[FEATURE] Persistent Workbench Pane Alongside Chat — keep task activity out of the conversation

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

When Claude handles multi-step tasks — file edits, searches, web lookups, tool calls — all of that activity streams directly into the chat thread. For complex or long-running work, this creates visual noise that makes it hard to follow the actual conversation. You end up scrolling past walls of tool output to find the message you care about.

There's currently no way to monitor what Claude is doing without it cluttering what you're discussing.

This problem exists across surfaces:

• claude.ai (web) — tool calls and search results flood the chat thread
• Claude Code (terminal) — file edits, bash output, and step progress scroll past mid-conversation, making it hard to track both what was said and what was done

Proposed Solution

Add an optional Workbench pane — a persistent side panel (collapsible) that separates execution activity from the conversation. Depending on the surface:

• Web (claude.ai): A right-hand panel alongside the chat showing tool calls, search results, and file edits in real time
• Terminal (Claude Code): A split-pane view (e.g. tmux-style or native split) with conversation on one side and task activity on the other

In both cases, the workbench would show:

• File edits in progress or completed
• Search queries and results
• Tool calls and their status
• Task/step progress (e.g. step 2 of 5)

The chat thread would remain clean — just the conversation. The workbench panel handles all the "under the hood" activity.

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

_No response_

Additional Context

Why This Matters

As Claude takes on more agentic tasks, the chat thread increasingly serves two incompatible purposes: a conversation log and an execution log. These should be separate. The workbench pane gives users visibility into Claude's actions without sacrificing the readability of the conversation.

This would be particularly valuable for:

• Long coding sessions with many file edits across multiple files
• Research tasks with multiple search rounds
• Any multi-step agentic workflow in web or terminal
• Terminal users who currently lose conversational context as bash output and file diffs scroll past