Command reference · Claude Code

/btw

Asks a quick side question without adding it to the main conversation.

/btw asks a brief side question about the ongoing work without adding it to the conversation history. The question and answer appear in their own dismissible overlay and don't affect the main context. Claude sees the entire conversation so far, but has no tool access for the answer - reading files, running commands, or searching isn't possible during a side question; the answer relies only on what's already in the context. /btw also works while Claude is still working on the main answer, running independently of it. Without a question, the command reopens the overlay of the session's last side question, which can be paged through with the arrow keys (since version 2.1.212; before that, /btw always required a question). Pressing f can branch an answer into its own session with full tool access if needed. This makes /btw the counterpart to a subagent: full conversation context but no tools - a subagent has full tools but an empty context.