i have found that the agent cli tools running in the panes are more dialed in by having the local directory structure as context and the best streaming text interface to show ai output on. the chat panel is kind of a nice to have as it's familiar. you can highlight text on the terminal > right click > choose Fix This|Explain This and it's sent to the chat panel to dig into more.

it's also, helpful for asking tangential questions about the current claude session, while allowing it to keep running but not interfering with it.