Ctrl+R in Claude Code: bring back any prompt you've already written

TL;DR Hit Ctrl+R, type a couple of words, and Claude Code searches the prompts you've already sent. The part almost nobody knows: by default it searches across all your projects, so that long prompt you nailed last week in another repo, you pull it back here. Tab to edit it, Enter to run it.

That screenshot with "Search prompts · everywhere" and a list of old prompts? It's reverse history search. Ctrl+R is the same key you know from bash, but with a twist bash doesn't have: Claude Code keeps your prompt history per directory and across sessions, and the search opens with its scope set to all projects. That's why the capture shows prompts from other repos (SlopSimulator, "frontend de 2a"…): you didn't type them in this session — it's pulling them from your global history.

Result:

Search prompts · everywhere          ← current scope (Ctrl+S changes it)
↑ 14h ago  Keep going with the SlopSimulator and commands   ┐
  13h ago  Commit T2.5 and start Phase 2                     │ prompts from
  13h ago  Keep going with the 2a frontend                   ┘ OTHER projects
  ⌕ refactor▮                          ← type and it filters live

How it works

Ctrl+R opens an incremental search over your history: you type, and it highlights matches among your previous prompts. It's not the transcript viewer (that's Ctrl+O, a different thing): here you search and reuse what you already wrote.

1. Open the search. Press Ctrl+R on an empty prompt.

2. Type to filter. Enter a few letters; the term is highlighted in every match.

3. Cycle through matches. Press Ctrl+R again to jump to older matches.

4. Change scope with Ctrl+S. It starts on all projects (the "everywhere" in the screenshot). Ctrl+S cycles the scope: this session → this project → all projects. Use it to narrow down when there's too much noise.

5. Accept or cancel.

• Tab or Esc: drop the prompt into the input to edit it before sending.
• Enter: run it as-is, immediately.
• Ctrl+C: cancel and restore whatever you had typed.

Quick reference

Details that save you a scare

• If the screen seems to "freeze" when you press Ctrl+S, your terminal is reading it as flow control (XOFF): press Ctrl+Q to unfreeze, and disable it with stty -ixon if it bugs you.
• Ctrl+R ≠ Ctrl+O. Ctrl+O opens the transcript viewer; prompt search is Ctrl+R. Recent versions keep them cleanly separate; if Ctrl+R doesn't search, update with claude update.
• This pairs nicely with bash mode (Ctrl+B): pull a long command back from history and re-run it without retyping.

Official docs: Reverse search with Ctrl+R