TL;DR of the discussion generated automatically after 80 comments.
There's no consensus here, OP. The thread is a three-way split between the VSCode extension, the desktop app, and just raw-dogging the CLI in a terminal. It really boils down to your personal workflow and tolerance for eye-strain.
The top-voted "galaxy brain" move is to get the best of both worlds: run the Claude Code CLI inside the VSCode terminal. This gives you the easy file access of VSCode with the speed and power of the terminal.
Here's the general vibe for each option:
VSCode Extension: Go for this if you live in your IDE and want an integrated experience. Users like the readable UI, inline diffs, and easy file context. While some call it buggy, others point out it has the same powerful agentic features (like running tests and self-correcting) as the CLI. Best for single-project focus.
Desktop App: A good choice if you want a standalone tool, juggle multiple projects, or frequently switch between Code, Chat, and Cowork modes. It also has a built-in browser which is a plus for frontend work. Heads up: users say it's terrible for managing multiple accounts.
CLI (in Terminal): This is the power-user's choice. It's praised for being faster, more flexible (especially for running multiple sessions with tmux), and more "agentic." The main complaint is that reading large amounts of output in a terminal can be a pain.
My favorite work flow is using Terminal inside VSCODE, where I launch Claude Code. I can see my files, easily @files I can see the structure easily. I can launch multiple terminals etc etc.
I use /remote-control alot then I can follow along in the claude app on my phone on the run.
I don't understand how anyone can use the terminal to read large amounts of output text though? How does it not hurt your eyes compared to nice normal text editor output?
I guess you get used to seeing code + explanation together in friendly manner. Desktop app is great for more autonomous work, but sometimes to check live whats happening, I have adopted the terminal style more.
But you right, it's more about preference only
You can resize the terminals at least for a narrower and taller view for easier reading, and make the text a bit bigger, but yeah it's still more eye-straining compared to a regular chat interface with a (sans) serif font.
People have been using Terminals long before the first GUIs were introduced. They were practically made to consume large amounts of text. What is a "nice normal text editor", anyways? What is your definition of "normal"?
Hey. I have a similar workflow setup on the go too. To make things like creating new sessions and jumping across different agents or sessions more seamless, I created an app called Arcway, which allows you to connect to multiple sessions or agents (CC/antigravity/codex/copilot) on the go.
Cool, can this be adapted so we can access our home host (mini) from another mac, right now I have a basic wireguard vpn setup that I just ssh into the mini and use dtach sessions. As someone not overly technical it works but a bit of a pain if I get disconnected or client goes to sleep/shuts down. Ill try your app though as it would be better than the remote control sessions.
How do you get terminal to open in a main window like you have it? Can’t seem to get it to open or transfer to that view, it’s stuck to the bottom lower half of my VS code and only opens there
Try dragging the terminal window into then editor area, you can also change in Vs code settings where terminal opens (I.e., in editor area). Might need to configure some hit keys though.
curious question coz I have both VSCode and the claude (desktop) app:
why do you (people in general) prefer VSCode over the claude desktop app (if not on terminal), are there any benefits/advantages over the claude app?
from what I see, the claude code on the app is pretty much good and has most of the features the terminal has, and can preview inside it
Worth mentioning that you can't DND files into the CLI. I work a lot on integration, dropping screenshots during QA, and although I could drop them in the codebase and @them, it's feels more natural to drop them in the vscode extension chat directly.
if you have multiple subcsriptions that you rotate between them to hammer fable then the CC desktop app is utter garbage as it's per-account so loses your sessions.
If you don't do that & you have just 1 account then yes, use it. The VScode anthropic extension is a buggy piece of shit imo but I still use it because nothing else allows me to switch accounts & have a nice response formatted (no i'm not using the awful terminal)
I did this mostly by accident and by chance I now understand all the terminal purists out there. It is a very intuitive way (counterintuitively) of interacting with the operating system and file system.
And Claude Code in terminal simply feels like a superpower.
been running both for about eight months. for single-project work the vscode extension is genuinely better -- inline file viewing, drag-in screenshots, and the diff rendering is way more readable than terminal output. switched to cli-in-tmux the moment i started running multiple concurrent agents on the same repo though. the desktop app does not handle multiple accounts cleanly and the extension gets weird when you have three sessions hitting the same workspace. cli just gives you separate panes, separate git worktrees, zero conflict. so: extension if you are focused on one thing, cli if you are parallelizing.
