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Claude Code VS Code Extension Adds Bookmarks, Question History and Option Previews

Claude CodeView original changelog

Claude Code 2.1.286 adds four conversation features to its VS Code extension: bookmarks for saving Claude's responses, a record of the questions Claude asks and the answers given, option previews on question cards, and expandable rows showing the terminal output, browser tabs and selected code sent with a message. The release also changes Stop and Escape in VS Code so they end only the current turn while background agents keep running.

Key Takeaways

  • Bookmarks let developers save Claude's responses and keep them in a dedicated side panel in the VS Code extension.
  • A new Questions row records each question Claude asked and the answers chosen, so decisions stay visible in the conversation.
  • Option previews on question cards show a mockup or snippet for the highlighted choice, making design and implementation choices easier.
  • Messages gain expandable context rows for terminal output, browser tabs, browser instructions and selected code sent with them.
  • Stop and Escape now end only the current turn, so background agents keep running unless stopped individually from the agent map.
  • The Claude Code status bar item now shows in every window, so Claude can be opened even when no file is open.

Bookmarks keep important answers in view

Claude Code 2.1.286 adds bookmarks to the VS Code extension. A reply from Claude can be saved and then pinned in a dedicated Bookmarks side panel, so a long-running session no longer buries the one explanation, command or plan a developer wants to come back to. Instead of scrolling through a lengthy conversation or copying text into a scratch file, the bookmarked response stays one click away while work continues in the editor.

Questions and answers become part of the conversation

When Claude stops to ask a question through a question card, the extension now records what happened. After the card is answered, a Questions row in the conversation lists each question together with the choices that were picked. This makes it easier to review, later in a session, why Claude took a particular direction, and it keeps decisions visible when a conversation is reopened or shared with a teammate.

Question cards themselves also improve. The highlighted option can now show a preview, such as a mockup or a code snippet, beside or under the list of options. Choosing between two designs or two implementations no longer relies on a short label alone, because the content of each choice can be seen before committing to it.

See what was attached to a message

Messages in the chat panel can now carry rows that expand to show the context sent along with them. These rows open to the terminal output, browser tab, browser instructions and selected code that accompanied the prompt, so it is clear exactly what Claude received.

Stop and Escape no longer kill background agents

A behavior change affects anyone who runs background agents from VS Code. Stop and Escape now end only the current turn. Background agents keep running and can be stopped one at a time from the agent map. Previously, interrupting a turn could be mistaken for stopping everything, so the new behavior reduces accidental loss of parallel work. The status bar item labelled Claude Code also now appears in every window, so Claude can be opened even when no file is open.

Smaller fixes

The release also fixes a second copy of a conversation opening in a tab when it was already open in the side bar, an endless "Teleporting session" spinner when the extension stops responding, and settings dialogs that reported a failed save when Claude Code printed more than 1 MB of output.