/branch forks the conversation at the current point so you can explore an alternative path without losing the original. It switches you into the fork; the original is recoverable with /resume. Alias: /fork.

Say Claude proposed a clean refactor and you want to see what a different angle produces, without throwing away the conversation that got you there. Branch, explore, and return if the detour leads nowhere.

> the OOP refactor looks good, let's keep it

> /branch

  ⎇ Branched conversation.
    The original is preserved — return any time with /resume.

> now try the opposite: rewrite the handler as a pipeline of pure functions

  ⏺ Sure — here's a functional take on the same handler…

I reach for it when a conversation reaches a good state and I want to test a riskier idea against it, knowing the good state is one /resume away.