Desktop app: hard to turn on fast mode, and no sign of whether it's on
Status Open
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 0 comments · opened Sep 24, 2026
Fast mode is confusing in the Claude desktop app's Code tab, for two reasons.
1. No way to turn it on when starting a conversation.
The new-conversation screen has no fast mode toggle next to the model picker. The fast mode docs only cover:
/fastin the CLI- a "Toggle fast mode" command in VS Code
- the
fastModesetting insettings.json
None of these explain how to do it in the desktop app. I had to ask Claude inside a session to work it out, and the best answer was "edit settings.json".
2. No sign of whether fast mode is on in a session.
After starting a session, I can't tell whether fast mode is on. This makes it hard to know whether a setting worked, what speed to expect, or what I'm being billed at.
Expected:
- A visible fast mode toggle when starting a conversation, next to the model and effort pickers.
- A persistent label in an active session showing whether fast mode is on (e.g. in the header or next to the model name), which can also be clicked to switch it.
- Docs that explain how fast mode works in the desktop app.
Environment: Claude desktop app (Code tab), macOS