side-chat

Ask Claude a side question without adding it to the main conversation.

Halfway through a task you want to know what a flag does, or why Claude chose one approach over another. Ask in the main prompt and the question and its answer become part of the conversation Claude works from. side-chat opens a pane next to your work instead. The answer comes from a fork of your session, so it knows what you have been doing, and nothing you ask there reaches the main thread.

The same pane takes /btw @name your question, which sends the question to one of your agents and shows its answer when it finishes.

It works like the side chat in the Claude desktop app. This is an independent mod, not made by Anthropic.

The pane in a VS Code terminal on macOS. Your question sits above the divider, Claude's answer below it, and the input at the bottom takes the next question.

Read this before installing: while side-chat is enabled, /btw opens this pane instead of the built-in one. Disable the plugin to get the built-in /btw back.

What it does

• /btw and /side both open the pane. Type in it, or ask from the main prompt with /btw your question or /side your question.
• Answers come from a fork of your current session, so the side chat knows your conversation and your CLAUDE.md files. It uses no tools and never changes the main thread.
• Earlier questions and answers stay in the pane while the session runs. Scroll for older ones.
• /btw @nahida your question starts one of your agents in the background and shows its final answer in the pane. Each call starts a fresh agent. /model haiku|sonnet|opus|default picks the model those agents use.
• A normal question is also told which agents are running in the session, so "what are my agents doing?" gets a real answer.
• In the pane, type /clear to wipe it and /close to hide it. Esc goes back to the main prompt.

Requirements

Claude Code with plugin function hooks (mods). Tested on 2.1.289, where the mod loads with no extra setting: I ran it from a clean checkout with CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_FUNCTION_HOOKS unset and /side clear answered. Builds around 2.1.270 needed CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_FUNCTION_HOOKS=1 before any mod would load, so if /btw does nothing on an older build, set that and restart. Function hooks are early access and the API changes between releases.

Install

/plugin marketplace add varunmoka7/side-chat
/plugin install side-chat@side-chat

Settings

Open /config and look for side-chat: your text color, Claude's text color, your own instructions for the side chat, whether the pane takes the keyboard when it opens, and the default model for agent calls.

What is not verified

This was built and tested inside one Claude Code setup (VS Code terminal, macOS). The unit tests pass, but some parts have not been seen working live:

• Answers from @agent calls arriving in the pane, and the model switch.
• The Clear and Close buttons. Clicks did not reach them in the terminal I tested in, so they are also reachable with Tab and Enter, and by typing /clear and /close.
• Pasted or dropped screenshots. The side chat takes text only.

An agent started with @name runs with that agent's own tools and your session's permission mode. It can edit files if you ask it to.

Similar mods

JayDoubleu/aside is the same idea, a read-only side chat answered by a fork of the session, with its own /aside command and a cost footer on each answer. side-chat adds the /btw takeover, @agent calls, running-agent context, a model switch and color settings.

Tests

claude plugin test .

MIT license.