review.

Customize

Skills, Connectors and Plugins remain in their own group. See Customize for their full-page managers.

Good to know

Instructions moved in the inspected UI. Use Account → Instructions for Claude. The official unified guide still says General, so this is a documented UI/source discrepancy.
Local execution and local access are different. Pro and Max new tasks run in the cloud from 6 October, but local folders, browsers and computer use still need the desktop app.
New controls are observations, not availability promises. Reflect and Time and focus were visible on this account; no official availability claim or completed behavior was established.
Review scope. The inspection read controls without changing settings, buying credits, exporting data or opening personal memory records. Lower controls are described only when a visible capture supports them.

What’s changed recently

2026-10-07 — The rail adds Design systems, Reflect and Time and focus; desktop settings are grouped under This computer → System/Extensions/Developer. Instructions for Claude is visibly in Account, differing from the current help-guide path. Partial/loading states remain unverified.
2026-10-07 — documentation review. Official guides remove Pro/Max local-only execution. They place global instructions in General, but the inspected UI places Instructions for Claude in Account; settings behavior was not exercised.
2026-09-13 — The rail is now grouped under four headings — Settings, Desktop app, Customize, Platform — with a Search settings box above it. Memory has its own pane instead of living inside Capabilities, and Cowork has one too. The Customize rows (Skills, Connectors, Plugins) route to #customize/… rather than #settings/…. Settings is an overlay on a hash route on both platforms, and the old claude.ai/settings/connectors address now renders a “moved to Customize” stub instead of a connectors manager.
2026-05-03 — Desktop coverage verified against build 1.5354.0 via automated pipeline sweep. Filled Desktop app → General, Extensions, and Developer sections. Promoted platforms.desktop.status from stub to covered.