Set Your Editor to Autosave So Claude Sees Your Changes Instantly

Claude Code watches the filesystem. If your editor only saves on Cmd+S, there's a gap between when you type and when Claude can read your changes. That lag breaks the feedback loop.

In Zed, add this to your settings (Cmd+,):

{
  "autosave": {
    "after_delay": {
      "milliseconds": 500
    }
  }
}

In VS Code, add this to settings.json:

{
  "files.autoSave": "afterDelay",
  "files.autoSaveDelay": 500
}

With your terminal on one half of the screen and your editor on the other, both looking at the same file, the result feels like collaborating on a shared document. You add a comment in the editor; Claude reads it within a second. Claude edits a function; your editor shows it instantly. Neither side is waiting on the other.

This is especially useful when you're guiding Claude through a task incrementally. You type a note or a constraint directly into the file, and Claude reacts to it on its next action without you needing to repeat yourself in the chat.

Half a second of latency is the difference between a loop and a lag.