What is Claude Code on the web?
Claude Code on the web is Claude Code running in a cloud virtual machine that you control from your browser at claude.ai/code. You connect a GitHub repository, describe a task, and Claude clones the repo, makes changes, runs tests and pushes a branch for you to review, all without anything installed on your computer.
Anthropic's docs now call these cloud sessions. The cloud sessions page defines one as "a Claude Code session that runs on cloud infrastructure instead of on your machine." The session keeps running after you close your laptop, and you can check on it or steer it from any device.
The browser is one of several places to start a cloud session. You can also use the Code tab in the Claude mobile app, the Claude desktop app with Cloud selected, claude --cloud from your terminal, or scheduled tasks.
How does a cloud session work?
Per the web quickstart, every task goes through four steps in an Anthropic-hosted environment:
- Clone and prepare. Your repository is cloned to an Anthropic-managed VM, and your setup script runs if you have one.
- Configure network. Internet access is set by your environment's access level.
- Work. Claude analyzes code, makes changes, runs tests and checks its work. You can watch and steer, or leave and come back.
- Push the branch. At a stopping point, Claude pushes its branch to GitHub. You review the diff, leave inline comments, create a PR or send another message.
The session doesn't end when the branch is pushed, so PR creation and follow-up edits stay in the same conversation. Each session shows a diff indicator such as +42 -18. Click it to open the diff view, comment on specific lines and send those comments to Claude with your next message.
In Anthropic-hosted environments, each VM runs Ubuntu 24.04 on x86_64 with roughly 4 vCPUs, 16 GB of RAM and 30 GB of disk. Python, Node.js 20 to 22, Ruby, PHP, Java, Go, Rust, C and C++ toolchains, Docker, PostgreSQL 16 and Redis 7.0 come pre-installed.
When should you use the web instead of the terminal?
The docs say cloud sessions fit:
- Parallel tasks, each in its own session and branch, with no worktrees to manage.
- Repos you don't have locally, since Claude clones fresh every session.
- Well-defined tasks that don't need frequent steering.
- Code questions and exploration without a local checkout.
Work that depends on your local tools, config or private network is a better fit for a local session. Here is how the two compare:
| Cloud session (web) | Local session (terminal, IDE, desktop) | |
|---|---|---|
| Code runs on | Cloud VM, Anthropic-managed by default | Your machine |
| Start it from | claude.ai/code, mobile app, desktop app, claude --cloud |
Terminal, IDE or desktop app |
| Uses your local config | No, repository only | Yes |
| Requires GitHub | Yes, or a bundled local repo via --cloud |
No |
| Keeps running if you disconnect | Yes | No |
| Permission modes | Accept edits, Plan, Auto | All modes in the terminal |
| Network access | Configurable per environment | Your machine's network |
How do you connect GitHub repositories?
You connect GitHub once. Go to claude.ai/code, sign in, and follow the prompt to authorize GitHub. With that connection a session can clone any public repository, but it can work in a private repository only when the Claude GitHub App is installed on it. Install the app on each account or organization whose private repos you want Claude to use.
If you already use the GitHub CLI, there's a second route: run /web-setup in Claude Code in your terminal to send your local gh token to your Claude account. That reaches any repository your token can access. On Team and Enterprise plans, /web-setup appears only after an Owner turns on Quick setup in the organization's Claude Code settings.
In Anthropic-hosted environments, your GitHub credentials stay encrypted on Anthropic's servers and never enter the VM. Git operations go through a proxy that attaches the credential on the server side.
What is a cloud environment?
Every cloud session runs in a cloud environment, a saved configuration for network access, environment variables and a setup script. On Pro and Max, onboarding creates one named Default for you. On Team and Enterprise, you fill in a short form, unless an Owner has turned on Quick setup.
Network access has four levels:
| Level | Outbound connections |
|---|---|
| None | No outbound access through the session's network |
| Trusted | Allowlisted domains only: package registries, GitHub, cloud SDKs |
| Full | Any domain |
| Custom | Your own allowlist, optionally with the defaults |
The Default environment uses Trusted. A setup script is a Bash script that runs as root before Claude Code starts, useful for installing tools that aren't pre-installed:
#!/bin/bash
apt update && apt install -y shellcheck
The script must exit with code zero or the session fails to start. If it finishes in roughly five minutes, Anthropic snapshots the filesystem and reuses it, so later sessions skip setup. Don't put secrets in environment variables, since anyone using the environment can read them; Anthropic-hosted environments offer network secrets instead.
