Claude Code on the Web

Claude Code on the web runs Claude Code in a cloud virtual machine. You start a session against a GitHub repository; Claude clones it, edits files, runs commands such as npm install and npm run build, and pushes its work to a new branch. You review the diff and open a pull request from the same page. Nothing is installed on your machine. For the full workshop, which assumes a local terminal, see the workshop page.

Cloud sessions are available on Pro, Max and Team plans, and to Enterprise users with seats that include Claude Code. This guide was checked against Anthropic’s documentation on 15 October 2026.

	Web	Local CLI
Setup	A GitHub account and a browser	Node.js and Claude Code installed
Seeing your site	A Vercel preview deployment per branch	npm run dev at localhost:4321, live
Git	Claude pushes a branch; you open and merge a pull request	You commit and push yourself
Keeps running if you close the tab	Yes	No

The main cost is the feedback loop. There is no live dev server, so you see a change only once Vercel has built a preview of its branch.

Getting started

1. Create a repository at github.com/new. Cloud sessions work on existing repositories; they don’t create one for you. Tick Add a README file, so the repository has a main branch for pull requests to target.

2. Connect GitHub. Go to claude.ai/code, sign in, and follow the prompt to connect GitHub. For a private repository, also install the Claude GitHub App on the account that owns it. Onboarding then sets up a Default environment (on Team and Enterprise, accept the prefilled form). Its network access includes the npm registry, so npm install works.

3. Start a session. Select your repository below the message box and ask Claude to scaffold the site. Use git clone rather than npx degit or npm create astro: those download a GitHub archive, which cloud sessions block for repositories not attached to the session.

   Set up a research wiki in this repository from the QURI starter:
   git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/quantified-uncertainty/cairn /tmp/cairn
   then copy /tmp/cairn/starters/research-wiki/. into the repository root.
   Run npm install and npm run build, fix any errors, then commit and push.

4. Merge the first pull request. When Claude has pushed, open the diff, select Create PR, and merge it on GitHub. The site now exists on main.

5. Connect Vercel. Sign in to vercel.com with GitHub, open vercel.com/new, select the repository and click Deploy. Vercel detects Astro. This first deployment is your production site, at your-project.vercel.app.

The working loop

1. Start a session on the repository and describe the change: new pages, expanded content, a fixed table. Each session works on its own branch, usually named claude/…, so you can run several at once.
2. Ask Claude to run npm run build before it pushes. Most errors, such as bad MDX or broken frontmatter, show up here, which is faster than waiting for a deploy.
3. Open a pull request from the diff view. Vercel builds a preview deployment of the branch and posts its URL on the pull request.
4. Review the preview. Leave inline comments on the diff, or tell Claude in the same session what to change. The session stays live after the pull request is opened, and new pushes update the preview.
5. Merge to main. Only then does the production site change.

Your production URL does not show a session’s changes until its pull request is merged. Look at the preview URL on the pull request instead.

Differences from the local CLI

• Permission modes: cloud sessions offer Accept edits, Plan and, where available, Auto. They have no Manual mode and no skip-all-permissions mode.
• Commands: commands that only make sense in a terminal aren’t available, including /clear and /resume. Start a new session from the sidebar instead. /compact and /context work.
• Moving to your machine: from a local clone of the repository, claude --teleport lets you pick a cloud session. It checks out that session’s branch and loads its conversation into your terminal. Or just git clone the repository and run npm install && npm run dev.

Common issues

No repositories appear after connecting GitHub. For private repositories, install the Claude GitHub App on the account or organization that owns the repository, and include that repository in the installation’s access.

The live site isn’t updating. The change is on a branch. Check the preview URL on its pull request, then merge.

The preview deployment failed. Open the Vercel check on the pull request to see the build log, or ask Claude to run npm run build, read the error and fix it.

Build fails with MDX errors. Usually an unescaped $, < or {, or invalid YAML frontmatter. Paste the error to Claude.