Claude Code Update Adds /btw Feature : Side Thread, Lowers Token Spend
TL;DR
Anthropic has added the /btw slash command to Claude Code, giving users a structured way to handle parallel tasks within a single session.
Key Points
- The name stands for 'by the way' – it opens a side thread without losing the main conversation context.
- Practical use case: debugging code while referencing related docs in the same thread, without blowing up the context stack.
- Because no new session context is loaded, token consumption drops noticeably during multitasking workflows.
Nauti's Take
A small feature with real leverage: anyone working with Claude Code daily knows the frustration of sacrificing the entire main context just to ask a quick side question. /btw solves that pragmatically.
Worth noting: coverage here leans heavily on a single creator (Nick Saraev) – official Anthropic data on actual token savings is still missing. Still, the direction is clearly sound: context management is becoming a genuine differentiator for coding assistants, and Anthropic is steering into that deliberately.
Video
Sources