What carries over from your own setup?
Cloud sessions start from a fresh clone, so the rule is simple: if it's committed to the repo, the session has it. That includes your repo's CLAUDE.md, .claude/settings.json hooks and permission rules, .mcp.json servers, .claude/rules/, and .claude/skills/, .claude/agents/ and .claude/commands/ (for settings and MCP, in a session with one repository).
What stays behind: your user ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, your personal ~/.claude/skills/, plugins, MCP servers added at local or user scope, and interactive logins like AWS SSO. To bring a project MCP server along, add it with claude mcp add --scope project and commit .mcp.json. Cloud sessions do load the skills you enable on claude.ai.
How do you move sessions between the web and your terminal?
This is where the web and CLI connect. Both directions need the Claude Code CLI signed in to the same claude.ai account.
Terminal to cloud. Start a new cloud session for your current repository:
claude --cloud "Fix the authentication bug in src/auth/login.ts"
The VM clones your GitHub remote at your current branch, not your local checkout, so push first. Each --cloud command creates its own session, so you can start several tasks in parallel. To steer a running session, claude -p "your message" --cloud <session-id> queues a follow-up and exits. The older --remote flag still works as a deprecated alias.
A useful pattern from the docs: plan locally with claude --permission-mode plan, commit and push the plan, then run claude --cloud "Execute the migration plan in docs/migration-plan.md". See the plan mode guide for the first half.
Cloud to terminal. Pull a session down with any of these:
claude --teleportfor a picker, orclaude --teleport <session-id>for a specific session/teleportor/tpinside a running CLI session- Open in > Terminal in the session menu at claude.ai/code, which copies a command
Teleport checks out the session's branch and loads the full conversation. Your working directory must be clean, you must be in a checkout of the same repository, and the branch must be pushed. The terminal gets its own copy, so new work there doesn't appear in the web session.
From the CLI, handoff is one-way: --cloud starts new sessions but can't push an existing terminal session up. The desktop app can send a local session to the cloud from its Open in menu.
Which plans include Claude Code on the web?
Cloud sessions are available on Pro, Max and Team plans, and for Enterprise users with premium seats or Chat + Claude Code seats. There's no separate charge for the VM. Sessions count toward your plan's usage limits along with all your other Claude and Claude Code usage, so running many tasks in parallel uses limits faster.
As of October 2026, Claude's pricing page lists Pro at $17 per month billed annually or $20 billed monthly, and Max from $100 per month. The Claude Code pricing guide compares the plans in more detail.
A few limits to know before relying on it. Repository cloning and PR creation require GitHub. Organizations with Zero Data Retention, the HIPAA configuration or customer-managed encryption keys can't use cloud sessions. If your organization uses IP allowlisting, Anthropic-hosted cloud sessions fail with an authentication error unless support grants an exemption.
What else can cloud sessions do?
Auto-fix pull requests. With the Claude GitHub App installed, Claude can watch a PR and respond to CI failures and review comments, pushing a fix when one is clear and asking you when a request is ambiguous. Turn it on from the CI status bar in a session, or run /autofix-pr in your terminal on the PR's branch. Replies on GitHub post under your account, labeled as coming from Claude Code.
Share sessions. On Pro and Max, a session can be Private or Public (visible to any logged-in claude.ai user). On Team and Enterprise, it can be Private or Team. Check for code and credentials from private repos before you share.
Keep your instructions in the repo, and your prompts in one place
Because cloud sessions only see what is committed, the good habits are the same ones that help locally: a solid CLAUDE.md and project skills in .claude/skills/. For the prompts you type into claude.ai/code again and again, Kipt keeps them as Markdown in a private GitHub repo you own, with {{name:default}} blanks and Cmd+K search, and installs your skills into Claude Code with one npx skills add command. To set up the terminal side first, follow the Claude Code setup guide.