[FEATURE] Allow Claude Code Web to start sessions from branches other than default branch

Sooo important. So core. Otherwise I love it

+1 I came here to request this feature

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+1. Claude code web is not useable for me without this.

I'm looking forward to selecting a branch, too! So far, you may want to specify the branch in the prompt. Not nice, but at least a workaround.

Claude does not seem to consistently honor instructions in the prompt to use a particular branch. I regularly end up with some flavor of the following:

• I Prefix my Claude Code web prompt with _"Check out the branch at origin/<feature_branch> -- everything below must be in this branch."_
• Claude starts with _"Bash: git fetch origin <feature_branch>"_ which looks good, and then implements changes. When I open a pull request to merge those changes, it defaults to main as the base branch. I edit the PR to change the base branch to be <feature_branch> then see merge conflicts, even though no commits to the feature branch have been made in the mean time.
• When asking Claude why, it will tell me something like: _"I found the issue! The branch claude/fix-bla-bla-XXX was pre-created based on commit XXX, but the target branch <feature_branch> is 15 commits ahead at XXX. Your changes are based on an outdated version of the codebase. The files we modified exist in <feature_branch> but our branch diverged before those commits were added. Let me rebase our changes onto the correct base branch: ..."_

It will figure it out eventually but this is quite a cumbersome workflow.

As part of this feature request, the Create / Update PR button in the UI should also set the base branch to the feature branch specified.

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A very important feature that's keeping me from using Claude Code Web where it would be otherwise useful.

This is critical. I do not believe Claude code mobile app or web is very useful without it. Codex already has this.

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Without this feature, I'm finding myself reaching for Codex web on actual work projects just so that I may do proper branching practices.

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Still running into issues asking Claude Code Web to use a particular branch. Recent examples:

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Initial prompt:

Switch to branch existing-feature-branch. [actual prompt for work to be done on top of the existing feature followed]

Claude response:

Bash git checkout existing-feature-branch Exit code 1 error: pathspec 'existing-feature-branch' did not match any file(s) known to git`

The existing-feature-branch did exist with commits not yet merged to main. At this point it seemed Claude had already created it's own claude/existing-feature-branch-ABCD branch (from main, not my feature branch as requested), told itself it's already on the right branch, and then started to look for the feature functionality I described. That functionality of course doesn't exist, because Claude created it's branch from main. After wasting a load of tokens investigating, it told me the base feature wasn't implemented yet and hallucinated a solution to my prompt on top of that non-existent feature. Dead end.

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Initial prompt:

Everything below refers to the functionality committed to branch existing-feature-branch. Switch to that branch. Do not proceed until you are on the branch existing-feature-branch, it is already on the remote [actual prompt for work to be done on top of the existing feature followed]

This went better initially -- Claude response:

Bash: git fetch origin existing-feature-branch From http://127.0.0.1:51661/git/user/repo branch existing-feature-branch -> FETCH_HEAD [new branch] existing-feature-branch -> origin/existing-feature-branch ... Bash: git checkout existing-feature-branch branch 'existing-feature-branch' set up to track 'origin/existing-feature-branch'. Switched to a new branch 'existing-feature-branch'

Then after some iteration, Claude attempted to commit, and things went awry:

Now let me commit and push the changes: ... Bash: git checkout -b claude/new-feature-branch-DEFG Exit code 128 fatal: a branch named 'claude/new-feature-branch-DEFG' already exists ... Bash: git checkout claude/new-feature-branch-DEFG Exit code 1 error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout: ... Please commit your changes or stash them before you switch branches. Aborting ... Bash: git stash push -m "DESCRIPTION" Saved working directory and index state On existing-feature-branch: DESCRIPTION Bash: git checkout claude/new-feature-branch-DEFG && git stash pop Exit code 1 Switched to branch 'claude/new-feature-branch-DEFG' CONFLICT [multiple...] Unmerged paths: ... ...

Claude was able to resolve and commit, but the branch was then from main, and when I was unable to create a mergeable PR into existing-feature-branch and asked why it tells me:

Good catch! The issue is that claude/new-feature-branch-DEFG was not created from existing-feature-branch. Here's what happened: The branch claude/new-feature-branch-DEFG already existed when I tried to create it When I switched to it and applied my stashed changes, Git reported conflicts: "deleted by us" for all the XXX files This means those files don't exist in the claude/new-feature-branch-DEFG branch - they were created as "new files" when I committed The branch was likely created from main or another earlier branch that predates the XXX feature.

It then went on to delete, re-create the branch from the correct existing-feature-branch, and re-apply all changes.

This is very messy and inefficient. I hope native support for having Claude Code Web work in branches can be implemented soon. It's a major downside compared to working with Claude in the CLI. Codex on the web implements this well already.

+1 million, really need to be able to choose the branch with Claude Code Web

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Anthropic gave me $1,000 in credits when Claude Code Web launched. I was hyped.
Then I realized I could only start sessions from main.
I work on feat/* → dev → stage → main. Like every professional team using GitFlow. The feature I’m actively developing doesn’t exist in main — it won’t exist there for weeks or months.
So I opened Claude Code Web, looked at my main branch (which has zero context about what I’m actually building), closed it, and went back to my local workflow.
Credits used: $0.01 🤡
This isn’t an edge case. This is how software development works. Please prioritize this

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This would be massive! Allowing to continue your work even on the go!

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we earlier waiting for this

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+1 Just tried for the first time. Magical aha moment for me, then realized it clones main and I can't select a branch... magic still there, but reduced by 50%.

I wonder what is so hard to achieve that? Does anybody have an idea whats the challenge?

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+1, breaks use of code web UI without explicit branch selection

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So you choose a branch and it ignores it ? Let me guess you code with this extension as well. What branch has your code to make this work ?

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I have the same problem

I can't force claude to use proper branch, always starting from main

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Until the Web UI adds branch selection, here are alternatives:
Workaround 1 — Use the CLI with branch checkout:

git checkout develop
claude

The CLI always works on your current branch. If you primarily use the Web UI for convenience, consider the CLI for branch-specific work.
Workaround 2 — Use Remote Control from CLI:
Start a CLI session on the desired branch and control it from your phone/browser:

git checkout develop
claude

Remote Control gives you mobile/browser access to a CLI session that's already on the correct branch.
Workaround 3 — Use a worktree:

git worktree add ../project-develop develop
cd ../project-develop
claude

This gives you a separate working directory on the develop branch without affecting your main checkout.
Workaround 4 — SessionStart hook to verify branch:
If you want to ensure you're always starting on the right branch:

{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [
      {
        "hook": "bash -c 'BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null); echo \"Current branch: $BRANCH\" >&2; if [ \"$BRANCH\" = \"main\" ]; then echo \"WARNING: You are on main. Switch to develop if needed.\" >&2; fi'"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Found a workaround, just ask Claude to switch to the desired branch.

Apparently it has the capability it's just that there's no UI for us to do it directly.