Claude Agents for VS Code

Your Claude Code agents, one click away.

A tiny button in your status bar opens Claude's agent view for the project you're in, right inside your editor. No sidebar, no setup, no clutter.

Install from the VS Code Marketplace →

Why I built this

Moving from Cursor to Claude Code was a brain slap. In Cursor, chats lived right next to my code: I opened one, did the work, came back to it later. With Claude Code, I was juggling terminals and losing track of which session belonged to which project.

So I built the thing I was missing. Claude's agent view now sits one click away in every project. I treat each agent like a chat: start one per task, come back to it later, and each project keeps its own set. It feels like Cursor's chat panel, but it's running Claude Code.

Why you'll like it

⚡ One click, you're in. Click ✨ Claude in the status bar, or press ⌘⌥A (Ctrl+Alt+A), and claude agents opens for your current project. Already open? The same click takes you back to it, even after a window reload, so you don't end up with a pile of duplicate tabs.

📌 It stays put. Agents open as a pinned editor tab next to your code, not squeezed into the bottom panel. Switch files as much as you like and the tab stays where you left it.

👥 Work and personal, side by side. Using more than one Claude account? Give each one its own button and its own color. Each profile keeps its own config, its own login, and its own terminal, and you can add as many as you need. Pin a project to one profile and only that button shows up there.

🚀 Built for flow. Agents launch with full autonomy by default, so they don't stop to ask permission for every step. Prefer to approve actions yourself? It's one setting to turn off.

🪶 Nothing extra. No panels, no background indexing, no telemetry, no state files. It's a single small file with no dependencies, starts after VS Code finishes loading, and stays out of your way. Want your agents waiting for you when you open a project? Turn on one setting.

Get started in 30 seconds

1. Install from the VS Code Marketplace, or search "Claude Agents" in the Extensions view, or run:

   code --install-extension charanjit-singh.claude-launcher-minimal
   

2. Click ✨ Claude in the bottom-right corner of your status bar.

That's it. Prefer a manual install? Grab the .vsix from GitHub Releases and use Extensions → ··· → Install from VSIX…

You'll need the Claude Code CLI on your PATH and VS Code 1.93 or newer.

Set up multiple accounts

Run Claude: Manage Profiles from the Command Palette, or hover any status bar button and click Manage profiles. From there you can add a profile, pick its color, point it at its own config folder, rename it, or delete it, all without touching JSON.

Prefer editing settings directly? Add this to your settings.json:

"claudeLauncher.profiles": [
  { "name": "Personal", "color": "blue" },
  { "name": "Work", "configDir": "~/.claude-work", "color": "magenta" }
]

Each profile gets its own status bar button. configDir points that profile at its own Claude config folder (it's passed to Claude as CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR), so your accounts, sessions, and settings never mix. Leave configDir out to use the default ~/.claude.

color tints the profile's button and its terminal tab so you always know which account you're in. Pick from black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, or white; the exact shade comes from your theme. A new color shows on the button right away. A tab that's already open keeps its old color until you open a new one, because VS Code can't recolor an existing terminal.

The first time you launch a new profile, sign in once and you're done.

Pin a project to one profile

Open the project, run Claude: Set Project Profile (or hover a button → Project profile), and pick one. That window then shows only that profile's button, and the keyboard shortcut opens it without asking. Pick All profiles to go back to showing every button.

Your choice is saved in the project's .vscode/settings.json, so it follows the repo. Commit that file and anyone who shares your profile names gets the same setup.

Per-project overrides in JSON

VS Code reads settings in two layers: your User settings apply everywhere, and Workspace settings (.vscode/settings.json in the project) override them for that project. Every Claude Agents setting works at both levels.

Put your accounts in User settings once (Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)):

{
  "claudeLauncher.profiles": [
    { "name": "Personal", "color": "blue" },
    { "name": "Work", "configDir": "~/.claude-work", "color": "magenta" }
  ]
}

Then override per project in .vscode/settings.json (Preferences: Open Workspace Settings (JSON)):

{
  "claudeLauncher.defaultProfile": "Work",           // only the Work button, no questions
  "claudeLauncher.openOnStartup": true,              // agents open when this repo opens
  "claudeLauncher.dangerouslySkipPermissions": false // ask before acting, in this repo only
}

Worth knowing:

• A workspace profiles list replaces yours; it doesn't merge. If you set claudeLauncher.profiles in a project, that project sees only those profiles. Usually defaultProfile is all you need.
• To show every button where your User settings pin one, set "claudeLauncher.defaultProfile": "" in the project. Set Project Profile → All profiles does this for you.
• In a multi-root workspace, workspace settings live in the .code-workspace file instead.
• Untrusted folders can't change the risky settings. Until you trust a folder, its own settings can't change profiles, dangerouslySkipPermissions, or openOnStartup, and agents never open automatically there. A repo you just cloned can't make itself launch an agent or point Claude at its own config folder.

Tips

Shortcut already taken? Rebind it in Keyboard Shortcuts (⌘K ⌘S) by searching "Claude Agents".

Settings

⚠️ With permissions skipped, agents can edit files and run commands without asking first. That's great for momentum, but only use it on projects where you're comfortable with that.

Pairs well with: Sync Code Theme

Working on several projects at once? Install sync-code-theme, a Claude Code plugin that tints each VS Code window with its project's own brand colors. Combined with Claude Agents, you can tell at a glance which window, and which agents, belong to which project.

For contributors

git clone https://github.com/charanjit-singh/ClaudeVsCodeMinimal.git
cd ClaudeVsCodeMinimal
code .            # then press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host

Pushing a vX.Y.Z tag builds the .vsix and publishes a GitHub Release automatically, using that version's notes from the CHANGELOG.