Terminal tour: read your dashboard

Build-along · ~8 min at your own keyboard

The terminal UI is a dashboard: which model, which folder, what permission mode, and how full the context window is. One command — /context — shows what you're paying for before you type a word. Most people never look. You will.

The long version: Claude Code: the terminal dashboard ↗

Do this

0/4

Checkpoints

▸You should now see the model name, folder, and permission mode in the header.
▸You should now see a list of models after /model, with your current one marked.
▸You should now see a /context breakdown with token counts for system prompt, tools, and messages.

The three ways this goes wrong

/context shows almost nothing or an error. — You are on an older version. Run claude update (or reinstall), start a fresh session, and try again.
You started claude in the wrong folder (your home folder or Desktop) and the header path looks wrong. — Type /exit, cd into the folder you meant, and run claude again. The header path is always the folder it can see.
/model shows only one option. — Your plan limits which models you can pick. That is fine for this lesson; note the one you have.

Share what happened

Paste your /context breakdown (or the numbers from it) plus one sentence: what surprised you?

Strip API keys, passwords, and tokens before you paste. Swap them for [KEY].

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