Claude's ecosystem is bigger than I realized, desktop app, Projects, extended thinking, all of it

I've been using Claude on and off for about a year, mostly just the web chat. Went down a rabbit hole recently learning about what else is in the ecosystem and realized I'd been using maybe 20% of what's available.

Stuff worth knowing:

Desktop app: The recommendation I keep seeing is to use the desktop app instead of the browser version for a more integrated experience. It connects better with your other tools and feels less siloed. I switched and it's better.

Projects: You can set up persistent workspaces with their own context, instructions, and uploaded documents. So instead of re-explaining your situation at the start of every conversation you maintain a Project where the AI already knows your background. Game changer for ongoing work.

Extended Thinking: Available on the Opus model. For complex problems you can tell it to think through the problem more deeply before responding. You actually see the reasoning steps. For anything with multiple variables or where you've been getting shallow answers, it's worth trying.

Claude Code: A separate command-line tool for coding work specifically. If you're a developer or working with a developer it's worth knowing this exists as a distinct product rather than just using chat.

MCP (Model Context Protocol): Allows Claude to connect to external data sources and tools. So it can pull from your actual files, databases, or apps rather than just working from what you paste in.