Option for Ctrl+Tab / tabs:next to switch to last-used tab (MRU) instead of next in order
Feature request
Today Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab in the desktop app and tabs:next / tabs:previous in the CLI cycle sessions in sequential list order only. There is no way to jump straight back to the tab I was last in.
Almost every tool with tabs offers this: browser Ctrl+Tab, VS Code Ctrl+Tab, tmux last-window, vim <C-^>. The dominant real-world pattern is ping-ponging between exactly two sessions — e.g. one Claude Code tab running a long task and another where I am reading the diff. With sequential-only cycling that takes N presses plus visual confirmation instead of one reflexive keystroke.
Ask, in two parts
1. Claude Code CLI — add a tabs:last action to the set bindable in ~/.claude/keybindings.json. It activates the most recently active tab; pressing it again returns to the tab you came from (so it toggles between the last two). The keybinding system already exists, so this is a new action, not new config surface.
2. Desktop app — add a preference for what Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab do:
sequential— current behavior (default, nothing changes for existing users)most recently used— browser-style MRU order
Why an option rather than a behavior change
Both orders have genuine users and existing muscle memory, so making it selectable avoids breaking anyone.
Related
#38447 asked for conversation-switching shortcuts in the desktop app and was closed as out of scope for this repo. If part 2 belongs elsewhere, happy to have it redirected — part 1 is squarely CLI keybindings.