Add support for Visual Studio 2026 Integration

Yes please, just using the integrated terminal is of limited use, and trying to deal with game projects in VS Code is not a sacrifice worth making.

I had a long Pro Plan session with Claude CLI trying to do this.. I installed Claude Code Extension for Visual Studio. That got me as far as Claude Code window in VS2026. Anything I type pops up the Github Copilot Hub. There it looks as if I can 'Manage Models' 'Bring my own model' . Choices include Anthropic. At which point it asks for an API key. I don't have one. A separate billing process involving credits. Might that work?, I don't fancy trying even $5 to find out. Back to CLI .

It's hard to pitch Claude Code to my boss without proper VS integration in my .NET environment

Windows game dev is almost exclusively C++ and Visual Studio. I wish there was an extension.

It would be really a breaktrhough. Hate AI tools being released for VS Code and not for VS!

It's so weird that Claude Code isn't available for Visual Studio 2022 or 2026 yet. VS Code is nice when I'm using it, but 90% of my work is in the Visual Studio IDE. The workarounds we have to come up with are annoying.

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Dear god, yes please.
We have half the team on vs code, I'm using copilot on Visual Studio...having the option to just use claude code and add MCP-Servers using the same config as in visual studio code(Visual studio simply doesn't support prompts the same way and complains about "version" and other json properties which literally don't invalidate the rest of the json config values).
I'm sure Anthropics being so close with Microsoft SHOULD be able to bring the same user experience to Visual Studio in fact I can't understand why Microsoft released Visual Studio 2026 with such subpar support for these features in the first place compared to VSCode.

I was using Claude CLI this morning to review some code and then add features, including an additional form button. It successfully proposed the changes, redesigned the form, then after I had backed up, accepted the changes and given the go ahead it ran the build and debug. The IDE was open at the time so I could have the windows open side by side. Not ideal but gave a hint of what could be achieved if this integration request was implemented.

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Adding my voice here. I'm a Max subscriber using Visual Studio 2026 on Windows 10 for cross-platform Avalonia UI development. Getting Claude Code working in VS required a community extension, a WinGet install, manually copying claude.exe to a different directory because the extension couldn't find it, registry edits for terminal embedding, and several hours of troubleshooting. The tool is powerful once it's running, but the lack of native VS support makes the onboarding experience painful. Full Visual Studio should not be treated as second-class to VS Code.

Full stack development uses azure, aspire, avalonia and a host of complex tools. Windows 10 , especially among enterprise developers is the de-facto standard. Your own Claude Code Max ai wonders why you have neglected the huge market that is currently under-served. If you wont listen to us, listen to Claude Code using a MAX subscription..

This is an absolute must for us. Our entire development team uses Visual Studio 2026 for our .Net backend development. The only way for the team to use Claude is via GitHub copilot which is a very expensive option for us.

Unfortunately, Claude Code Opus 4.6 is not good enough to build a Visual Studio 2026 extension.
Maybe in the future, if models improve, we can see something like that.

Please Anthropic, put this high on your list of things to do. Currently having to use Claude LLM through Github copilot. I do all my planning using Claude Desktop but would love to explore implementing these complex plans through your tools so I wouldn't have to explain the context of what I am doing again. I have MCP to ADO setup and it builds my stories but there are still details on my implementation plans that are lost that I have to correct through the process.

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This is a really necessary feature.
There is an extension, but it’s inconvenient.
Please make it available in the Visual Studio 2022 version as well.

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As a seasoned enterprise architect, my team is building enterprise grade integrated software solutions. Our primary environment is VS 2026 for all production development. The lack of native VSIX integration means we have to context-switch between VS and a terminal for every Claude interaction. VS Code doesn't work either for the level we are coding at. Specifically missing:

1. Native diff review inside VS (not terminal text stream)
2. Build error context automatically passed to Claude
3. Dockable chat panel — not a detached terminal
4. Breakpoint/debug state visible to Claude during sessions
5. The ability to use Max or higher paid Claude subscriptions so that we can take advantage of longer context and ai workflow sessions.

This is blocking us from making Claude Code our primary development environment for production work.

