[DOCS] Mention that third-party editors can implement the /ide integration

Status Open
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 0 comments · opened Oct 9, 2026

Documentation Type

Missing documentation (feature not documented)

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/vs-code

Section/Topic

IDE integrations (the built-in IDE MCP server, and connecting from an external terminal with /ide)

Current Documentation

The extension also installs in other VS Code forks like Devin Desktop or Kiro. […] If your editor can't install the extension, install the CLI and run claude in its integrated terminal instead.

The IDE pages cover only VS Code (and its forks) and JetBrains IDEs. The "built-in IDE MCP server" section describes the mechanism: a local MCP server named ide, on 127.0.0.1, carrying diffs, the selection and diagnostics. It presents that mechanism as part of the official extensions.

What's Wrong or Missing?

Other editors implement the same mechanism. They write ~/.claude/ide/<port>.lock and serve the localhost WebSocket MCP server, and then they show up in /ide like the official extensions do. A Claude Code user on such an editor gets native diff review, selection context and diagnostics, but nothing in the docs says this is possible. As far as I can tell, there is no list or registry of third-party editors either, so users can't find out which editors work.

Suggested Improvement

A short note on the IDE integration pages, something like:

Other editors can implement the same integration. An editor that writes a lockfile to ~/.claude/ide/ and serves the IDE MCP server appears in /ide, the same as the official extensions. Support for third-party editors is provided by their developers, not Anthropic.

Optionally, link to a short list of known third-party editors, or a community-maintained one. As an example: Incise, a native macOS text editor, implements the integration and appears in /ide. Setup and details: https://incise.dev/ide

Impact

Low - Minor confusion or inconvenience

Additional Context

Related: #32362 asks for a Zed integration, which suggests users look for /ide support beyond VS Code and JetBrains. Disclosure: I develop Incise.

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