I tried this, but I can't find the VSCode extension first of all (it won't install), and when I find the .vsix file and install the extension into Vscode myself, still no ides will be detected upon running claude code via the Ubuntu terminal inside Vscode. Does anyone have access to this? I updated vscode and claude code to the newest version, but i can't seem to be able to run it.

Hey r/ClaudeAI community!

I've been diving into some Claude Code tutorials lately and I'm genuinely curious about something that's been bugging me. When you launch Claude Code from VS Code's integrated terminal, it somehow manages to:

Know which files/tabs are currently open in VS Code Show real-time diff views for file edits directly in the VS Code interface Seamlessly interact with the editor like it's a native feature But here's the thing - Claude Code isn't actually a VS Code extension. It's running as a separate process in the terminal.

So my question is: What's the underlying mechanism that makes this magic happen?

Is it:

Using VS Code's Language Server Protocol somehow? Hooking into some undocumented APIs? File system watching + some clever IPC? Something with VS Code's extension host communication? I've tried digging through the docs but can't find a clear explanation of how external CLI tools can achieve this level of integration without being proper extensions.

Anyone here has insights into this? Would love to understand the technical details behind this integration pattern.

Thanks in advance! 🙏