Embedded terminal inside Visual Studio for Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cursor Agent, Open Code, Windsurf, PI, and Google Antigravity — with multi-line prompts, file attachments, and an integrated diff viewer.
Enjoying the extension? Buy me a coffee — every cup helps keep it free. Bug reports, suggestions, and pull requests are welcome on GitHub.
Mentioned in Awesome Codex CLI
- Embedded AI terminal — Run any supported AI coding agent inside a Visual Studio tool window. Auto-detects the solution directory; restarts when you switch solutions. Optionally use Windows Terminal instead of Command Prompt for better emoji/Unicode rendering.
- Multi-line prompts — Press Enter to send, Shift+Enter or Ctrl+Enter for a new line. Toggle "Send with Enter" off in the ⚙ menu to make Enter insert a newline and reveal a Send button.
- File and image attachments — Paste images with Ctrl+V, drag & drop files onto the prompt area, or use the 📎 button. Any file type is accepted (no limit). Text content like Excel cells pastes as text, not as an image.
- Editor selection → prompt — Click 📋 or right-click selected code → Send Selection to Claude Code to insert a formatted snippet (file path + line numbers + syntax-highlighted code fence) into the prompt.
- Integrated diff viewer — For Git projects, the 📊 view shows uncommitted changes in a dedicated tab with search, auto-scroll, double-click-to-open, and double-click-line-to-navigate. Optionally auto-opens when you send a prompt.
- Prompt history — Last 50 prompts saved (with attached files). Browse with Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down; clear via right-click.
- Claude Code session history — 📜 toolbar button lists past sessions for the current workspace; resume any session or the most recent one with one click. Works for native and WSL Claude Code.
- Claude usage in VS — 📊 button (when Claude is active) opens the claude.ai usage page inside a dockable tab. Inline session/weekly progress bars below the prompt update automatically and adapt to the active theme.
- Custom commands (⚡) — Save slash commands or canned prompts and dispatch them to the active agent in one click. Configure via ⚙ → Configure Custom Commands....
- Model selection (Claude) — 🤖 button to switch between Opus / Sonnet / Haiku and pick an effort level (Auto / Low / Medium / High / Max) for Opus thinking depth.
- Detach / attach terminal — Pop the terminal into a separate VS tab and bring it back at any time. State persists across sessions.
- Theme aware — Follows VS dark/light theme automatically, or force a theme via ⚙ → Set Theme.... Prompt and terminal zoom (Ctrl+Scroll) are persisted across sessions.
- Persistent settings — Layout, provider choice, model, flags, and zoom level all saved to
%LocalAppData%\ClaudeCodeExtension\claudecode-settings.json.
By default only Claude Code is shown in the agent picker — use ⚙ → Configure Visible Code Agents... to opt in to the others. The active agent always remains visible.
| Provider | Platform | Command | Subscription / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Windows / WSL | claude |
Claude Pro or higher. Setup docs |
| OpenAI Codex | Windows / WSL | codex |
ChatGPT Plus or higher. Optional --ask-for-approval never toggle |
| Cursor Agent | Windows / WSL | agent / cursor-agent |
Cursor account. Optional --yolo toggle |
| Open Code | Windows | opencode |
Node.js 14+; provider configured via Ctrl+P → "connect providers" |
| Windsurf | WSL | devin |
Windsurf paid plan. Optional --permission-mode dangerous toggle |
| PI | Windows | pi |
Node.js + Git for Windows |
| Google Antigravity | Windows | agy |
Google account. Optional --dangerously-skip-permissions toggle |
If a provider isn't installed, the extension shows the install command automatically when you select it. The Update Agent entry in the ⚙ menu runs the right update command for the active provider (e.g. claude update, npm install -g @openai/codex@latest, cursor-agent update).
- Visual Studio 2022 or 2026 (x64 or ARM64)
- Windows 11
- Plus whatever the chosen AI provider needs (see table above)
- Download the latest VSIX from this page or search for "Claude Code Extension" inside Visual Studio's Manage Extensions... menu
- Double-click the VSIX file to install or install inside Visual Studio, then restart Visual Studio
- First time only: Open the tool window via View → Other Windows → Claude Code Extension
If the terminal opens in a separate window instead of inside the extension panel, open Windows Settings → search "Terminal settings" → set Terminal to Windows Console Host.
