Opening project files

A Project Files tab shows a project’s files beside, or instead of, its conversations: the explorer on one side and the files you’ve opened, in tabs, on the other. A folder group has at most one.

Opening the tab

Any of these opens the group’s Files tab, or selects it when it’s open:

• The Project files button, a file icon beside the group’s + in the sidebar.
• Open project files in the group’s menu.
• Open project files or Go to file… in the command palette.
• Ctrl/Cmd+P, which also starts a search (Finding a file by name).
• Opening a file from a conversation (Opening files from the conversation).

The Project files button and Open project files always show the explorer, even if you hid it (The explorer).

Its row in the sidebar

The tab’s row is the first in its group, above pinned tabs. It has a file icon where a session tab has its status icon, the name Project Files, and on its second line the file showing, or No files open. While files have unsaved edits, the second line says how many, such as 2 unsaved, in the caution color, and the icon has a dot. The collapsed sidebar shows it as a square with the file icon.

Its menu has Open beside, Close pane (while it’s in one), Reveal in file manager, Copy path and Close.

The row stays first. You can’t drag it within the group, and Move up and Move down pass it by.

How it behaves

• Next to the conversation. It takes part in split panes like a session tab: choose Open beside in its menu, or drag its row onto a pane, to have the conversation on one side and the code on the other. Like every pane, it keeps at least 360 pixels, and inside it the explorer gives way first.
• Left out of the session tabs’ keys. Ctrl+Tab, Ctrl/Cmd+1 to 9 and Ctrl/Cmd+J go only through session tabs and skip it, so opening it never changes their numbers.
• It keeps its group. Closing the group’s last session tab leaves the group with only its Files tab. Close group closes it too.
• It comes back on launch with the files it had open, as a pinned tab does.
• It has nothing a session has. There’s no composer (the tool windows show the group’s session tab you used last), no status, usage or notifications. Claudette on the composer stays on the session panes.

What it doesn’t do

It has no completion, errors or going to a definition, no search through what’s in the files, and no creating, renaming, deleting or moving files. It can’t split the editor, and it has box selection but not several cursors. It doesn’t preview images, doesn’t save by itself, and has no git staging or commits and no terminal.

Settings

Settings → Files and diffs holds this tab’s settings, each explained where it applies:

Setting	Default	Page
The explorer is on the	Left	The explorer
Wrap long lines	off	Editing
Indent new lines with	4 spaces	Editing
Open files in	Claudette’s editor	Opening files from the conversation
Show a file clicked in a conversation	Beside the conversation	Opening files from the conversation

Shortcuts

Key	Does
Ctrl/Cmd+P	Go to file, which you can rebind in Settings → Keyboard

The editor’s own keys are on the pages that use them and in Keyboard shortcuts.

See also

• Changed files lists what Claude changed in one session, without opening a Files tab.