[FEATURE] No way to switch model at the plan-approval step in the Desktop app's Code tab

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

In the Claude Desktop app's Code tab (Windows), once plan mode produces a plan and the approval UI appears, there is no way to switch the model before execution begins. The common workflow — plan with a stronger model, execute with a cheaper/faster one — has no entry point at the exact moment the decision makes sense, which is after seeing the plan and knowing how much work it actually implies.

Deciding the execution model up front (before planning) is guesswork: you don't yet know whether the plan is three trivial file edits or a cross-module refactor. The plan is precisely the information needed to make that call, and it arrives at the one moment the choice is unavailable.

There is no fallback either: the approval UI covers the composer entirely, so /model cannot be typed while a plan is awaiting approval. The only options are to approve with whatever model is current, or to reject the plan and lose it.

Both Codex and Antigravity handle this differently, and the contrast is specifically about the occlusion: neither of them covers the input area while a plan is waiting to be approved. The plan is presented, the input stays available, and the model can be changed before execution starts. So switching models at the plan-approval moment is not an inherent constraint of plan-based workflows — it is something this surface gives up by covering the composer.

Environment

• Surface: Claude Desktop app → Code tab (not the terminal CLI, not the VS Code extension)
• Desktop app: 2.2553.1.0 (MSIX, Windows)
• Claude Code: 2.1.229
• OS: Windows 11 Home (10.0.26200)

Why this is not a duplicate of the earlier requests

This has been asked four times and the chain died without a decision. All four predate the Desktop Code tab surface and describe the terminal TUI, and every one of them is closed and locked, so there is no open issue tracking this on any surface:

Two things worth flagging about that chain:

1. #45422 is marked COMPLETED in the API, but nothing was implemented. The closing event is the duplicate-detection bot ("Found 3 possible duplicate issues... will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days"), not a fix. Anyone triaging by state reason will read it as done.
2. The chain terminates at #35920, which was closed as not planned after being marked stale — i.e. the whole request collapsed into an issue that was closed for inactivity, not on the merits.

Surface-specific, not just a re-file: #45422's body describes the terminal failure mode — "the terminal input is captured by the numbered options and it is no longer possible to run slash commands like /model sonnet". The Desktop Code tab has no numbered-options prompt; it has its own approval UI. That these are independently implemented is visible in #94716, where the VS Code panel hardcodes its own plan-approval buttons and therefore never shows a row the CLI does show. Whatever happens to the terminal's approval menu will not automatically reach the Desktop Code tab.

The Desktop symptom is also strictly worse than the one #45422 described: there the input line is merely captured by the numbered options, whereas here the approval UI covers the composer outright.

What Should Happen

At the plan-approval step in the Desktop Code tab, offer a model (and ideally effort) selector alongside the existing approve/revise controls, so the execution model can be chosen with the plan visible.

Any of these would solve it:

• A model picker in the plan-approval UI itself.
• Keeping the composer live during approval so the existing /model command still works at that moment.
• A configurable "plan with X, execute with Y" pair that applies on approval (this is what #47985 and #50036 asked for; both are also closed).

The first is the smallest and most discoverable.

Additional context

The underlying capability clearly exists — the model can be switched freely at any other point in a Desktop session. This is about the approval step not exposing an entry point, not about the model being locked for technical reasons.

Start at the Claude Desktop app's Code tab plan-approval UI; the payload names no source file or test, so use the independently implemented approval controls described in #94716 as context. Done means a user can choose the execution model, ideally effort too, while the plan remains visible and before approval runs it.