Optional — Windows Terminal: For better emoji and Unicode rendering, install Windows Terminal from an elevated Command Prompt:
winget install --id Microsoft.WindowsTerminal -e
Then choose it via ⚙ → Set Terminal Type....
- Click ⚙ → pick your AI provider (use Configure Visible Code Agents... if it isn't listed)
- If using Open Code, run
Ctrl+P→ "connect providers" once to authenticate - (Claude only) Pick a model via the 🤖 button
- Type a prompt, press Enter to send. Attach files with Ctrl+V, drag-and-drop, or 📎
- Watch the agent work in the embedded terminal. For Git projects, open 📊 to see live diffs
⚙ Settings menu (gear button, top-right):
- Pick an AI provider, Configure Visible Code Agents..., Configure Custom Commands..., Set Theme..., Set Terminal Type..., Set Working Directory...
- Toggles: Send with Enter, Auto-open Changes on Send, Invert Layout, Disable Auto Zoom on Startup, Send large prompts as file
- Provider-specific flags: Claude Skip Permissions, Codex Approval Never, Cursor Yolo Mode, Windsurf Dangerous Mode, Antigravity Skip Permissions
- Update Agent, Detach/Attach Terminal, About
🤖 Model menu (Claude only): Opus / Sonnet / Haiku, effort level for Opus (Auto / Low / Medium / High / Max), Change Account, Install Caveman plugin.
Custom commands (⚡): Once you've added a command via Configure Custom Commands..., the ⚡ toolbar button appears. Clicking an entry sends the saved text verbatim to the active agent — useful for slash commands or canned prompts.
This binds a Claude Code skill that shells out to OpenAI Codex to audit pending changes for bugs, security issues, performance problems, and code quality.
- Install Codex CLI (if needed):
npm install -g @openai/codex codex login
- Create the skill from inside Claude Code — paste this prompt into a Claude Code session:
Create a Claude Code user skill called
codex-reviewat~/.claude/skills/codex-review/SKILL.md. The skill runscodex review --uncommittedagainst the current repo's uncommitted changes. Preconditions: verify git repo, verify uncommitted changes exist, skip non-meaningful diffs (config/lockfiles/whitespace), and verifycodexis on PATH. Ask Codex for bugs, OWASP Top 10 issues, performance problems, and code quality findings — each with file:line, severity, why it matters, and a concrete fix. Codex is the reviewer; Claude relays the output verbatim. After creating the file, run/reload-plugins. - Bind it as a custom command: ⚙ → Configure Custom Commands... → Add... → Name:
Codex Review, Command:/codex-review. - Use it: ⚡ → Codex Review. Claude runs the skill, Codex audits your diff, findings appear inline.
- README cleanup: trimmed version history to user-visible features. Fixed outdated Update Agent button reference (now a menu item) and clarified installation source.
- README slim-down and shorter marketplace description.
- Inline usage bars now readable on light theme.
- Agent menu shows only Claude Code by default; new Configure Visible Code Agents... entry to opt in to the others.
- Antigravity: added Skip Permissions toggle.
- New AI provider: Google Antigravity (Gemini 3.5 Flash).
- New Disable Auto Zoom on Startup setting (useful on 4K / high-DPI displays).
- Faster terminal startup zoom.
- Usage page auto-confirms corporate proxy block screens.
- Send large prompts as file (opt-in) — avoids paste truncation on big prompts. PR #51, rbuss93.
- Reliable prompt sends: chunked paste with clipboard verification prevents truncation and wrong-content sends.
- Claude Usage tab no longer steals focus during background refresh.
- New AI provider: PI Coding Agent.
- No more duplicate "Theme Changed" dialogs; restart prompt skipped when new theme matches the agent's current color.
- New Set Theme... option to force Dark or Light theme regardless of VS theme.
- Fixed large prompt truncation.
- Inline usage bars no longer go stale when auto-refresh is off.
- Light theme support for Command Prompt.
- Toolbar declutter: 12 buttons reduced to 6 via grouped dropdowns.
- Mouse cursor stays visible while typing in the prompt area.
- Resilient clipboard handoff to terminal — retries longer and names the locking process on failure.
- UTF-8 codepage for the embedded Command Prompt — fixes garbled non-ASCII output.
- Usage page auto sign-out on Change Account.
- New Switch Account button in the Claude Usage tab for swapping between accounts and organizations.
- Claude Code session history — new 📜 button lists past sessions; resume any session or the most recent one with one click.
- Drag & drop file attachments onto the prompt area.
