5 Claude Code shortcuts most people never find

Side questions, instant recaps, rewinds, branches and a stash for half-written prompts.

1. /btw — ask a side question without polluting the conversation

Claude Code answers from what's already in the session (your messages, its replies, the files it read) and the question never enters the conversation history. It shows up in a small overlay instead.

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

• It works while Claude is still working on your main task. The side question runs independently.
• It has no tools. Claude can't read files, run commands or search when answering a /btw. It only uses what's already in context. If you need Claude to go find something new, that's a normal prompt or a subagent, not /btw.
• It's one answer, no follow-up turns. Ask another /btw to continue. Your newest 20 exchanges are replayed each time, so it does remember your earlier side questions.
• It's cheap. While the conversation's prompt cache is warm, a side question costs little beyond the answer itself.
• Press x to clear earlier exchanges, f to fork the question into a background subagent with full tool access.
• Run /btw with no question to reopen your last side question. (Before v2.1.212 this printed a usage message instead.)

2. /recap — one-line summary of where you are

/recap

Claude Code generates a one-line summary of the session so far, capped at 400 characters.

• There's also an automatic version: if you step away and come back after at least 3 minutes (terminal unfocused, 3+ turns in the session), a recap appears on its own. It's on by default. Turn it off under /config → Session recap.
• /recap only runs when you type it yourself. If it arrives inside a relayed Slack/Teams message or a routine's prompt, you get a notice, not a recap.

3. Double Esc — rewind to an earlier point

Press Esc twice with the prompt empty and the rewind menu opens. It lists every prompt you've sent this session. Pick a point, then choose:

• Restore code and conversation: revert both to that point.
• Restore conversation: rewind the chat, keep current files.
• Restore code: revert file edits, keep the chat.
• Summarize from here / Summarize up to here: compress part of the conversation into a summary to free context (like a targeted /compact).

• If there's text in the prompt, double Esc clears it instead of opening rewind. The cleared text is saved to history, so press Up to get it back.
• /rewind opens the same menu (aliases: /checkpoint, /undo).
• Checkpoints are taken on every prompt you send, and only for edits made through Claude's file editing tools. Changes from Bash commands (rm, mv, cp, scripts) are not tracked and can't be undone this way. Edits you make yourself outside Claude Code aren't tracked either.
• Snapshots are kept for the 100 most recent checkpoints and cleaned up roughly 30 days after the session last saved one.
• It's not a replacement for git. Use it for quick in-session recovery; commit for real history.

4. /branch — try a different approach without losing the original

/branch

/branch try-redux-version

Creates a branch of the conversation at this point and switches you into it. The original is preserved and you can go back to it with /resume.

• /branch is for you to explore a different direction. If you want a copy running on its own in the background while you keep working here, that's /fork. If you want to hand a side task to a subagent that reports back into this conversation, that's /subtask.
• This branches the conversation, not your git branch. Your files are shared. If both directions are going to edit code, make a git branch too.

5. Ctrl+S — stash a half-written prompt

Typing a long prompt and need to send something else first? Press Ctrl+S.

• With text in the input: stashes it and clears the prompt.
• Pressed again on an empty prompt: restores the stashed text, including cursor position, pasted content and input mode. A stashed ! shell command comes back in shell mode.

• One stash slot. Stashing again replaces what's there.
• In fullscreen mode's Ctrl+R history search, Ctrl+S does something different: it cycles the search scope (this session / this project / all projects). Outside that dialog it's the stash key.
• Don't confuse it with Ctrl+X Ctrl+S, which sends queued messages immediately (v2.1.275+).

🔑 Rules I'd follow

• Check your version. Several of these behave differently on older builds. Run claude --version, then update.
• /btw is for "what did we already do", not "go find out." No tools means no file reads.
• Empty prompt before double Esc. Otherwise you're clearing your draft, not rewinding.
• Rewind ≠ undo for Bash. If Claude ran a shell command that moved or deleted files, rewind won't bring them back. Git will.
• /branch is a chat branch. Pair it with a git branch if the two directions will both touch code.

Sources 🔗