Claude Code lets you side-chat while tasks run

Waiting for an AI agent to finish a long coding task usually means staring at the terminal and praying you don't break its focus if you want to ask a quick question.

Talk while it works

Claude Code just rolled out a new /btw command that lets you spin up parallel side conversations while background tasks keep running.

Instead of pausing or canceling an ongoing automated process, developers can now trigger /btw to ask quick questions, clarify requirements, or explore other topics without touching the main execution pipeline.

It essentially turns Claude Code into a multitasker, keeping the conversation going without losing momentum on heavy workloads.

Why it matters

Command-line tools have always struggled with single-threaded bottlenecks. When an agent is deep in a multi-step code refactor, you either wait it out or kill the process to say something new.

We think this tiny addition is surprisingly smart. It mirrors how human collaboration actually works: you can casually toss a question at a coworker while they keep typing away. For developers using Claude Code on real-world projects, it removes friction from long-running tasks and makes the tool feel less like a rigid script and more like a fluid coworker.