- Inline usage bars fixed after a claude.ai page layout change.
- Inline usage bar labelled Weekly limit.
- New Extra usage row when extra-usage billing is active.
- Auto-Refresh Off now stops all background bar refreshing.
- Usage window no longer steals focus on startup.
- Send with Enter toggle restored.
- Usage tab no longer blinks during background refresh.
- Usage bars persist after closing the usage tab.
- Inline usage bars update on load.
- Closing the usage tab with its X keeps inline bars updating.
- Shift+Enter and Ctrl+Enter reliably insert newlines.
- Fixed cursor disappearing and zoom landing on the wrong VS tab after startup.
- Fixed terminal zoom restore not applying on startup.
- Fixed terminal zoom restore landing on the Claude Usage tab.
- Claude Usage tab scrolls to top on refresh.
- Claude Usage tab: Ctrl+Scroll zoom with cursor fix.
- Fixed Claude Usage tab cursor disappearing and unwanted zoom on scroll.
- Fixed Claude Usage progress bars not showing fill.
- Claude Usage tab: shared login across VS instances.
- Fixed Claude Usage tab failing when multiple VS instances are open.
- Claude Usage tab UI polish.
- Enter always sends the prompt; Shift+Enter or Ctrl+Enter inserts a newline.
- Fixed Claude Usage progress bars on wide panels.
- Claude Usage Limits in Visual Studio — new 📊 button opens a dockable tab with claude.ai plan usage; inline session and weekly progress bars below the prompt.
- Custom Commands — configure reusable commands via the agent menu; the ⚡ toolbar button dispatches them to the active agent.
- Closing VS no longer closes unrelated Windows Terminal windows.
- Cut / Copy / Paste / Select All available in the prompt context menu.
- Qwen Code provider removed.
- More space for the prompt area.
- Cursor Agent: Yolo Mode toggle.
- Splitter boundary fix.
- Install Caveman plugin from the model menu.
- Automated marketplace publishing (no user-facing changes).
- Detects winget-installed Claude Code.
- Fixed
claude: command not foundin WSL.
- Invert Layout option in the settings menu.
- Fixed repeated WSL install popups.
- Fixed floating terminal window on slower machines.
- Windsurf model selection — Opus / Sonnet / Codex / Gemini Pro.
- Windsurf Show Usage menu item.
- Windsurf (WSL) provider added with full integration.
- Fixed CMake / Open Folder project directory detection.
- 📋 toolbar button inserts the editor selection into the prompt as a formatted snippet with file path and line numbers.
- Icon-based toolbar with compact emoji icons.
- Fixed detach icon on theme switch.
- Toolbar button color consistency across themes.
- File attachment chips moved to free up toolbar space.
- Removed the 5-file attachment limit — now unlimited.
- Fixed image / file not found by AI (consolidated temp folder).
- Fixed prompt paste failing when text was selected in the terminal.
- Change Account option in the Claude model menu.
- Terminal hidden from taskbar.
- Terminal layout refreshes on solution load.
- Added Windows Terminal install command to the "Not Found" dialog.
- F5 / Ctrl+F5 / Shift+F5 forwarded from the embedded terminal to Visual Studio debug commands.
- Extension icon shown on tool window tabs.
- Auto-focus detached terminal when the extension regains focus.
- Performance: non-blocking solution / project open and provider switching.
- Faster process termination on shutdown.
- Windows Terminal commands (model switch, effort, usage, language) fixed.
- Codex flag updated to
--ask-for-approval never. - Terminal lifecycle and layout stabilization.
- Fixed terminal zoom tracking.
- Fixed Windows Terminal paste and text selection.
- Detach Terminal: prompt area auto-expands on detach.
- Terminal and prompt zoom persistence across sessions.
- Detached state persistence fix.
- Detach Terminal: splitter stays visible; prompt font zoom (8–24pt).
- Multiple Detach Terminal fixes (fill tab, re-attach layout, double re-attach, prompt sending with diff open).
- Detach Terminal into a separate VS tool window tab; state persists.
- Fixed Show Usage for Windows Terminal.
- Adjusted Windows Terminal initial zoom.
- Windows Terminal support with seamless embedding, auto-detection, and install link.
- Fixed Show Usage menu navigation.
- Set Working Directory dialog now follows VS theme.
- Prompt history now saves and restores file attachments.
- Special character rendering fixed (UTF-8 + Cascadia Mono).
