Ask about this session

Ask opens a panel next to the conversation where you can ask Claude about the session you are in. Use it for “what changed so far?” or “which file did you change for this?”, also while Claude is busy with something else. Your questions and Claude’s answers never enter the conversation: they don’t wait in Up next, and Claude isn’t stopped or steered.

Note

This panel replaces the side question panel above the message box from earlier versions. /btw still works: it asks in this panel.

Ask a question

The Ask button sits next to Send (or Stop while Claude works), in blue.

• With an empty message box, Ask opens the panel, with the cursor in its own field.
• With text in the message box, Ask asks that text, empties the box and opens the panel.
• /btw and a question in the message box asks it the same way. Type /btw at the start of the box and a space, or pick /btw from the Slash/ list: it turns into a blue token, and Return↩EnterEnter asks. /btw on its own opens the panel. Delete⌫BackspaceBackspace right after the token makes the box a normal message again.
• Ask in the session’s header, next to Changes and Terminal, opens the panel too. Click it again to close the panel, or to bring it to the front when another panel is in front of it.
• Ask about this session in the command palette opens the panel. It has no shortcut by default.

Images and context chips in the message box stay there for your next message.

The first time, the panel offers four questions to start with: What changed so far?, Which files did it touch?, Why this approach? and What is left to do?. Click one to ask it.

The panel

The panel says Ask about this session, with not added to the conversation under it. Each question shows on the right, with Claude’s answer under it, written like any other reply.

• While Claude answers, a blue caret follows the text, with Answering under it. The panel stays at the bottom while the answer comes in, unless you scroll up to read.
• Copy copies an answer as markdown.
• Quote in message puts the answer in the message box as a quote, ready for you to add to it and send.
• If a question fails, the panel says why, with Try again.

Type a follow-up in the field at the bottom and press Return↩EnterEnter. Shift, Return⇧↩Shift, EnterShiftEnter starts a new line, and Up Arrow↑ in the empty field puts your last question back to edit. Under the field, the panel says whether Claude keeps working or Claude is idle.

EscapeEsc in the field leaves it, and EscapeEsc again closes the panel. × closes it too. Drag the panel’s left edge to make it wider or narrower, or focus the edge and use Left Arrow or Right Arrow←or→.

Closing the panel while Claude answers doesn’t stop the answer. When it is ready, a blue dot shows on the Ask button and on Ask in the header. Opening the panel clears it.

Threads

Questions in the panel form a thread. A follow-up goes to Claude with the earlier questions and answers of its thread, so “and the release script?” makes sense after “which files did it touch?”.

• New thread (+) starts an empty one. The thread you were in stays.
• Earlier threads (the clock) lists the threads in this session, newest first, with their first question, how many questions they have and how long ago they started. Pick one to open it.

Switchboard keeps the last 20 threads of each session, also after you quit. Deleting a session deletes them too.

Next to Changes

Changes and Ask share the right side of the session. With both open, tabs at the top switch between Changes and Ask, each with its count: the changed files, and the questions in the thread on screen. Opening Changes while Ask is open brings Changes to the front without closing Ask. The window remembers the last tab and the panel’s width.

What Claude knows and does

Claude answers from the session’s conversation as it is at that moment, and from the project. It can read files, search, and look at git: the status, diffs, the log and commits. It can’t change anything: it doesn’t edit files or run other commands.

Nothing of it changes the session: not the conversation, the title, the number of messages, its state in the sidebar, or Up next. An answer doesn’t mark the session unread, and it doesn’t play a sound or show a notification.

Answers use the session’s model and your plan, like the session itself. In Usage, their tokens show as their own row, Side questions, with how many questions there were.

You can ask from your phone too, with Remote access. The threads are the same on both.

Tip

A session doesn’t have to be running to answer. For a past session, or one that is open in another Claude Code window, Switchboard asks a short-lived copy of it, which writes nothing.