Adding my voice here. I'm a Max subscriber using Visual Studio 2026 on Windows 10 for cross-platform Avalonia UI development. Getting Claude Code working in VS required a community extension, a WinGet install, manually copying claude.exe to a different directory because the extension couldn't find it, registry edits for terminal embedding, and several hours of troubleshooting. The tool is powerful once it's running, but the lack of native VS support makes the onboarding experience painful. Full Visual Studio should not be treated as second-class to VS Code. Full stack development uses azure, aspire, avalonia and a host of complex tools. Windows 10 , especially among enterprise developers is the de-facto standard. Your own Claude Code Max ai wonders why you have neglected the huge market that is currently under-served. If you wont listen to us, listen to Claude Code using a MAX subscription..

Hi, which community extention have you been using?

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+1 official VS extension would be nice

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You want something? do it yourself

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dliedke.ClaudeCodeExtension

Unfortunately, Claude Code Opus 4.6 is not good enough to build a Visual Studio 2026 extension. Maybe in the future, if models improve, we can see something like that.

Built with 4.5

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It's hard to pitch Claude Code to my boss without proper VS integration in my .NET environment

Did you try to work with the CLI?

I'm a Claude Max subscriber and a heavy Claude Code user. The CLI works well, but there's a significant gap for .NET and C++ developers who rely heavily on the Visual Studio IDE ecosystem.

The CLI integration doesn't cover key Visual Studio-specific workflows, particularly:
• Debugging sessions (step-through, breakpoints, watch windows)
• Crash dump analysis
• Memory and performance profiling
• Integration with VS diagnostic and analysis tools

A native Visual Studio extension would unlock Claude Code's full potential for these developers — bringing AI assistance directly into the workflows where they spend most of their time.

Requested support:
• Visual Studio 2026 – Must have
• Visual Studio 2022 – Should have
• Visual Studio 2019 – Nice to have

This would be a major quality-of-life improvement for the large community of .NET and C++ developers who live in Visual Studio.

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+1 and also include "open in" support for code sessions in claude desktop

+1, because I rely on Visual Studio for the development of VSTO add-ins for Word and PowerPoint.

the part that bites here isn't the chat panel or the diff GUI, those are the easy 80%. it's context sync. claude code's existing ide hookup advertises a websocket via a lockfile in ~/.claude/ide/ and the editor extension pushes selection + open files over it. the hard item on your list, the compiler Error List, doesn't ride along for free. an accessibility-tree read gets you the visible buffer and cursor across any window, but diagnostics live in a structured model behind that list, not as readable text. so VS 2026 parity really means tapping its diagnostics api, not just docking a window and forwarding the buffer.

+1 at least something for debug assistance

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very not convenient to use the terminal. Pleas integrate claude really in VS C++

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And one more "+1" from me

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It would be great if you add this as an official extension.

Yes please

Unfortunately, Claude Code Opus 4.6 is not good enough to build a Visual Studio 2026 extension. Maybe in the future, if models improve, we can see something like that.

@Youlean, is Claude Code Opus 4.8 good enough?

> Unfortunately, Claude Code Opus 4.6 is not good enough to build a Visual Studio 2026 extension. Maybe in the future, if models improve, we can see something like that. @Youlean, is Claude Code Opus 4.8 good enough?

This is my side project for the week. I made decent progress with previous versions of Opus. I'm hoping that Opus 4.8 with workflows will help me get it over the finish line.

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We need this! One would think this would be one of y'all's biggest request.

> > Unfortunately, Claude Code Opus 4.6 is not good enough to build a Visual Studio 2026 extension. Maybe in the future, if models improve, we can see something like that. > > > @Youlean, is Claude Code Opus 4.8 good enough? This is my side project for the week. I made decent progress with previous versions of Opus. I'm hoping that Opus 4.8 with workflows will help me get it over the finish line.

and now you can check with claude fable :)

+1, the Visual Studio 2026 extension is the only reason why we use copilot instead of using Claude Code directly.

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anyone tried https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dliedke.ClaudeCodeExtension already?

