Claude Code Preview
Render Claude Code responses with proper LaTeX math, code highlighting, and markdown formatting — directly from VS Code's integrated terminal.
When you press Cmd+K V (or Ctrl+K V on Linux/Windows) in a terminal running claude, the latest response opens as a markdown preview beside the terminal. The preview auto-refreshes after every new response.
Features
- No setup. Install the extension and it just works alongside Claude Code. No shell hooks, no config files to edit.
- Math rendering. Inline
$...$ and display $$...$$ LaTeX expressions render via VS Code's built-in KaTeX support.
- Per-session previews. The extension finds which session belongs to the focused terminal by walking its process tree. Parallel sessions in the same project show their own previews — no collisions.
- Two open modes. Open to the side (
Cmd+K V) or in the current pane (Cmd+Shift+V), mirroring the built-in markdown preview keybindings.
Requirements
- Claude Code installed and used in a terminal (any terminal — VS Code's integrated terminal works best).
- macOS or Linux for precise per-session resolution. Windows users get the most-recently-updated session as a fallback.
Usage
- Open a terminal in VS Code and run
claude.
- Send a message.
- Press
Cmd+K V with the terminal focused.
The preview opens beside the terminal. Each subsequent response updates it automatically.
The commands are also available in the Command Palette:
- Claude Code Preview: Open Latest Response to the Side
- Claude Code Preview: Open Latest Response
How it works
The extension watches Claude Code's transcript files at ~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl. When a transcript changes, it extracts the latest assistant response and writes it to the extension's private storage. The preview command resolves which session belongs to your focused terminal (via process-tree walking and Claude Code's ~/.claude/sessions/<pid>.json registry) and opens the corresponding markdown file.
If precise resolution fails (e.g. on Windows or when pgrep is unavailable), the command falls back to the most-recently-updated session.
Troubleshooting
Logs are written to the Claude Code Preview output channel: View → Output → Claude Code Preview. If the preview doesn't open:
- Confirm
~/.claude/projects/ exists and contains .jsonl transcript files.
- Check that the terminal you focus is running
claude (not a parent shell or tmux wrapper).
- Reload the window after install:
Cmd+Shift+P → Developer: Reload Window.
License
MIT
