Claude 2.0: the Code tab and running work

The Code tab's new layout

The Code tab was rebuilt so you can see what Claude is doing without reading its transcript.

The session rail is a column of cards beside the conversation, which you can show or hide. Environment shows where the session runs (on your computer, in the cloud, or on a remote machine), which folder it works in, and a switch for Remote Control. Context shows how full the session's context is: everything Claude holds in mind at once, meaning your messages plus the connectors, skills, agents and memory files it has loaded. When it fills, older detail is compacted into a summary, so the card helps you spot a connector or memory file crowding out your work. Changes lists what the session has changed, so you can open each change and comment on it.¹

Panes open beside the conversation: a terminal, the list of changes, a browser that previews what Claude is building, the files it is working with, and its plan and background tasks. You may never open most of them. They are there for the moment you want to see for yourself.

Sections group the sidebar's sessions by project, client or topic, under names you choose.

Asking without interrupting

Claude often works for minutes at a time, and you will have questions while it does.

Side chat. Open one with /btw or a keyboard shortcut. It can read the main conversation up to that point and answer you, but nothing you say there is added back. Side chats are not saved after you close the app.
Fork. Copy the conversation from a chosen point into a new session, to try a different direction without disturbing the original.
Rewind (reported). Go back to an earlier point in the session with /rewind, like undo.²
Split view. Open sessions side by side, from a session's Open in menu or by Option-clicking (Alt-clicking on Windows) it in the sidebar.

Keeping the work running when you step away

Remote Control connects a session on your computer to the Claude mobile app and the web, so you can read it, answer its questions and approve its requests from your phone. Turn it on per session from the session rail, or in Settings turn on Connect new sessions to Remote Control.
Keep computer awake stops your computer from going to sleep from inactivity while the app runs your work. Closing the laptop lid still puts it to sleep.
Cloud sessions run on Anthropic's computers, so they continue with your laptop closed. A cloud session in the Code tab cannot see the files on your computer. It works from what you give it, such as a GitHub repository or uploaded files.
Scheduled tasks start a session at a set time. A local task needs your computer on. A cloud task does not, and can also start on a GitHub event or an API call.

These pair well with /goal, which keeps Claude working until a condition you set is met. You state the finish line. In the weekly supplier payment run at Brightline Wholesale Supply, the company whose bill payments you follow through this book, it might be "all 15 invoices have a pay, hold or ask decision, and the run total matches the checking program". After each turn, a separate small model reads the conversation and judges whether the condition holds. If not, Claude starts another turn instead of stopping to ask you. The goal also ends if the checker judges the condition impossible, or if a turn fails on an error you have to fix, such as a used-up credit balance. You can clear a goal yourself at any time with /goal clear.³

Two cautions. Write a finish line Claude's own output can show, never "make it great". And the separate model only reads what the conversation shows. It does not open files or rerun anything. It is a second opinion, not an independent check. A met goal is evidence that the work is finished, and it never makes the next action permitted.

Read the figure from left to right, then follow the curved arrow back for each turn that falls short. On the right are the two ways the checker ends a goal: met, or judged impossible. The note in the middle is the third way, an error you must fix. The two notes along the bottom are the cautions above.

Where the work actually runs

It helps to know what happens behind the screen when Claude "keeps working in the cloud".⁴,⁵

A fresh virtual machine for each session. A cloud session runs on a virtual machine: a complete computer, simulated in software, on Anthropic's servers. Each session gets its own, created when the session starts and deleted when it ends. Sessions never share one, even inside the same company.
Idle sessions lose their machine. In the Code tab, if a cloud session sits idle long enough, Anthropic takes its virtual machine back. When you reopen the session, Claude starts a fresh one. Your conversation comes back. Work that was still running in the background does not, and Claude tells you what stopped so you can rerun it.
What survives and what does not. The conversation and the files saved to your account survive. Anything Claude installed or left on the virtual machine does not. So ask for results as files you keep.
What it can reach. Only websites on an allowed list, through a filter the session cannot change, and nothing inside your company's own network. Enterprise organizations start with no internet access at all. Your keys for GitHub and your connectors stay outside the machine, and Anthropic's servers add them when a request leaves it.
Your own files. A cloud session reaches your computer only through the desktop app, and only folders you have connected. Each request is checked against your permissions. Files read this way are processed on Anthropic's servers, not only on your computer.
Local sessions. A Code tab session set to Local runs on your own computer, in the folder you chose. Older tasks started on the desktop before October 2026 ran inside a virtual machine on your own computer instead.

