Claude Code Adds Session Forking to Remote Control
Claude CodeClaude Code 2.1.273 let users fork a session started with claude --remote-control or /remote-control directly from the Claude app, with the fork running as a background session on the same computer as the original. Remote Control lets a user watch and interact with a Claude Code session running on their own machine from claude.ai or the Claude app, and forking has long let a user branch a parallel line of work off an existing conversation. Bringing the two together means a user monitoring a session remotely, from a phone or another device, can now spin off a background fork without returning to the original machine.
Key Takeaways
- Forking is now reachable from a Remote Control client, closing a gap where
/forkpreviously required being at the original machine's terminal or IDE. - The fork still runs on the original computer, as a background session, not on the remote device, keeping code execution and file access local to the machine that started it.
- This benefits users who monitor long sessions from their phone or another device, letting them branch parallel work without walking back to their desk.
- The feature shipped in Claude Code 2.1.273, released September 15, 2026, alongside a cluster of permission and policy fixes in the same release.
- It builds on two existing, separately mature features: Remote Control (cross-device session access) and
/fork(background conversation branching). - No independent coverage exists yet, consistent with the feature having shipped one day before this aggregation run.
Forking Now Works From a Remote Control Client
Claude Code's Remote Control feature connects a session on claude.ai or in the Claude app to a Claude Code process running on a user's own computer, letting that user check in on, and act on, a running session from another device. Separately, /fork has let users branch a copy of a conversation into a new session that continues independently in the background.
Version 2.1.273, released September 15, 2026, joins the two: a session that was started with claude --remote-control or with /remote-control can now be forked from the Claude app itself, and the resulting fork runs as a background session on the computer the original session lives on. In practice, this means a user watching a long Claude Code session from their phone can branch off a new line of work, for example to try an alternative approach or investigate a side issue, without needing to sit back down at the original machine to type /fork.