- Diff viewer falls back to VS bundled git when
gitisn't on PATH. - Clipboard contention retry logic.
- Effort Level Selection (Auto / Low / Medium / High / Max) in the model menu.
- Show Usage and Set Language menu items.
- Codex: Full Auto toggle.
- Codex Windows native support (previous Codex renamed "Codex (WSL)").
- Fixed "too many arguments" error when workspace path contains spaces.
- Updated documentation.
- Terminal embedding no longer requires Windows Console Host as the default terminal.
- Fixed terminal embedding on fresh VS launch / solution change.
- Workspace change now handles all providers correctly.
- Claude Code: Skip Permissions toggle.
- Double-click a diff code line to open the file at that line.
- Opus selection automatically opens the thinking mode selector.
- Fixed file attachment for non-standard file types.
- Major diff view performance fix for repositories with many changes.
- Cursor Agent native Windows support (previous renamed "Cursor Agent (WSL)").
- Improved WSL path conversion logic.
- Fixed WSL UNC path conversion bug.
- Diff view encoding fixes and auto-scroll improvements.
- Diff view performance improvements and search box.
- Auto-open Changes on Send option.
- Improved file change detection and auto-scroll behavior.
- Diff view available only for Git projects.
- Repository-wide diff tracking.
- Auto-Scroll for the diff view.
- Performance improvements for large repositories.
- Fix extension description.
- Diff tool performance optimizations.
- Ctrl+Scroll zoom on the diff view (50%–300%).
- More tracked file types (
.csproj,.sln, etc.).
- Integrated Diff Tool — built-in diff view in a new tab.
- Clarified free-for-commercial-use license.
- Data privacy documentation.
- "Add Image" renamed to "Add File" with broad file type support.
- Multiple file attachment support.
- Fixed Excel cell paste (now pastes as text instead of an image).
- Fixed UI lag when typing in the prompt textbox.
- Performance improvements.
- Fix Sonnet model selection issues.
- Open Code support added.
- Fixes for supported providers.
- ARM64 support for Visual Studio.
- Clipboard preservation and restoration.
- Claude Model Selection dropdown (Opus / Sonnet / Haiku).
- Fixed instructions and about screens.
- Qwen Code support.
- Fix terminal hiding on tab switching.
- Native Claude Code support for Windows.
- Clickable image chips to open attached images.
- VS 2026 support.
- Prompt history with Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down.
- Updated install instructions.
- Simplified window titles for Claude Code variants.
- Fixed WSL agent detection right after system boot.
- Claude Code (WSL) support.
- Unified exit logic across providers.
- Codex now runs in WSL.
- Improved Codex exit handling.
- Update Agent button added with per-provider update commands.
- Fixed terminal not opening when VS restarts with a solution loaded.
- Cleaner single-border UI.
- Terminal initializes on solution open.
- Improved solution switching.
- Cursor Agent (WSL) support with automatic detection and installation guide.
- Internal code reorganization (no functional changes).
- Fixed extension re-initialization when switching between windows.
- Automatic temp directory cleanup on startup.
- Simpler image naming.
- OpenAI Codex as a second AI assistant option.
- Theme support (follows VS light / dark).
- Helpful install instructions if Claude Code is not found.
- Fixed image pasting.
-
Initial release: embedded AI assistant terminal in Visual Studio.
-
In rare cases for some machines terminal might lauch outside the extension and fatal error "Stop code: KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE (0x139)" can happen. Workaround right now is to run VS.NET as Administrator.
This extension is provided free of charge under the MIT License.
- Free for All: The extension is free to use for personal, educational, and commercial purposes
- Output Ownership: All prompts, source code, and generated outputs belong to the user
- Internal Use: Commercial organizations may use this extension internally without restriction
- No Reselling: The extension itself may not be sold commercially
- No Unauthorized Clones: Creating derivative extensions requires author permission
- Local Storage: Up to 50 prompts are cached locally at
%LocalAppData%\ClaudeCodeExtension\claudecode-settings.json - Cloud Processing: All prompts are sent to the configured AI provider
- Data Retention: Follows each provider's data usage policy:
- No Third-Party Access: Data is only accessible to the configured model provider
For licensing inquiries or permission requests, please contact the author at dliedke@gmail.com.
Claude Code Extension for Visual Studio - Enhancing your AI-assisted development workflow
Build with the help of Claude Opus 4.5, Claude Code, GPT-5, Codex, Qwen Code and Antigravity