Claude Projects: Parallel Sessions in One Chat

A Claude Code project is an ongoing conversation between you and Claude, who serves as the project manager. When you give Claude a task, it spins up a thread to complete that task. Threads are cloud sessions that run in the background on branches of a GitHub repo. Once a thread completes, it will notify the project conversation, and you can have multiple threads going simultaneously.

Right now, Projects is available in public beta for Pro, Max, and Ultra users. We’ll be rolling out Projects slowly, starting with users who’ve previously used cloud sessions but don’t have any projects set up on claude.ai. If you don’t see “Projects” in your sidebar at claude.ai/code, sign up for the waitlist here: claude.com/form/projects

1When a project is the right tool

A project should be created if there is a task with a repeated process that will span multiple days/weeks. For example, if you want to make a change across multiple GitHub repos, you can create a project and Claude will open up a thread for each repo (you can see what PRs are waiting for review in the Overview pane). Or, if you have a list of bugs coming in, you can set a rule for how you want Claude to handle the first bug (and it will apply to subsequent bugs).

You can also use projects for non-coding tasks. For example, if you have a directory of docs (e.g., customer support cases or legal contracts), you can drop this into Claude and it will process the files in parallel threads. The output will appear in the Library tab of the project (one item per file).

2When a regular session fits better

When there are resources (tools/services) that need to be accessed locally, then use local sessions. If you have a task that can be completed within a session, it’s easier to manage if you open up a cloud session. Also, if it’s a recurring task that doesn’t require any communication, then use a Scheduled Task instead of a Project.

3What you need before creating a project

Before you can make a project, there are a couple requirements. First, you need to be on the Pro, Max, or Ultra plan, and secondly, you should see “Projects” listed in the sidebar at claude.ai/code. Lastly, your repositories need to be hosted on github.com instead of GitHub Enterprise or GitLab, and you need to install the Claude GitHub App on those repositories. Note that this is different than any GitHub token you may have set up via /web-setup; make sure to double check!

4How to create your first project

On claude.ai/code, click Projects in the left sidebar, then click New project. Enter a name for your project (and optionally a short description of your goal, and the github repos/files you’re working with), then click Create. You only need to enter a name; you can come back later to edit the project’s settings to include the github repos/files you want to work with. Alternatively, on the desktop app this can be found under Code, or on the mobile app it’s accessible via the top navigation.

Alternatively, if you have an active cloud session that you’d like to use for your project, simply open up the session menu and select Continue in project > Continue as new project. Claude will suggest a project configuration based on your current session.

5The Overview pane

In the Overview section, you can see an overview of all threads with their current status. Active threads are displayed together, waiting threads are displayed together, and you can respond to them in the project chat. In the Pull requests tab, you can find all pull requests created by the threads. Files added by you or generated by the threads are displayed in the Library tab. If there’s something you need your project to do periodically, it can be scheduled via the Scheduled tasks tab.