Support image viewing capability (view_image tool) like GitHub Copilot

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Problem

When using Claude Code in VS Code, users often need to analyze or describe images (screenshots, diagrams, UI mockups, etc.) during development. Currently, Claude Code lacks a built-in tool to read and interpret image files.

GitHub Copilot has a powerful built-in view_image tool that allows the assistant to read PNG/JPG/GIF/WebP images and describe their contents. This is extremely useful for:

• Analyzing UI/UX screenshots
• Reading diagrams and architecture drawings
• Debugging visual issues
• Understanding test output screenshots

Feature Request

Add a view_image (or similar) tool that Claude Code can invoke to read image files and provide their content/description to the language model.

Proposed Solution

Suggested Implementation

Following VS Code's Language Model Tools API (vscode.lm.registerTool), the tool could:

1. Accept a file path as input
2. Read the image file using vscode.workspace.fs.readFile()
3. Convert the image to a format compatible with the underlying model (e.g., base64)
4. Return the image data as a tool result

The tool declaration in package.json would use the languageModelTools contribution point.

References

• GitHub Copilot's view_image tool in VS Code provides this exact functionality
• VS Code LM Tool API: vscode.lm.registerTool()

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

_No response_

Additional Context

_No response_