--- title: Claude Code desktop app rebuilt from the ground up description: Anthropic has shipped a major redesign of the Claude Code desktop app, merging Claude Chat, Cowork, and Code into one interface. Key additions include an... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-desktop-app-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up-oimfvtyqx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Claude Code desktop app rebuilt from the ground up | daily.dev og:description: Anthropic has shipped a major redesign of the Claude Code desktop app, merging Claude Chat, Cowork, and Code into one interface. Key additions include an... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-desktop-app-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up-oimfvtyqx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/OiMfVTyQX.png og:image:alt: Claude Code desktop app rebuilt from the ground up og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Claude Code desktop app rebuilt from the ground up **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 5 min read · 2 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Anthropic has shipped a major redesign of the Claude Code desktop app, merging Claude Chat, Cowork, and Code into one interface. Key additions include an integrated terminal, side chat, improved diff viewer, in-app file editor, rearrangeable panes, and a Routines feature for scheduling automated coding workflows via cloud infrastructure or GitHub webhooks. Early users report lower RAM usage and better usability compared to the CLI. However, the app has notable issues: broken hotkeys, image paste bugs, non-persistent permission settings, and aggressive rate limits that are pushing some developers toward Gemini. Cross-device continuity between desktop and mobile remains awkward. Despite the rough edges, the desktop app is considered a worthwhile upgrade for existing CLI users, especially for teams wanting automated code review without managing their own infrastructure. ## Content # Claude Code desktop app redesign: what's new, what's broken, and what's worth using Anthropic has shipped a significant redesign of the Claude Code desktop app, consolidating Claude Chat, Cowork, and Code into a single interface with a pile of new features. Here's what actually changed, what people are building with it, and where it still falls short. ## What's new in the redesigned app The biggest structural addition is an **integrated terminal** — previously absent, which was a strange omission for a coding tool. Alongside that: - **Side chat** lets you query context without interrupting an active agent session - **Improved diff viewer** rebuilt for larger changesets - **In-app file editor** so you're not constantly jumping to an external editor - **Rearrangeable panes** — Preview, Plan, Diff, Tasks, and Terminal can be arranged however you want - **Mode switcher** moved to the sidebar - **Streamed responses** for better performance and reliability - **Sessions organized by project** in the sidebar, so you can pin important ones and switch between them quickly The app also ships with **Routines**, a separate feature that lets you schedule automated coding workflows — nightly commit reviews, PR triage, documentation drift scanning — running on Claude's cloud infrastructure rather than a local cron job. It can also trigger from GitHub webhooks or API calls, which positions it more as a persistent background agent than a one-off tool. A smaller but useful addition: **deep links** via `claude://` URLs let you pre-fill new Chat, Cowork, or Code sessions from other apps or workflows. For hardware makers, there's also a **Bluetooth Low Energy API** that lets you build physical devices that interact with Claude. One developer built an ESP32 desk pet that wakes up when a session starts, shows impatience when approval prompts are pending, and lets you approve or deny actions directly from the device. ## What people are actually doing with it The consensus among early users is that the desktop app is now the better way to use Claude Code compared to the CLI — lower RAM usage, split-view tiling, worktree support, and the integrated terminal make it more practical for real development work. A few workflows worth noting: - **Parallel sessions**: start a session in each of your projects so they're all listed in the sidebar, then watch the agent work via the open Tasks and Plan panes - **Nightly routines**: set up a routine to review recent commits every night and flag potential bugs - **iOS simulator integration**: at least one developer has embedded a built-in iOS simulator directly in the app for mobile development - **Cowork for file admin**: the CLAUDE.md file system persists per-folder rules across sessions, making it useful for repetitive local file organization without re-explaining context each time One Anthropic team member noted they've largely stopped opening other apps or their terminal for most work, using Cowork and Code together. ## The problems Not everyone is impressed. A detailed critical review documented a range of UX bugs: broken hotkeys, image paste issues, permission settings not persisting between sessions, broken diff views, and poor project navigation. The verdict from that review was that the app is under-QA'd and still behind competitors like Codex CLI and T3 Chat in polish. There's also a broader frustration with **rate limits**. Claude Sonnet is widely considered the better model for Python and complex coding tasks, but the session and usage limits on both free and paid tiers are aggressive enough that some developers have switched to Gemini for uninterrupted sessions — even though Gemini requires more fine-tuning and lacks some Claude Code features. Raw capability doesn't matter much when you're hitting a wall mid-session. One developer pointed out that switching to the desktop app broke their Telegram integration, and cross-device continuity between desktop and mobile remains awkward — you can't easily pick up a Claude Code session on mobile without manual workarounds. There's also a pointed observation circulating that the desktop team doesn't appear to use their own product, which would explain some of the rougher edges. ## The broader picture At Anthropic's Code with Claude event in London, nearly half the attendees said they'd shipped pull requests written entirely by Claude without reading the code. Anthropic is pushing toward full automation — including a "dreaming" feature where agents share notes and learn from past tasks on a codebase. Their own engineering leads acknowledged that best practices are being skipped and that technical managers are struggling to keep up with the volume of AI-generated code. The desktop app redesign fits that direction. More automation, more background agents, less friction between you and shipping. Whether that's exciting or unsettling probably depends on how much you trust the output — and right now, the QA on the app itself gives some reason for pause. ## Worth trying? If you're already using Claude Code via CLI, the desktop app is worth switching to — the integrated terminal and rearrangeable panes alone make it more usable. Routines are genuinely interesting for teams that want automated code review without managing their own infrastructure. Just go in expecting some rough edges. The feature list is real, but so are the bugs. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Redesigning Claude Code on desktop for parallel agents](https://daily.dev/posts/redesigning-claude-code-on-desktop-for-parallel-agents-xhvhygqlj) · Claude · 28 upvotes · 4 comments --- Tags: [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic), [#claude-code](https://daily.dev/tags/claude-code), [#ai-assisted-development](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-assisted-development) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-desktop-app-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up-oimfvtyqx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Claude Code desktop app rebuilt from the ground up","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-desktop-app-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up-oimfvtyqx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-desktop-app-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up-oimfvtyqx"},"datePublished":"2026-04-14T19:13:18.443Z","dateModified":"2026-05-21T14:53:51.172Z","description":"Anthropic has shipped a major redesign of the Claude Code desktop app, merging Claude Chat, Cowork, and Code into one interface. 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