I created a proxy to be able to re-use the GitHub Copilot Chat's features like review, integrated/native diff (keep, undo, etc.), context awareness, and debugging, among other things:
https://github.com/icnocop/ClaudeCodeOllamaProxy

I commented on this a while back and after Github copilot nerfed their product back in May in preparation for usage based work, I was completely unable to work so I had to shift and then move over to claude code immediately. My perception was I had to use VS Code so I decided to bite the bullet and download it and what I quickly found is this perception that there is some kind of nice integration of claude with VS code was unfounded personally. They have a chat window but the terminal is the preferred method and I found this no different than using a terminal in visual studio 2026. So it was a bit of an adjustment after using github copilot for so long I now am much happier with claude code. I find it to be way cheaper than Github's copilots new usage model. An operation that would have cost me 2% monthly usage shot up to 33% of my monthly usage where as that same operation would have been much more comprehensive with claude code and likely ran a little slower but the output would have been more concise and the token usage would have been probably 10-15% of my 5 hour session limit. So I will be canceling my github copilot subscription this month and sticking with claude code as it is sooo much better. The pros of github copilot are minimal. I used to love the diff viewer but you can use git for that. They also shows diffs in the terminal window so I encourage anyone waiting for this integration to try it out because IMO there is no realy integration between claude and VS code, at least from what I saw.

Hello everyone,

I read this thread, and though building this would be a good learning experience. So, I built a Visual Studio extension that does exactly this. It implements the same IDE-integration protocol that the VS Code and JetBrains plugins use, so the CLI talks to it natively.

What you get:

1. (Biggest contribution) Claude's edits open in a real VS diff window. You accept or reject there, not on the terminal prompt.
2. You can reject and type a reason inline, and Claude will reconsider.
3. Claude sees your compiler errors (C# and C++) and your current selection automatically.
4. There's a dockable panel that shows connection status and token usage stats for your session.
5. It works with the existing Claude CLI, you just need to install the extension and click Launch. Tested against claude 2.1.173 on Visual Studio 2026.

Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=firish.bridgev1

GitHub: https://github.com/firish/claude_code_vs (check the gif in the readme for a quick visual example)

Happy to take bug reports / PRs, or in general, any constructive feedback!

Here is the demo GIF showing how the feature works:
!Demo GIF

The core IDE half is still there: native diff with accept / reject / reject-with-feedback (the diff is the only gate, no second terminal prompt), C# and C++ compiler diagnostics shared with the model, selection context, and a dockable stats panel.

In 1.2.0 it goes a step past the current VS Code extension: Claude can read your live debugger state (call stack, locals, threads) and, opt-in, drive the debugger (set breakpoints, continue, step, start/stop a session) to find bugs by running the code, not just reading it.

Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=firish.bridgev1
Source + docs: https://github.com/firish/claude_code_vs

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5b3aab9c-faca-4cb8-ae34-267d5ec71925

Why is it so hard to implement this @claude ? We need VS 2026 integration plz

Waiting for this extension, it would be great to use official extension.

Copilot getting grazy expensive. An extension please.

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I read this thread, and though building this would be a good learning experience. So, I built a Visual Studio extension that does exactly this. It implements the same IDE-integration protocol that the VS Code and JetBrains plugins use, so the CLI talks to it natively.

....

GitHub: https://github.com/firish/claude_code_vs (check the gif in the readme for a quick visual example)

....

Here is the demo GIF showing how the feature works: !Demo GIF 

This looks great! I'm away from my dev box for a couple of weeks but I'm excited to give it a try once I'm back. The fact that it's directly integrated into the VS debugger is a huge selling point for me.

Is there any context menu integration - highlight code then right-click to either Explain, Fix or Send to Console? I don't know if that's of any worth, but those are items I've seen in the now-EOL'd Amazon Q plug-in.

Hey, thanks for the comment. I have been making constants edits to it to add more VS integrations.

1. Yes, you can open a file and highlight something using your mouse and ask claude and it will see the selected/highlighted text.

1. It has complete integration with VS debugger (EnvDTE)

1. It has VS concord integration (data breakpoints, race conditions, thread ownership and starvation)

1. It has VS test explorer integration, to catch a flaky test, and fix it and run it again to see if it passes.

1. It has a ClrMD integration to check for memory leaks and inspect the heap memory usage.

1. It has more quality of life features, like being able to drag and drop images and files to claude without pasting the path in the CLI (ctrl c + ctrl v also work)

If you have any other feature requests, please let me know, or simply add a feature request or issue on GitHub. I try and release a patch every week.