Anthropic documents a new machine per session. It does not say whether each new task inside the same conversation starts a new session, so do not count on anything carrying over between tasks except your conversation and your files.

Three ways to run several things at once

Nested sessions (reported) split one job into side jobs. They are described in walkthroughs of the new app but were not yet in Anthropic's documentation when this page was verified. Claude can start sessions of its own that run in parallel, appear under the main session, and report back to it. Each is a full session you can open and talk to directly: you might have five competitors researched at once, then ask about one of them without cluttering the main conversation. Ask for it ("split this into a separate session for each competitor"), or start one from a card in which Claude suggests related work.⁶,⁷,⁸

A coordinating session manages sessions already running. This is a way of working, not a button. Every Code session can list, read, message, rename and archive your other sessions, so you pin one to the top of the sidebar and use it as a control center. Ask it "what's waiting on me?" and it tells you which sessions have finished, which need approval and which are still working. It sees your 20 most recently active sessions on this computer, not cloud sessions, unless you ask it to look further.⁹

Projects carry ongoing work with shared memory. A project is one ongoing conversation in which Claude acts as a coordinator: you tell it what needs doing, and it starts a thread for each task. Threads run in the cloud by default, so they keep going with your laptop closed, though you can ask for one to run on your computer. Every new thread starts from the project's instructions, and cloud threads also read the project's memory, so a rule you state once reaches all of them. An Overview pane shows what is waiting on you, and a Library holds the files you added and the files threads produced.¹⁰ These are not the projects in Claude conversations, which hold files and instructions for a set of conversations. Same word, different feature.

The arrows show who starts the work. In nested sessions the main session starts its side jobs and they report back. A coordinator starts nothing. It watches and steers sessions that already exist. A project starts cloud threads that share its instructions and memory.

You want to	Use	Context each piece starts with	Runs with your laptop closed
Split one big job into parallel parts	Nested sessions	What the main session tells it	Only if it runs in the cloud
Keep track of sessions already running	A coordinating session	Your other sessions, as it reads them	No
Run an ongoing stream of related work	A project	The project's instructions and, in the cloud, its memory	Yes, by default

Parallel work uses your plan's limits faster, and so does standing context: connectors, skills and memory files load into every new session, and each side-chat question rereads the main conversation. Start with two sessions and add more once you trust the results.

Mods: changing the app itself

Mods change how Claude Code looks and behaves. Describe the change, for example "make me a mod that shows my weekly usage above the message box", and Claude writes the mod, installs it, and reloads it in your session. A mod can add a pane or a status line, show a notification, rewrite or block a tool call, answer a permission request, or hide secrets from the screen. Anthropic's examples include a pane that follows your builds, a confirmation step before any command touches production settings, and an audit log of what other mods do.¹¹

Mods are not sandboxed: they have the same access to your computer as Claude Code itself. Install only mods you have read or that come from a source you trust. In companies, administrators decide which plugin sources are allowed, and a built-in safety mod loads first to block the riskiest changes.

Briefing Claude 2.0

The new app needs less instruction than most people still give it. Anthropic's guidance for Opus 5.5 is to start at medium effort, the default, and test other levels on your own work. It suggests stating the condition for done up front, and removing instructions that tell Claude to think carefully, because the model decides how much to think and the effort setting is the main control.¹² Panaversity's own research adds two habits: give the whole task in one message, and leave out lines such as "double-check everything". A specific condition for done adds far more.

Chapter 5 teaches this as the Four-Part Brief: the outcome you want, the format of the result, the inputs to use, and how much autonomy the worker has. The payment-run brief on the first page shows all four. The new apps shift its emphasis. The outcome carries a done-when Claude can check itself. Every brief still covers all four parts, but inputs, format and autonomy can be short when something else already settles them, such as project instructions, approved sources and enforced permissions. End with "Show what you checked and what the checks found, and list anything you could not verify", so that you review evidence, not a claim. When you are not sure what you want, ask Claude to interview you until it could write the brief itself, then start a fresh session from that brief.