Use Claude Code Inside VS Code Without Leaving Your Editor
If your workflow lives in VS Code, you don't need a separate terminal for Claude Code. The official extension puts a full Claude Code session right inside your editor.
Install it from the VS Code marketplace by searching for "Claude Code" or from the command line:
code --install-extension anthropic.claude-code
Once installed, open the Claude Code panel from the sidebar or with the keyboard shortcut. You get the exact same experience as the CLI — same tools, same CLAUDE.md instructions, same hooks, same MCP servers.
The real advantage is context. When Claude edits a file, you see the changes immediately in your open editor tabs. No switching windows, no re-opening files — the diff is right there. And if Claude reads a file you already have open, it all stays in one place.
A few things that make the IDE version shine:
- Inline diffs — see Claude's proposed changes highlighted directly in your editor before accepting.
- File navigation — click file paths in Claude's output to jump straight to the source.
- Terminal integration — Claude's shell commands run in VS Code's integrated terminal, so everything stays in one window.
- Multiple panels — open several Claude Code panels for parallel conversations, just like having multiple terminal tabs.
There's also an official JetBrains plugin if you use IntelliJ, PHPStorm, WebStorm, or any other JetBrains IDE. Same concept — full Claude Code inside the editor you already use.
The best tool is the one you don't have to switch to — bring Claude Code into your editor and keep your flow.
via Claude Code
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Set up Claude Code as an automated reviewer in your CI pipeline — on every pull request, it reads the diff, checks for bugs, security issues, missing tests, and convention violations, then posts its findings as a PR comment. Your human reviewers get a head start because the obvious issues are already flagged before they look.
Before deploying, tell Claude to read your project — migrations, environment variables, queue workers, scheduled tasks, caching, third-party integrations — and generate a deployment checklist that's specific to your app. Not a generic "did you run migrations?" list, but one that knows YOUR infrastructure and catches the things YOUR deploy can break.
Instead of writing a README from memory or copying a template, tell Claude to read your project and generate one that's actually accurate — real setup instructions from your config, real architecture from your directory structure, real API examples from your routes, and real prerequisites from your dependency files.