The explorer

The explorer is the tree of the project’s folders and files at the side of a Files tab. It marks the files Claude changed, and it keeps up with the disk.

The header

The header has the group’s name, then:

New file, a page with a plus (New files and folders);
Find file, a magnifier, which is Ctrl/Cmd+P (Finding a file by name);
Collapse all;
⋯, which has New folder, Find in files… and Replace in files… in the whole project (Finding in files), Show only changed files, Claude’s changes and Against git HEAD (in a repository), Move to the right (or Move to the left) and Refresh.

The tree

Folders come first, then files, each by name, ignoring case. A folder’s entries are read when you expand it.
.git isn’t shown.
What git ignores is shown dimmed. Outside a repository, the folders the composer’s @ list skips (node_modules, bin, obj and the like) are dimmed instead. To leave them out of the tree altogether, set Settings → Git → Files git ignores to Hidden; the open Files tabs follow at once.
A link to a folder has a link badge and expands like a folder, unless it leads back up into the tree.
It follows the disk. Half a second after files appear, go or are renamed, the tree is drawn again, keeping what’s expanded and selected.

Opening a file

A click opens the file in the preview tab, a double-click or Enter opens it to stay (File tabs). An image’s double-click, Enter or Open shows it in Claudette’s image window instead, as Settings → Files and diffs → Open images in says (Images).
The arrow keys move without opening anything. Right and Left expand and collapse a folder.

Claude’s changes in the tree

A file Claude changed has a letter at its right: M for modified, A for one Claude created. A reviewed file’s letter is faint.
A folder holding a changed file has a dot.
Show only changed files lists just those files, plus the ones Claude deleted, struck through. Opening a deleted file shows its diff. With nothing changed, it says Nothing has changed.

How the changes are worked out, and Claude’s changes against Against git HEAD, are on Claude’s changes in the editor.

New files and folders

Choose where it goes:
- right-click a folder and choose New file or New folder to make it in that folder;
- right-click a file for the same, to make it beside the file;
- right-click the empty space under the tree to make it at the top of the project;
- or use the header’s New file, or ⋯ → New folder: they go in the selected folder, beside the selected file, or at the top of the project when nothing is selected.
The folder opens, and a box for the name appears at the top of it. Type the name. Slashes make folders on the way: AI/Brain.cpp makes the AI folder and the file in it.
Press Enter.

A new file is empty and opens to stay, ready to type in. A new folder is selected in the tree.

Esc, or a click elsewhere, closes the box without making anything, and so does Enter with the box empty.

As you type, the line under the box says if the name can’t be used, and Enter keeps the box until it can: a file or folder with that name is already there, the name is . or .., or it has a character your system doesn’t allow in names. On Windows, that’s < > : " | ? *, a name ending in a space or a dot, and the names Windows keeps for itself, such as CON, NUL and COM1.

Claudette never writes over a file. If one with the name appears while you type, it stays as it is and the box says so.

Renaming

New in the next release

Right-click a file or folder and choose Rename, or select it and press F2.
A box takes its place with its name in it. For a file, the name up to its extension is selected, so what you type keeps the extension.
Type the new name and press Enter.

Esc, or a click elsewhere, leaves the name as it was. The line under the box says when a name can’t be used, as it does for a new file. A rename keeps it in its folder, so the name can’t have a slash. Changing only the case, brain.cpp to Brain.cpp, works too.

Files you have open from it follow it, with any unsaved edits. A folder that was expanded stays expanded.

Claudette renames it on disk, as your file manager would. Git notices the rename by itself. Perforce needs p4 reconcile, or Reconcile Offline Work in P4V.

Deleting

New in the next release

Right-click a file or folder and choose Delete, or select it and press Delete (Cmd+Backspace on macOS).
A question under the explorer’s header says what goes and where: “Delete Brain.cpp? It goes to the Recycle Bin.” For a folder, it says how many files are in it. If a file open from it has unsaved edits, it says those go too.
Choose Delete, or press Enter. Cancel, or Esc, keeps it.

It goes to the Recycle Bin on Windows, the Trash on macOS, or your desktop’s trash on Linux, so you can put it back from there. On Linux that needs gio, which comes with GLib’s tools (libglib2.0-bin on Debian and Ubuntu).

Where it can’t go to the trash, such as on a network share, nothing is deleted yet. The question says so and why, and offers Delete permanently, which can’t be put back.

Files you had open from it close, and the next row in the tree is selected.

Menus

Right-click a file for Open, Open in the OS’s app, Open diff (when Claude changed it), New file, New folder, Copy path, Copy relative path, Reveal in file manager, Rename and Delete.

On a program or shortcut that isn’t text (.exe, .lnk, .app, .desktop), Open in the OS’s app shows it in its folder rather than running it.

Right-click a folder for New file, New folder, Copy path, Copy relative path, Reveal in file manager, Collapse, Find in folder…, Replace in folder… (Finding in files), Rename and Delete.

Right-click the empty space under the tree for New file and New folder, at the top of the project, and Find in files… and Replace in files….

In a Perforce workspace, a file’s and a folder’s menus also have a Perforce section, Check out, Mark for add, Mark for delete, Revert and Diff against the depot, and the tree marks what Perforce has open, such as edit beside a file you’ve checked out. Renaming, deleting and new files are opened in Perforce too. See Perforce.

Reveal in file manager opens Explorer on Windows, Finder on macOS and your file manager on Linux.

Its side and its width

The explorer is on the left by default. Settings → Files and diffs → The explorer is on the has Left and Right, and Move to the right (or Move to the left) in the explorer’s ⋯ menu changes the same setting.
Drag the explorer’s edge to make it wider or narrower: at least 180 pixels, 260 by default. A double-click on the edge goes back to that. The width is the same for every Files tab, and Claudette remembers it.
In a narrow pane, the explorer narrows first, to leave the editor 360 pixels, down to its own least. Only then does the editor narrow.

Hiding it

The button at the start of the file tabs’ row, with the tip Hide the explorer or Show the explorer, hides and shows the explorer. Claudette remembers which. The command palette has the same command, and Show only changed files, while a Files tab has the focus.

A Files tab that a conversation opened beside it for its first file starts with its explorer hidden (Opening files from the conversation).

Opening the Files tab from its group, with the Project files button or Open project files, always shows the explorer (Opening project files).

Settings

Setting	Default	Where
The explorer is on the	Left	Settings → Files and diffs
Files git ignores	Dimmed	Settings → Git

Shortcuts

Key	Does
`Ctrl/Cmd+P`	Find a file by name
`Up`, `Down`	Move through the tree
`Right`, `Left`	Expand or collapse a folder
`Enter`	Open the file to stay; in a new file’s or folder’s box, make it; in a rename’s box, rename it
`Esc`	In a new file’s or folder’s box, or a rename’s, close it without making or renaming anything; in the delete question, keep it
`F2`	Rename the selected file or folder
`Delete` (`Cmd+Backspace` on macOS)	Delete the selected file or folder, asking first