Claude Code VS Code extension
Shares rank 5 of 41 coding agents by recommenders
Brings Claude Code into VS Code for reviewing and editing code in a GUI. Main caveat: a lookalike extension on the Cursor marketplace reportedly contained malware.
Brings Claude Code into VS Code for reviewing and editing code in a GUI. Main caveat: a lookalike extension on the Cursor marketplace reportedly contained malware.
74 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 31
- criticize it
- 43
- approval share
- 42%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 31 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works well inside VS Code's GUI
“I find the ability to look at multiple things at once is works much better in some kind of.. GUI editing tool”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Printable Claude Code Cheat Sheet (auto-updated daily)” “Claude Code in VSCode works exactly like this. Click to expand file search results, command output, etc.”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Anthropic tries to hide Claude's AI actions. Devs hate it” “Work through UI, navigating, reviewing and editing repo files easily.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Printable Claude Code Cheat Sheet (auto-updated daily)” - Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “Ultraplan with Claude Code”
Capable, strong agent integration
“it seems to be the most capable coding assistant of the limited set of tools I've tried”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Notes on gotchas while migrating 35kb preprompts from Opus to self-hosted Ollama” “by far the best agent integration into a codebase that I know of”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Google Antigravity” “basically "solves programming" for me”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export” - Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Microsoft please get your tab to autocomplete shit together”
Preferred over terminal and rivals
“I recently switched from the CC terminal to the CC VS Code extension, and I like it better.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Printable Claude Code Cheat Sheet (auto-updated daily)” “I'd rather just use the Claude plugin in VS Code over Cursor's agentic coding sidebar.”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export” “the Claude Code extension for vscode is way better than codex extension”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “The Codex App” - Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing”
Plan mode and review of changes
“the plan mode in Claude's VS Code extension has supported select and annotate directly since at the very least early 2026”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Plan mode is dead” “For me I need to compare the code generated before committing.”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Microsoft Drops Claude Code After Budget Overrun” “it is nice to be able to get a second opinion”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What is your dev set up like?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Security concerns over lookalike extension
“Their Claude Code extension on Visual Studio Code and Cursor has malware in it, which creates a remote access Trojan to desktops.”
Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace” “I would have loved to know that this was for CURSOR and not VISUAL STUDIO CODE before I spent 2 hours resetting all my API keys”
Comment from 31 Oct 2026 in “Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace” “the line in the cursor disclosure about the extension not being developed by anthropic is more confusing than clarifying”
Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace” - Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace”
- Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace”
- Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace”
- Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace”
- Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace”
Frequent bugs and slow fixes
“The VS Code extension needs love. I'm sure you guys are aware but it feels like it is neglected.”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “Potential session/cache leakage between workspace instances or consumer accounts” “There's been an issue with the VS code extension that makes it pretty much impossible to use”
Comment from 23 Apr 2026 in “An update on recent Claude Code quality reports” “I have had issues with slash commands not registering and hooks not working in the plugin.”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “The Cult of Vibe Coding Is Insane” - Comment from 21 Feb 2026 in “Excessive token usage in Claude Code”
- Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “Make Claude Fix the Claude VS Code Extension”
- Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Abralo – Manage several Claude Code agents in one window”
- Comment from 24 Jan 2026 in “Claude.ai silently failing since Jan 14, no official acknowledgment”
Limited, not suited for beginners
“I think the VS Code integration with Claude is pretty great, but just the /rename issue shows that it is limited”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “Claude Code as a Daily Driver: Claude.md, Skills, Subagents, Plugins, and MCPs” “I use Claude within VS Code (as per many others) but I certainly wouldn't recommend that for a beginner.”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “LLMs reward expertise”
Other coding agents people recommend
The four most recommended other coding agents, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | 571 | 993 | 37% | 12 | 1 yr46 owners | — |
| oh-my-pi | 104 | 28 | 79% | 9 | 2 mo5 owners | Approved |
| Grok Build CLI | 66 | 114 | 37% | 6 | — | — |
| DeepSeek Harness | 63 | 28 | 69% | 4 | 1 mo5 owners | Approved |
| Claude Code VS Code extensionThis page | 31 | 43 | 42% | 11 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 83 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I would have loved to know that this was for CURSOR and not VISUAL STUDIO CODE before I spent 2 hours resetting all my API keys”
“Anthropic needs to stamp out any provider from using said, "Made by Anthropic" until they start adding signing”
“A bad actor shipped an extension on the Cursor marketplace that wasn't made by Anthropic.”
“There either needs to be a technical change so that extensions are signed with keys that Anthropic controls”
“the line in the cursor disclosure about the extension not being developed by anthropic is more confusing than clarifying”
“Their Claude Code extension on Visual Studio Code and Cursor has malware in it, which creates a remote access Trojan to desktops.”
“Keep sending all your secrets and giving full control of your devices to Anthropic.”
“It affects their VSCode marketplace extension which in turn affects their cursor extension.”
“the plan mode in Claude's VS Code extension has supported select and annotate directly since at the very least early 2026”
“it seems to be the most capable coding assistant of the limited set of tools I've tried”
“Claude / Codex ex tensions inside of VSCode give you what you described”
“I use Claude within VS Code (as per many others) but I certainly wouldn't recommend that for a beginner.”
“basically "solves programming" for me”
“I'd rather just use the Claude plugin in VS Code over Cursor's agentic coding sidebar.”
“it crashed my PC when I ran more than 3 and I couldn't watch multiple agents in parallel”
“The VS Code extension needs love. I'm sure you guys are aware but it feels like it is neglected.”
“Anthropic can't be bothered to actually fix any VS Code extension bugs that people file.”
“the Cursor / VScode extension of Claude is similar (though not perfect) to the desktop client”
“I think the VS Code integration with Claude is pretty great, but just the /rename issue shows that it is limited”
“For me I need to compare the code generated before committing.”
“I like VS Code with the Claude Plugin, and sometimes with the Codex Plugin”
“I moved to Codex GUI and the VSCode Claude Code plugin eventually.”
“I use the Claude Code VSCode plugin for 80% of my work.”
“There's been an issue with the VS code extension that makes it pretty much impossible to use”
“I have had issues with slash commands not registering and hooks not working in the plugin.”
“you have nice IDE with as many tabs as you want open one click away”
“I'm confused how and if Cursor is still relevant since the Claude Code VSCode extension came out.”
“it is nice to be able to get a second opinion”
“I find the ability to look at multiple things at once is works much better in some kind of.. GUI editing tool”
“Work through UI, navigating, reviewing and editing repo files easily.”
“I recently switched from the CC terminal to the CC VS Code extension, and I like it better.”
“The agent now becomes unresponsive at times and needs a reload, which really breaks flow.”
“Claude Code in VSCode works exactly like this. Click to expand file search results, command output, etc.”
“the Claude Code extension for vscode is way better than codex extension”
“an IDE for navigating large, complex codebases while still having CC integration”
“if you try to use the "regular" VS Code plug-in mode, it fails with error 3221225477”
“you can just use the extension, which offers a similar experience”
“Claude in VS Code is tons better”
“Select AI view via shortcut or CMD + P and you're done. That's how you do it.”
“by far the best agent integration into a codebase that I know of”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.