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Prompt Rail

A rail of your past prompts above the input, to preview one and jump back to it

InterfaceAbove the promptSide paneSlash commandPop-up notesWrites or runs
Prompt Rail running in Claude Code

Recorded on Claude Code 2.1.287 in a sandbox. Claude's replies are scripted; everything the mod draws is real.

What it does

Above the prompt input sits a short row of bars, one for each prompt you've sent this session, with the bar of the prompt you're reading drawn heavier. Point at a bar, or move to it with the keyboard, and the line above shows that prompt with a summary of its turn: how long it took, how many tools it used and which files it edited. Click the bar, or press Enter, and the transcript scrolls back to that prompt. In long sessions it's a quick way to find where you asked for something.

How to use it

  • In the terminal, press ctrl+x then tab to move to the bars. Left and right step through them, Enter jumps, Esc goes back to the input.
  • /prompt-rail next, prev, first and last jump between prompts. /prompt-rail 12 jumps to prompt 12, and /prompt-rail find <words> to the newest prompt that contains them.
  • /prompt-rail-next and /prompt-rail-prev take no arguments, so you can bind them to keys in ~/.claude/keybindings.json.
  • /prompt-rail vertical lists the prompts in a pane beside the transcript instead, /prompt-rail horizontal brings back the bars, and /prompt-rail off hides the rail. The choice is also the "Rail mode" row in /config.

Good to know

  • Pointing and clicking work best in the fullscreen layout (/tui fullscreen), which the recording uses.
  • To list your prompts and sum up each turn, it reads this session's transcript file. A transcript over 4 MB is read with tail, the only program it runs.
  • Prompts you undid with /rewind drop off the rail, and prompts from before a resume are included.
  • The Claude desktop app doesn't show the rail.