Auto-set VSCode terminal icon and color when Claude Code is running

Summary

When Claude Code runs in a VSCode integrated terminal, it already sets the
terminal title (e.g. "Claude Code"). It would be great if the VSCode
extension also set a custom icon and color on that terminal tab so
Claude sessions are instantly recognizable in the side panel — especially
when several terminals are open.

Motivation

• Title alone is easy to miss when tabs are narrow or many terminals are open.
• A distinctive icon + color (e.g. the Claude sparkle on a magenta tab) makes

it obvious at a glance which terminal is the agent vs. a normal shell.

• Manual workarounds exist (right-click → Change Icon / Change Color, or a

dedicated terminal profile in settings.json), but they don't apply
automatically when Claude Code is launched in an existing terminal, and
they require every user to set them up themselves.

Why the CLI can't do this itself

There's no ANSI/OSC escape sequence for terminal icon or tab color in VSCode.
The VSCode terminal API only lets the extension that creates the terminal
set iconPath and color via window.createTerminal({ iconPath, color }).
So this needs to live in the Claude Code VSCode extension, not the CLI.

Proposed behavior

When the Claude Code VSCode extension spawns / attaches to a terminal for a
Claude session:

• Set iconPath to a Claude-branded icon (e.g. sparkle or a bundled SVG).
• Set color to a configurable theme color (default e.g.

terminal.ansiMagenta).

• Expose both as user settings so they can be overridden or disabled:
• claude-code.terminal.icon
• claude-code.terminal.color

Alternatives considered

• Manual right-click → Change Icon / Change Color (works but per-terminal,

not automatic).

• Custom terminal profile in settings.json (works only when launching via

that profile, not when Claude attaches to an existing terminal).

Environment

• VSCode integrated terminal (side panel)
• Claude Code VSCode extension