/workflows slash command not recognized in VS Code extension

Description

The /workflows slash command (used to monitor live workflow progress) is not recognized in the Claude Code VS Code extension. Typing /workflows in the chat input treats it as plain text rather than executing it as a command — no workflow monitor, no progress tree, no response.

The Workflow tool documentation explicitly says "Use /workflows to watch live progress," implying it should be supported wherever Claude Code runs, including the VS Code extension. Without it, there is no way to observe running workflows from inside VS Code — users must switch to a separate terminal session to monitor them.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install the Claude Code VS Code extension (anthropic.claude-code).
2. Start a workflow — e.g. via the Workflow tool in a multi-agent task, or any skill that internally launches one.
3. In the VS Code chat input, type /workflows and submit.

Expected Behavior

The live workflow progress panel/tree appears — showing phases, active agent slots, and narrator lines — equivalent to what the terminal CLI renders.

Actual Behavior

The /workflows command is not recognized. It is treated as plain text input; no monitoring UI or output appears.

Environment

| | |
|---|---|
| Claude Code CLI | 2.1.179 |
| VS Code extension | anthropic.claude-code 2.1.195 |
| VS Code | 1.124.2 (x64) |
| OS | Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux x64) |

Workaround

None within VS Code. A separate terminal session running the Claude Code CLI would be required to monitor workflows — but this creates significant friction for VS Code-native users who run the extension as their primary interface.

Impact

Multi-agent workflow orchestration is a core Claude Code capability. Without /workflows support in the extension, VS Code users cannot observe workflow execution in real time, making it difficult to detect stalls, review phase progress, or intervene when something goes wrong.

Re-filing note

This was originally filed as #72292, but was auto-closed by the duplicate-detection bot against #71738 (/design-sync command) and #67495 / #54602 (/btw command) — none of which are actually about /workflows. A comment was left on #72292 pointing this out, and a manual reopen attempt (by the original author, who has viewerCanUpdate: true on the issue) was rejected by GitHub with a generic, non-specific error, so re-filing here instead.

@michaelandrewgamble also left a relevant comment on the original thread noting that the observational half of /workflows (the monitor view) is reconstructable entirely from on-disk run artifacts, suggesting extension parity may be a smaller lift than it looks — see https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/72292#issuecomment-4884812594. The control half (pause/resume/stop) is a separate, harder problem they've filed independently.

Related: #72292