Claude Code Plan Mode: Shortcut, Approval and When to Use It

What is plan mode in Claude Code?

Plan mode is one of Claude Code's permission modes: settings that decide what Claude may do without asking you. While it is on, Claude can read and search your files, look things up, run commands that only look (such as listing a folder), and ask you multiple-choice questions. For bigger projects it hands the reading to a built-in research helper, so the main conversation stays short.

If you searched for Claude plan mode, this is the feature you mean: it lives in Claude Code, not in the Claude chat app.

Commands that would change something are blocked or checked: a background safety check reviews them when auto mode is available, otherwise Claude asks first.

How to turn on plan mode in Claude Code

The Claude Code plan mode shortcut is Shift+Tab, which moves through the permission modes in a fixed order. New terminal sessions start in Auto, so it takes three presses: ⏵⏵ auto mode on becomes ⏸ manual mode on, then ⏵⏵ accept edits on, then ⏸ plan mode on (shift+tab to cycle). A fourth press brings you back to Auto.

One catch we hit: /plan with a task only works when it switches you into plan mode. Typed while you're already in plan mode, it replies "Already in plan mode. No plan written yet." and the task goes nowhere, so just type the request.

To start a session in plan mode straight from your project folder:

$ cd ~/Desktop/my-project
$ claude --permission-mode plan
$ 

The same command works in PowerShell on Windows.

In the desktop app, VS Code and JetBrains

• Claude desktop app (Code tab): pick Plan in the mode selector under the prompt box, or press Cmd+Shift+M (Ctrl+Shift+M on Windows) to open the mode menu. Shift+Tab doesn't switch modes there, and Plan lasts only for the current session, while the other modes are remembered per folder. Once there is a plan, a Plan pane is listed in the ⋮ menu of the session's title bar.
• VS Code: click the mode indicator at the bottom of the prompt box and choose Plan, or type /plan. The plan opens as a full Markdown document where you can add comments before Claude starts.
• JetBrains: Claude Code runs in the IDE's terminal, so Shift+Tab works exactly as above.

How to use Claude Code plan mode, step by step

Here is how to use Claude Code plan mode on a real job. Harbor Plumbing, our made-up demo business, has a quote calculator: one HTML file plus a price list with rules, such as a 50% emergency surcharge on labor and parts at cost plus 15%. We asked for a printable customer quote, the kind of change to a working tool where a plan pays off.

This is the brief we sent, with the details made general so you can reuse it:

Add [WHAT YOU WANT] to [YOUR FILE OR PAGE]. It needs [EVERYTHING THAT MUST BE ON IT]. Keep [THE PART THAT WORKS TODAY] working exactly as it does today. Ask me what you need to know before you write the plan.

The last sentence matters. In our first run, without it, Claude asked nothing and showed a plan after about 37 seconds; with it, four questions came first.

Answer Claude's questions

Claude read both files and came back in 20.7 seconds with four questions, shown as tabs: Parts lines, Address, Required? and Validity. Pick an answer with the arrow keys and Enter, choose Type something. to write your own, or Chat about this to discuss it. A Review your answers screen comes before Submit answers.

The first question was the one that earned its keep. Today the calculator's Parts line shows "$200.00 + 15%", which would tell a customer the company's cost and markup. Claude spotted it and asked how parts should appear. We chose to hide the markup.

Read the plan before you approve it

The plan appeared 24.4 seconds after we submitted the answers, under Ready to code? and Here is Claude's plan:. It ran to 55 lines: the context with our four decisions, five numbered changes, a "What stays the same" section and six checks to run afterwards. Read it like a quote from a contractor:

Edit the plan or tell Claude what to change

You have two ways to change a plan before anything is built.

1. Edit it yourself: press Ctrl+G. The plan opens in your text editor; save, close, and Claude works from your version. We added a step for the phone number on the letterhead this way.
2. Tell Claude: move to the last option, Tell Claude what to change, type your note and press Enter.

The plan approval choices, and how to exit plan mode

Under the plan, Claude Code asks: "Claude has written up a plan and is ready to execute. Would you like to proceed?" These are the options in version 2.1.303:

Anthropic's docs call the third option No, keep planning; in 2.1.303 it is a text box with the hint "shift+tab to approve with this feedback", so Shift+Tab approves and sends your note in one go. If auto mode isn't available to you, the first option reads Yes, auto-accept edits instead.

A setting called showClearContextOnPlanAccept adds a first option that also clears the conversation and builds from the plan alone, labeled with the share of Claude's context (its working memory for the conversation) the planning used. Ours read "Yes, clear context (5% used) and use auto mode", so it only matters after very long planning sessions.

We picked Yes, manually approve edits. The status line switched to ⏸ manual mode on, the session took the plan's name ("printable-customer-quote"), and the first edit request came about 5 seconds later.

How to exit plan mode in Claude Code

Approve the plan with either Yes option, or press Shift+Tab to move to the next mode without approving. Esc doesn't take you out: it stops Claude's current step, or closes the approval dialog, and the line still reads ⏸ plan mode on. In the desktop app, pick another mode in the selector. To plan again later, cycle back with Shift+Tab or start your next message with /plan.

Here is what came out the other end. One file changed, the calculator on screen still gives the same total as before ($1,259.40 for our test job), and the printout is a quote you could hand to a customer:

Claude Code plan mode vs accept edits, auto and manual

The four everyday modes differ in who says yes, and when:

Our Claude Code cheat sheet lists every status line and explains what --dangerously-skip-permissions does.

When plan mode is worth it, and when to skip it

Anthropic's best practices guide gives a simple rule: plan when you're unsure of the approach, when the change touches several files, or when you don't know the files well. If you could describe the change in one sentence, skip the plan.

• Plan: changing how a tool calculates prices, turning a one-page site into several pages, reorganizing a folder of client files.
• Skip: fixing a typo, changing a button color, adding one line of text.

Some developers now argue the newest models plan well enough on their own. If you don't read code, though, the plan is the one place to catch a wrong assumption in plain English before any file changes, and people use it:

Pick the model for planning: opus plan mode

Claude Code's default model on every paid plan is already Opus 5.5, so you plan on Opus anyway. The opusplan setting, sometimes called Opus plan mode, keeps Opus for the plan and switches to Sonnet for the build. Anthropic's support article on models and limits says "Opus costs several times more per turn than Sonnet", so that stretches your plan.

Our /model menu didn't list it, so type /model opusplan (it becomes your default; /model default undoes it). More ways to save usage are in our guide to Claude Code usage limits.

Planning mode in other AI coding tools

Most AI coding agents now have a planning mode. Names and keys differ; the idea is the same: read, ask, propose, wait.

From each tool's own docs on October 22, 2026, including Cursor's Plan Mode page, VS Code's planning guide and Antigravity's /plan docs. Kiro goes a step further with specs, requirement and task files kept in the project, and app builders such as Lovable and Replit have a Plan mode too.

How the agents compare beyond planning is in Claude Code vs Cursor, Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot and our roundup of the best AI coding agents.

Plan mode not working? Quick fixes

What to do next

Pick one change you've been putting off on a tool or page you already have, open its folder in Claude Code, press Shift+Tab three times and describe the result, ending with "Ask me what you need to know before you write the plan." Read the plan against the checklist above, then choose Yes, manually approve edits and watch each step. If you're new to Claude Code, the Claude Code tutorial for beginners walks through a first project end to end, and the Claude Code course, open for early access, teaches the whole workflow from setup to finished projects.