[FEATURE] VS Code extension should honor remoteControlAtStartup (or expose claudeCode.remoteControlAtStartup)

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests — closest are #54527 (desktop app), #50059 (desktop "Code tab"), #54247 (extending Remote Control to VS Code, now done), and #56534 (terse, no surface specified). None cover the VS Code extension specifically.
• [x] This is a single feature request.

Problem Statement

remoteControlAtStartup: true in ~/.claude/settings.json is honored when Claude Code launches via the bare CLI in a terminal, but is silently ignored by the VS Code extension's webview launcher. In the extension I have to type /remote-control once per session to enable Remote Control, even though I've persisted the setting globally.

I verified the extension does not read this key:

$ grep -oE "remoteControlAtStartup|remoteControl[A-Za-z]*" \
    ~/.vscode/extensions/anthropic.claude-code-2.1.131-darwin-arm64/extension.js \
    | sort | uniq -c
   13 remoteControlState

Only remoteControlState (runtime tracking) appears — never remoteControlAtStartup. The extension's contributed configuration namespace (claudeCode.* per package.json) doesn't expose any startup hook for Remote Control, so there's no extension-level workaround either.

This makes Remote Control effectively opt-in-per-session for VS Code users, even when the user has clearly expressed a global preference.

Proposed Solution

Either of these would resolve it:

1. Make the extension read remoteControlAtStartup from ~/.claude/settings.json at session start. Mirrors CLI behavior; one source of truth.
2. Expose a new claudeCode.remoteControlAtStartup setting in the extension's contributed configuration. Lets users opt in via VS Code's settings UI.

Option 1 is preferable because it keeps configuration unified across surfaces (terminal CLI, desktop app, VS Code extension all read the same key). Option 2 would also work but creates a divergence: users would have to set the same intent in two places if they use both terminal and VS Code.

Workaround

Set claudeCode.useTerminal: true in VS Code, which delegates the launch to the integrated terminal where the CLI honors remoteControlAtStartup. Trade-off: loses the native webview UI (inline diffs, file pickers, etc.).

Environment

• Claude Code VS Code extension: 2.1.131 (anthropic.claude-code from VS Code Marketplace)
• VS Code: macOS native (Darwin 24.6.0, arm64)
• ~/.claude/settings.json: "remoteControlAtStartup": true is set
• Same setting works as expected in the bare-CLI Claude Code in the terminal

Related

• #54527 — same setting, desktop app surface
• #50059 — desktop "Code tab" same issue
• #54247 — extending Remote Control to VS Code (now done — this issue is about the auto-startup hook on top of that)

— Claude