Working in your IDE

Use Claude Code inside VS Code or JetBrains: review diffs visually, share your selection, and keep the terminal workflow you've learned.

What you’ll be able to do

Run Claude Code from your editor, review its changes as visual diffs, and point it at code by selecting it.

Two ways to work, one agent

Claude Code is the same agent whether you use the terminal or an editor. The IDE integration adds:

Visual diffs. Proposed edits open in the editor’s diff viewer, where you accept or reject them.
Selection context. Whatever you highlight is shared with Claude.
Diagnostics. Claude can see lint and type errors the editor reports.
Quick launch. A keyboard shortcut or button opens Claude Code in the editor.

Step 1: Install the integration

VS Code (and forks such as Cursor): install the Claude Code extension from the Extensions view. A Claude Code panel appears, along with an icon in the editor toolbar.

JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm and others): install the Claude Code plugin from the Marketplace and restart the IDE.

The VS Code extension has its own chat panel with a prompt box, a permission-mode selector and a Focus view that keeps tool calls collapsed. You can work entirely from the panel, or run claude in a terminal and connect it.

Step 2: Connect a terminal session

Starting claude in the IDE’s terminal no longer installs the extension for you, so install it first (step 1). Then, from any terminal, connect the running session:

/ide

Choose your editor from the list.

Step 3: Try the editor-aware workflow

Open any project and do these three things:

Ask about a selection. Highlight a function and ask: “Explain the selected code and point out any edge cases it misses.”
Review a diff visually. Ask: “Add JSDoc comments to the selected function.” The change opens as a diff. Accept it, or reject it and explain why.
Fix what the editor sees. Introduce a type error on purpose, then ask: “Fix the problems the editor is reporting in this file.”

Terminal or IDE?

Use the terminal when…	Use the IDE when…
You’re on a server or in SSH	You want to review diffs visually
You’re scripting with `claude -p`	You’re working in one file and want to share your selection
You prefer keyboard-only work	You want Claude to see editor diagnostics

Many people do both: Claude Code in the IDE’s terminal pane, with visual diffs on.

Verify it worked

The Claude Code extension or plugin is installed
You asked about a selection and Claude referred to the exact code
You accepted or rejected an edit in the visual diff viewer
You know how to connect an external session with /ide