The composer

The composer is the input area at the bottom of a Chat pane: the prompt, and under it a toolbar with everything that shapes the next turn. From left to right the toolbar holds Add (+), the microphone, the sub-agent, queue and Remote Control chips while they have something to show, the editor-context chip, then the model button, the permission button and the context gauge.

Writing and sending

• Multi-line prompt with Send/Stop, Enter-to-send (or Ctrl+Enter, configurable), Shift+Enter for a newline. The placeholder names the keys in force, and so does the send button’s tooltip.
• Write while it is still answering: the message is held until the turn ends, then sent. Its bubble appears straight away, greyed out so it does not read as already sent, and drops into place below the reply it was waiting on, so each answer stays under the question that prompted it. A chip in the composer’s toolbar lists what is still waiting and takes one back out, without stopping the turn to do it; see Messages waiting to be sent.
• Notices appear above the prompt: rate limits, a refused attachment, a turn that ended without an answer. See The conversation.

Prompt history

↑ and ↓ recall previous prompts, shell-style. ↑ recalls only when the caret is on the first line of the prompt and ↓ only from the last, so the arrows still move inside a multi-line draft. The draft you were writing comes back when you go past the newest entry. History is per session, seeded from the session you opened, and a prompt sent twice in a row is stored once.

The slash palette

Typing / opens the palette and filters it as you type: at the start of any word, not only at the start of the prompt. With the mouse: the Add (+) button at the left of the toolbar, then Slash command, which opens the same list with a search box.

The filter is fuzzy, over each entry’s name, its aliases and its description; a row’s tooltip lists its aliases, which is why typing /rewind or /rc finds entries that are not called that. ↑/↓ and PageUp/PageDown move, Enter or Tab picks, Esc closes. Switches and sliders act in place and keep the menu open.

Section	Entries
Context	Attach file…, Mention file from this project…, Clear conversation, New conversation (a new pane), Resume conversation… (the session list), Rewind files… (hidden when checkpoints are off), Remote Control (a switch)
Model	Switch model…, Effort, Ultracode, Switch permission mode…, Thinking, Fast mode, Switch models when a message is flagged, Account & usage…, Context usage…, Statistics…
Customize	Manage plugins, Open Claude in Terminal
Slash Commands	the CLI’s own commands and skills, each with its argument hint
Settings	View mode (a slider: Full, Focus, Hide tools), /vm:full, /vm:focus and /vm:hide (one mode each, see View mode), Enable Remote Control for all sessions, Settings…
Support	View help docs, Report a problem

Three rules worth knowing:

• Picking a CLI command from the list sends it at once, with no arguments. To pass arguments, type the whole line (/review 123) and press Enter: the list closes at the first space.
• A message starting with / never carries the editor context.
• /clear and /compact picked while a turn runs are sent immediately rather than queued.

Mentions and attachments

• @ mentions: inline file picker over the whole project tree: no depth limit, and the filter matches the path, not just the file name, so ui/comp narrows before you type a name. It lists folders too: picking one inserts @folder/. A path with a space is written @"…". Honours .gitignore, your own ignore patterns, and git’s core.excludesFile.
• Attachments: Add (+) → Attach a file…, drop files on the composer (from Explorer too; a dropped folder is skipped), or paste, files as well as image data. They become removable chips; clicking a chip before sending previews it. Images are sent as images, PDFs as documents, the rest as text.
• A file whose extension is not allowed is refused with Unsupported file types: … and an Open settings button; the list is Allowed upload file extensions in Options → Chat.

The file open in the editor is attached by itself, as a chip: see Editor context.

Model, effort and thinking

The model button names the model and its effort level. Click it for the list (Select a model); models your account cannot use are listed greyed out. Default follows Claude Code’s own recommendation. Under the list:

• the Effort slider, with the levels the current model offers (Low, Medium, High, Extra high, Max);
• Ultracode, where the model supports it: dynamic workflows on every task, for this session only.

A model with no effort levels shows neither.

Picking another model mid-conversation posts a Switched to … line in the transcript.

Three more switches are not in the model list: they are in the / menu. Type / in the composer and scroll to the Model section, under Context:

Switch	What it does	Listed when
Thinking	extended reasoning before answering	the current model supports it
Fast mode	faster responses	the current model supports it; on a model that does not, the entry is missing altogether
Switch models when a message is flagged	switch model when safety flags a message, instead of pausing the session	always

The same section repeats Switch model…, Effort and Ultracode, and adds Switch permission mode…. So if you look for Fast mode and do not find it, it is not hidden somewhere else: the model you are on does not offer it.

Model, permission mode and interrupt change on the live process, never a restart.

Permission mode

Shift+Tab cycles it, and while the composer has focus its border takes the mode’s colour, so the change is visible where you are already looking. The modes and what each one asks are in Permissions.

Keyboard

Key	Does
Enter	send; with Use Ctrl+Enter to send on, a newline
Ctrl+Enter	send, with Use Ctrl+Enter to send on
Shift+Enter	newline
Alt+Enter	join this message to the last queued one; needs a running turn and something queued, otherwise a newline
↑ / ↓	previous and next prompt (from the first and last line); move in an open list
PageUp / PageDown	a page at a time in an open list
Tab	in an open list, pick the highlighted entry, like Enter
Shift+Tab	cycle the permission mode
Home / End	start and end of the line; with Ctrl, of the whole text. Outside a text field they scroll the conversation to its top or bottom
Ctrl+F	the chat’s own find bar, not Visual Studio’s Find
Esc	close what is open (a list, the edit of a queued message); on an approval prompt it answers No, on a question it cancels it; it stops the turn only when nothing is open

The keys of the approval prompt are in Permissions.

Voice input

Dictate the prompt instead of typing it: a mic button in the composer transcribes as you speak (Web Speech API). The mic pulses while recording, and is hidden when the platform doesn’t support it. Dictation uses the browser’s language and inserts at the caret, keeping the text on both sides.

Related options

Use Ctrl+Enter to send, Spell check in the composer, Send the selected text with the message and the @ picker’s ignore rules are under Options → Chat.