---
title: Desktop feature map
nav_title: Feature map
description: Everything the desktop app can do, on one screen, with a link to each page.
order: 0
---

# Desktop feature map

The desktop app puts "talking to Claude" and "seeing what it actually changed" in the same window: projects and history on the left, the conversation in the middle, files, diffs, and a browser preview one click away on the right.

This page is a map, not a manual. One line per feature — click through for the details. If you haven't installed it or connected a model yet, start with [Get started](../start/index.md).

## Three places to know

- **Sidebar** — under the brand seal: New session, Scheduled, Skills Market. Below that, the search bar and your projects and past sessions. Settings sits at the bottom. Drag the edge to resize it.
- **Tab bar** — sessions side by side, switched like browser tabs. The four buttons on the right are Activity, Open project, Open terminal, and Show/hide workspace.
- **Composer toolbar** — left to right: attachments, permission mode, launch location, context usage ring, model and effort, and the run button.

## What you'll use daily

- [Sessions, permissions, and review](./sessions.md) — starting a session, reading tool cards, answering permission prompts, undoing a turn that went wrong.
- [Workspace](./workspace.md) — the right-hand panel: changed files, diff review, line comments, isolated worktrees, built-in browser.
- [Settings reference](./settings.md) — all 16 tabs, one paragraph each: themes, languages, proxy, terminal, MCP, token usage.

## Getting more work out of it

- [Subagents](./agents.md) — when to delegate, which agents ship built in, how to write your own.
- [Skills and the Skills Market](./skills.md) — what a skill is, how it differs from an agent, what to check before installing one.
- [Scheduled tasks](./schedule.md) — have Claude review yesterday's commits every morning.
- [Computer Use](./computer-use.md) — let it read the screen, move the mouse, and type into other apps.

## Continuing somewhere else

- [Phone (H5) and IM](./remote.md) — scan a QR code to continue the same session in your phone's browser, or chat from WeChat, Feishu, or Telegram.
- [IM integrations](../im/index.md) — full setup steps for each of the five platforms.

## Making it yours

- [Desktop pet](./pets.md) — a little robot that floats on your desktop and shows you how the current task is going. Off by default.

## Curious how it works inside

The pages above cover usage. For architecture and source, start at the [architecture overview](../internals/index.md); the desktop process boundaries are in [Desktop Architecture](../internals/desktop.md).