How to activate Plan Mode in Claude Code
Activate Claude Code Plan Mode with Shift+Tab, /plan, or claude --permission-mode plan, then review the proposed plan before edits.
Quick answer
To activate Plan Mode in Claude Code, press Shift+Tab before sending your prompt. For one prompt, prefix it with /plan. To start the whole session in plan mode, run claude --permission-mode plan.
How to use it
Ask for the task, let Claude inspect files and commands, review the proposed steps, then approve, keep planning with feedback or leave Plan Mode before edits start.
When it is worth it
Use Plan Mode for non-trivial tasks with three or more steps, architectural decisions, migrations, auth changes, refactors and unfamiliar code paths.
FAQ
How do I enable Plan Mode in Claude Code?
Press Shift+Tab, prefix a single prompt with /plan, or start Claude Code with claude --permission-mode plan.
What is Plan Mode for?
It lets Claude research and propose a plan without editing files until you approve the plan.
Read the Plan Mode guide
Related guides
Claude Code Plan Mode: A Practical Guide
Claude Code Plan Mode lets you review and steer a task plan before any file is touched. Full guide: shortcut (Shift+Tab), activation, when to use it, and how to execute the plan.
Most people use Claude Code like a chat: describe the task, watch it execute. That works for small changes. For anything touching more than two files, there's a better path. If you are looking for the shortcut, press Shift+Tab to toggle Plan Mode. To turn it off, press Shift+Tab again or use /plan only for the prompt that needs planning. The dedicated Plan Mode troubleshooting guide covers the common terminal and version issues. Plan Mode. What Plan Mode does When you activate Plan Mode, Claude reads your codebase and produces a step by step execution plan but makes no changes. You see exactly what it intends to do before a single file is written. This gives you a checkpoint: approve the plan, redirect it, or catch a wrong assumption before it cascades into 15 wrong edits. How to activate Plan Mode the shortcut Two ways: Keyboard shortcut : press Shift+Tab…
Read the guideCLAUDE.md: A Guide for Every Developer
One markdown file that makes AI coding assistants actually understand your codebase. Here's what to put in it.
There's a reason Claude Code writes great code in some projects and generic boilerplate in others. It's not the model. It's CLAUDE.md . It is one part of my Claude Code workflow: project conventions reduce guesswork, but they do not guarantee a speedup or remove the need to review the change. What it is CLAUDE.md is a plain markdown file that Claude Code reads at the start of every session. Think of it as the onboarding doc you'd give a senior contractor on day one: stack, conventions, rules, context. Without it, Claude infers patterns from what it sees in the codebase. Sometimes it infers correctly. Often it doesn't especially for implicit conventions your team just "knows". With a good CLAUDE.md , Claude outputs code that follows your rules without being told each time. What to put in it 1. Stack and versions Simple but important. Claude will use the right…
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