Use /add-dir to Expand Claude's File Access Beyond Your Working Directory

Claude Code starts with access to your current working directory — but your project might span multiple folders. The /add-dir command lets you grant access to additional paths mid-session without restarting.

/add-dir ../shared-libs /home/you/design-tokens

Once added, Claude can read, reference, and edit files in those directories just as naturally as anything in your project root. This is especially useful for monorepo setups where you need to reach into sibling packages, or when you keep shared utilities in a folder outside the repo.

You can also add directories at startup using the --add-dir flag so they're available from the first message:

claude --add-dir ~/shared-components --add-dir ~/company-utils

The difference between /add-dir and simply mentioning a path in your prompt is that added directories give Claude actual file access — it can glob, read, and edit files in them. If you find yourself constantly copying snippets from another folder into the chat, /add-dir is the fix.

You can verify what Claude currently has access to with /context, which shows all loaded paths and how much context they consume.

Stop copying files into the chat — just add the directory and let Claude find what it needs.