Interactive mode

Complete reference for keyboard shortcuts, input modes, and interactive features in Claude Code sessions.

Keyboard shortcuts

General controls

Text editing

Theme and display

Multiline input

Quick commands

Built-in commands

Type / in Claude Code to see all available commands, or type / followed by any letters to filter. Not all commands are visible to every user. Some depend on your platform, plan, or environment. For example, /desktop only appears on macOS and Windows, /upgrade and /privacy-settings are only available on Pro and Max plans, and /terminal-setup is hidden when your terminal natively supports its keybindings.

Claude Code also ships with bundled skills like /simplify, /batch, and /debug that appear alongside built-in commands when you type /. To create your own commands, see skills.

In the table below, <arg> indicates a required argument and [arg] indicates an optional one.

MCP prompts

MCP servers can expose prompts that appear as commands. These use the format /mcp__<server>__<prompt> and are dynamically discovered from connected servers. See MCP prompts for details.

Vim editor mode

Enable vim-style editing with /vim command or configure permanently via /config.

Mode switching

Navigation (NORMAL mode)

Editing (NORMAL mode)

Text objects (NORMAL mode)

Text objects work with operators like d, c, and y:

Command history

Claude Code maintains command history for the current session:

• Input history is stored per working directory
• Input history resets when you run /clear to start a new session. The previous session's conversation is preserved and can be resumed.
• Use Up/Down arrows to navigate (see keyboard shortcuts above)
• Note: history expansion (!) is disabled by default

Reverse search with Ctrl+R

Press Ctrl+R to interactively search through your command history:

1. Start search: press Ctrl+R to activate reverse history search
2. Type query: enter text to search for in previous commands. The search term is highlighted in matching results
3. Navigate matches: press Ctrl+R again to cycle through older matches
4. Accept match:
   • Press Tab or Esc to accept the current match and continue editing
   • Press Enter to accept and execute the command immediately
5. Cancel search:
   • Press Ctrl+C to cancel and restore your original input
   • Press Backspace on empty search to cancel

The search displays matching commands with the search term highlighted, so you can find and reuse previous inputs.

Background bash commands

Claude Code supports running bash commands in the background, allowing you to continue working while long-running processes execute.

How backgrounding works

When Claude Code runs a command in the background, it runs the command asynchronously and immediately returns a background task ID. Claude Code can respond to new prompts while the command continues executing in the background.

To run commands in the background, you can either:

• Prompt Claude Code to run a command in the background
• Press Ctrl+B to move a regular Bash tool invocation to the background. (Tmux users must press Ctrl+B twice due to tmux's prefix key.)

Key features:

• Output is buffered and Claude can retrieve it using the TaskOutput tool
• Background tasks have unique IDs for tracking and output retrieval
• Background tasks are automatically cleaned up when Claude Code exits

To disable all background task functionality, set the CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_BACKGROUND_TASKS environment variable to 1. See Environment variables for details.

Common backgrounded commands:

• Build tools (webpack, vite, make)
• Package managers (npm, yarn, pnpm)
• Test runners (jest, pytest)
• Development servers
• Long-running processes (docker, terraform)

Bash mode with ! prefix

Run bash commands directly without going through Claude by prefixing your input with !:

! npm test
! git status
! ls -la

Bash mode:

• Adds the command and its output to the conversation context
• Shows real-time progress and output
• Supports the same Ctrl+B backgrounding for long-running commands
• Does not require Claude to interpret or approve the command
• Supports history-based autocomplete: type a partial command and press Tab to complete from previous ! commands in the current project
• Exit with Escape, Backspace, or Ctrl+U on an empty prompt

This is useful for quick shell operations while maintaining conversation context.

Prompt suggestions

When you first open a session, a grayed-out example command appears in the prompt input to help you get started. Claude Code picks this from your project's git history, so it reflects files you've been working on recently.

After Claude responds, suggestions continue to appear based on your conversation history, such as a follow-up step from a multi-part request or a natural continuation of your workflow.

• Press Tab to accept the suggestion, or press Enter to accept and submit
• Start typing to dismiss it

The suggestion runs as a background request that reuses the parent conversation's prompt cache, so the additional cost is minimal. Claude Code skips suggestion generation when the cache is cold to avoid unnecessary cost.

Suggestions are automatically skipped after the first turn of a conversation, in non-interactive mode, and in plan mode.

To disable prompt suggestions entirely, set the environment variable or toggle the setting in /config:

export CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_PROMPT_SUGGESTION=false

Side questions with /btw

Use /btw to ask a quick question about your current work without adding to the conversation history. This is useful when you want a fast answer but don't want to clutter the main context or derail Claude from a long-running task.

/btw what was the name of that config file again?

Side questions have full visibility into the current conversation, so you can ask about code Claude has already read, decisions it made earlier, or anything else from the session. The question and answer are ephemeral: they appear in a dismissible overlay and never enter the conversation history.

• Available while Claude is working: you can run /btw even while Claude is processing a response. The side question runs independently and does not interrupt the main turn.
• No tool access: side questions answer only from what is already in context. Claude cannot read files, run commands, or search when answering a side question.
• Single response: there are no follow-up turns. If you need a back-and-forth, use a normal prompt instead.
• Low cost: the side question reuses the parent conversation's prompt cache, so the additional cost is minimal.

Press Space, Enter, or Escape to dismiss the answer and return to the prompt.

/btw is the inverse of a subagent: it sees your full conversation but has no tools, while a subagent has full tools but starts with an empty context. Use /btw to ask about what Claude already knows from this session; use a subagent to go find out something new.

Task list

When working on complex, multi-step work, Claude creates a task list to track progress. Tasks appear in the status area of your terminal with indicators showing what's pending, in progress, or complete.

• Press Ctrl+T to toggle the task list view. The display shows up to 10 tasks at a time
• To see all tasks or clear them, ask Claude directly: "show me all tasks" or "clear all tasks"
• Tasks persist across context compactions, helping Claude stay organized on larger projects
• To share a task list across sessions, set CLAUDE_CODE_TASK_LIST_ID to use a named directory in ~/.claude/tasks/: CLAUDE_CODE_TASK_LIST_ID=my-project claude
• To revert to the previous TODO list, set CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TASKS=false.

PR review status

When working on a branch with an open pull request, Claude Code displays a clickable PR link in the footer (for example, "PR #446"). The link has a colored underline indicating the review state:

• Green: approved
• Yellow: pending review
• Red: changes requested
• Gray: draft
• Purple: merged

Cmd+click (Mac) or Ctrl+click (Windows/Linux) the link to open the pull request in your browser. The status updates automatically every 60 seconds.

See also

• Skills - Custom prompts and workflows
• Checkpointing - Rewind Claude's edits and restore previous states
• CLI reference - Command-line flags and options
• Settings - Configuration options
• Memory management - Managing CLAUDE.md files