anthropics / anthropics/claude-code

[FEATURE] Desktop app: add /branch and /resume equivalents for managing conversation branches

Open
#94,894 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:desktop enhancement
Dominant language
Python
Stars
145k
Forks
23.1k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

### Preflight Checklist

- [x] I have searched [existing requests](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20label%3Aenhancement) and this feature hasn't been requested yet
- [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

### Problem Statement

The terminal CLI has /branch (fork the current conversation into a new session at this point, optionally named) and /resume (list and switch back into any prior session, including forks, to continue it). Together they let you manage conversations as a tree: branch off to try something, then come back and resume any branch later.

The Desktop app's Code tab has no equivalent. Typing /branch there returns "isn't available in this environment", and there's no UI action to fork the current conversation's history, nor a way to browse and resume into a specific branch the way /resume does in the CLI. This creates a real capability gap between the two interfaces for the same underlying product.

### Proposed Solution

Bring the CLI's conversation-branching capability to the Desktop app:
- A "Branch conversation" action that forks the current session's history into a new session at that point (optionally named) — the Desktop equivalent of /branch.
- A way to browse and resume any branch (a tree view, or at minimum a flat list showing each branch's origin) — the Desktop equivalent of /resume.

### Alternative Solutions

Currently the only workaround is starting a brand-new session and manually re-typing or re-pasting the relevant context, which loses the actual conversation history and is tedious for anything non-trivial.

### Priority

Medium - Would be very helpful

### Feature Category

Other

### Use Case Example

1. I'm mid-conversation in the Desktop app's Code tab, well into a task with useful accumulated context.
2. I want to try a different implementation approach without risking the current thread.
3. In the CLI I'd run /branch to fork here, try the new approach, and use /resume later to jump back to the original if it doesn't pan out.
4. In the Desktop app I have no way to do this — I either overwrite my current progress or start a fresh session and lose all context.

### Additional Context

_No response_

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by locating the Desktop app's Code tab and the existing CLI implementations of /branch and /resume. Define how branching, optional naming, and browsing or resuming branches should work in the Desktop app, then verify that a conversation can be forked and that both the original and new branches remain resumable.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
cli, desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.