Hi all — I had the same itch, so I built it: https://github.com/Corsinvest/cv4vs-agents
(I'm the author). VS 2022 and 2026, GPL-3.0.

It drives the real claude.exe as a child process, so your plan, ~/.claude settings, agents, MCP
servers and hooks are untouched. Chat panel, VS diff window for edits, /ide, and an in-process MCP
server that hands the IDE to the CLI — open files, Error List, build errors, Roslyn navigation,
and the debugger (breakpoints, call stack, locals, evaluate). So the pKey example works: sit at
the breakpoint and ask why it's null.

!Chat

!CLI

Hi all
Since there is no answer from Anthropic for that, i develop my own Extension for VS2026, VS2022, VS2019 and VS2017

I am working and improving it in the last 2 month

its free

Have Fun

https://github.com/nachum-shmilovitz-66/claude-code-visualstudio/releases/latest

<img width="713" height="758" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ff795128-397e-4860-9604-cffbf83ae226" />

<img width="710" height="755" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/bdb0c09a-9ed2-4356-9950-3eb32c668132" />

<img width="713" height="753" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a757e09b-9b68-4a92-8237-ea3641d20622" />

Hi all Since there is no Anthropic Answer for that i develop my own Extension for VS2026, VS2022, VS2019 and VS2017 I am working and improving it in the last 2 month its free Have Fun https://github.com/nachum-shmilovitz-66/claude-code-visualstudio/releases/latest <img alt="Image" width="713" height="758" src="https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/6651968/634096979-ff795128-397e-4860-9604-cffbf83ae226.png?jwt=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.-_KOaYTr2-oN5zKGf2wd6HQEbAC4E5Y_bznEQApUfYk"> <img alt="Image" width="710" height="755" src="https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/6651968/634097209-bdb0c09a-9ed2-4356-9950-3eb32c668132.png?jwt=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.D7QbM2AyjK8Eshhzo6fUEiloI4Dg37up22BrodV8CqI"> <img alt="Image" width="713" height="753" src="https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/6651968/634097786-a757e09b-9b68-4a92-8237-ea3641d20622.png?jwt=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.C45E02uvyruAYq9aUJI1RYqm1sdWMHNEUUuuu8gMPf0">

Can I still run prompts within an existing Claude project?

Yes — just open your existing solution and start typing; nothing needs to be set up or converted. Claude Code works on whatever folder your solution lives in, and its instructions come from a CLAUDE.md file in the repo.

One thing to flag: if you mean a Project on claude.ai (with its custom instructions and uploaded files), that doesn't carry over — the extension uses your Claude account but runs against your local code, not claude.ai Projects. Let me know if that's what you meant and I'll go into more detail.

Yes — just open your existing solution and start typing; nothing needs to be set up or converted. Claude Code works on whatever folder your solution lives in, and its instructions come from a CLAUDE.md file in the repo. One thing to flag: if you mean a Project on claude.ai (with its custom instructions and uploaded files), that doesn't carry over — the extension uses your Claude account but runs against your local code, not claude.ai Projects. Let me know if that's what you meant and I'll go into more detail.

Yes that was what I meant but it makes sense.

Same answer from my side (I maintain cv4vs-agents, linked above): claude.ai Projects don't carry over — the CLI runs against your working directory, and its instructions come from CLAUDE.md in the repo.

The practical migration is: paste the Project's custom instructions into CLAUDE.md at the solution root, and drop the uploaded files into the repo (or a docs/ folder) so they're readable. From then on every session in that solution picks them up, no per-conversation re-upload. /init will bootstrap a first CLAUDE.md for you from the codebase, then you edit in the Project-specific parts.

Worth adding for this thread: what a VS extension buys over the plain CLI is the IDE context — Error List, open files/selection, Roslyn navigation and the debugger (breakpoints, call stack, locals, evaluate) exposed to Claude as MCP tools. That's the part CLAUDE.md can't replace: sitting on a breakpoint and asking why a value is null.