How Claudette uses Claude Code

Claudette doesn’t replace Claude Code and doesn’t call Claude’s API itself. Each tab runs the real claude program in the tab’s folder and draws what it says as a window instead of a terminal. This page says what that means for your settings, your sessions and the programs you see running.

Your configuration loads as in a terminal

A tab runs Claude Code in its streaming mode, which takes its messages as data. Claudette doesn’t turn off any of your setup, so these load as they do in a terminal:

Claudette keeps its own settings in its own folder, separate from Claude Code’s, and doesn’t try to manage Claude Code’s. See Where Claudette keeps things.

Where a tab differs from a terminal

  • A folder’s own configuration. A terminal claude asks before it works in a new folder. A tab doesn’t get that question from Claude Code, so Claudette asks first, before Claude Code starts there: see Folder trust. A tab started without the folder’s configuration leaves out the folder’s settings, its .mcp.json servers and its CLAUDE.md.
  • Allow rules in a project’s shared settings. Claude Code holds these back in this mode until you’ve trusted the folder in Claude Code itself. Trusting a folder in Claudette doesn’t change that.
  • Prompts. Claude Code’s permission questions arrive in Claudette, which shows them as cards: see Permission cards.
  • The session’s name. Claudette gives each session the tab’s name in Claude Code, so other sessions can message it by name and claude --resume <name> finds it. Settings → Claude Code → Name each tab’s session in Claude Code after the tab turns that off. See Reaching other sessions.

Where Claude Code keeps sessions

Claude Code writes each session to a file, a transcript, in the projects folder of its configuration folder: normally .claude/projects in your home folder, or the folder CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR names. Claudette reads these files to show the earlier conversation when a tab comes back, and for History. Claude Code deletes transcripts after 30 days by default. A tab that syncs keeps a copy in the session library, which that cleanup doesn’t touch.

Starting Claudette from a terminal inside Claude Code

Claude Code sets variables for the programs it starts, to tell them they’re inside a session. If Claudette inherited them, every tab would behave as a child session, and can report you as not signed in. So Claudette removes exactly those variables from the environment of each claude it starts, and leaves your own configuration alone. You can run Claudette from a Claude Code session without a problem.

The programs you see running

Open Task Manager or Activity Monitor and you’ll see a claude for each tab that has started, plus one more. That one is a hidden helper that never receives a prompt and saves no session. It asks Claude Code for what doesn’t belong to a tab: the list of models, your plan’s usage and sign-in. Claudette also runs claude briefly to check its version and how it was installed, and to update it.

Tabs you haven’t touched since launch don’t start claude until you select them or send a message, so many pinned tabs cost nothing until used. Closing a tab stops its claude, and what it started unless you choose to leave that running. Closing Claudette stops every tab’s. See Processes.

What Claudette asks Claude Code for on its own

  • After your first message in a new session, one small request for a title, which becomes the tab’s name.
  • A check on a turn that has gone quiet, if you leave check-ins on: see Check-ins on long turns.

Both are small model calls that count toward your usage, and the tab’s token counts include them. Claudette also asks Claude Code for your plan’s usage from time to time, for the header.

Versions

  • Claudette needs Claude Code 2.1.284 or later and was last tested with 2.1.312. Newer versions are allowed.
  • It decides what to offer from what Claude Code says it can do, not from its version number.
  • When Claude Code sends something Claudette doesn’t know, it’s skipped and counted, and the session carries on. Settings → Advanced → Diagnostics counts them: see Diagnostics and logs.
  • A tab keeps running the version of Claude Code it started with. See Claude Code’s updates.

See also

Back to top

Claudette is made by dotBunny under the MIT license. Privacy policy

Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of Anthropic, PBC. Godot and the Godot logo are trademarks of the Godot Foundation; the logo is by Andrea Calabró, under CC BY 4.0. Unity is a trademark or registered trademark of Unity Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere. Unreal®, Unreal Engine®, and the Unreal Engine® logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. Other brands or product names are the trademarks of their respective owners. The logo is used with Epic's permission. Perforce, P4V and the Perforce logo are trademarks of Perforce Software, Inc. or one of its affiliates; the logo is used with Perforce's permission. Claudette isn't sponsored by, affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Other names are trademarks of their owners.

Edit this page on GitHub

This site uses Just the Docs, a documentation theme for Jekyll.