[FEATURE] VS Code extension: select assistant response text as context for follow-up (like Codex)
Open 💬 0 comments Opened Jun 29, 2026 by Charlesever
Feature Request
In native Codex IDE, you can select/highlight text in the AI assistant's response and immediately ask a follow-up question about that selected text — a "selection-as-context" popup appears.
Claude Code VS Code extension currently lacks this. When I want to ask about something Claude just said (e.g., a code snippet in its response), I have to manually copy the text and paste it into the input box. This breaks flow.
Desired Behavior
- User selects text in Claude's response (in the chat panel)
- A small action bar / popup appears: "Ask follow-up about selection"
- Clicking it uses the selected text as context for the next question
- Similar to how editing selections work in the diff view
Why It Matters
- Reduce friction in multi-turn conversations
- Match the UX bar set by Codex and chat.claude.ai (both support selecting response text for follow-up)
- Makes it easier to reference specific parts of Claude's answer without copy-paste
Workaround
Currently users must manually copy-paste response text into the input box to ask follow-ups.
Claude Code version: 2.1.142
VS Code: latest
Platform: macOS