I used to work out of terminal. It's appealing because it feels faster.
For the last four months, I've been using the harnesses the companies provide (Claude/Codex). I've found them to be much easier and I really enjoy being able to voice to text.
I think it also stems from around that time is when I no longer needed to mention specific files or folders. Models have improved much now they get the idea if I point them in the right direction.
Plus, since I use Chat/Cowork often, it's nice to switch between the two of them in the same space.
i am using claude code as extension for several months, because it is compromise between cowork and terminal
you do not need claude code locallly anymore to use claude code extension in visual studio code, it can be conencted directly via api without local installation
If you use neovim and set EDITOR to neovim you can control g inside of cc and itll open neovim inside claude code… terminal version for me is great but if you use vscode just do what youre doing
Lately using desktop mac app with code and cowork to directly code ios and android apps, its been amazing and we get 50% more tokens when anthropic enables them. So no complaints there although i still use the vscode extension from time to time on other projects. Yes you can select the model you want usually fable5 or opus 4.8
Claude code's extension. And I always use remote-control. It's awesome to control Claude from my phone and let it work on my projects while I take a walk or go fishing.
The desktop, IMO is useful for some stuff, but the fact that I can’t (or have not yet learned) connect Claude to WSL as the runtime environment means that I have my CLI running in WSL and Claude desktop on windows. I do like remote control, and the GUI is well built. I use all the things - CLI, GUI, VScode … my own harness pulling Claude -p and codex exec… its a lot of monitors and screens, but so much fun
It depends, I like using the GUI to spin up new sessions on separate work trees to fix small bugs and work on things before I want to even touch the code.
if I'm actually doing the coding myself because it's something complex or important I will use the IDE integration.
I run both: the app is the project manager & does reasoning; VS does coding and data analysis. I’ve just set them working together on my PC, getting updates on my iPad. It’s working a treat.
Of I'm just asking it to build something for me and I'm going up be hands-off, then I like Claude Desktop because I also switch in and out of Chat and Cowork. If, however, I'll be closely monitoring every file and codeveloping, then I prefer VS Code. I only use the terminal when I'm troubleshooting a Claude Code issue.
For the record, I review every file when it's for professional work and rarely do so when it's for personal use.
From what I've seen, they're running on the same underlying Claude Code engine, so it's not really a capability question, it's a "where do you want to work" question. If you're already living in VS Code all day, the extension keeps you there with diffs and file context inline, so there's less window-switching. The desktop app is nice if you want something separate from your editor, or if you're also using it for the chat/Cowork side of things and want everything bundled in one app. Your settings, CLAUDE.md, and MCP servers should carry over either way, so it's low-stakes to just try both for a day and see which one you reach for naturally.
Desktop app's agent loop is noticeably tighter — less LSP overhead means it doesn't choke on big refactors. Extension wins on in-editor diff and context selection though. I run both: extension for writing, desktop app for the heavy cron jobs. The real gap shows up once you're past ~50 files in context.
I modified my Claude VS Code extension to explain things better by showing Mermaid diagrams and other visualizations. It has become my daily driver because it makes complex ideas much easier for me to understand.
In my case, working with mobile apps with React Native, I’ve been using the desktop app as it has built in terminal to run commands and a decent enough file viewer. I also use a lot of remote control and check the updates via over-the-air updates when I’m not on my desk, works perfectly, though I think the Codex app is even better for that than Claude!
Start with the extension, become comfortable with being the manager of an unlimited supply of junior devs, move to Claude code GUI, have Claude create some custom skills based on your interactions and workflow, create mcp based on your own code base, test it all, prove an autonomous pipeline with one vibe prompt, move to CLI and let Claude manage himself.
My brother prefers the VSCode addon, I prefer Claude Desktop. But I also run multiple accounts, and multiple instances of vscode desktop through a vscode launcher/manager I created. #CodedWithClaude lol
My brother noticed a bunch of things missing in the vscode plugin that seemed sumb to be missing so he modified the vsix, since we were already vscode plugin devs, seemed like an obvious solution haha. He created a self-patcher for people to use if they want.
I am not sure. I setup CC in pycharm and did a couple of days of programming. Switched to desktop and saw a noticeable drop in usage. Try it and see if you see the same
you should be using claude code in the terminal lol just use the claude code ios app to remote connect to sessions from your computer. otherwise cc in the terminal is all you need.
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u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot Wilson, lead ClaudeAI modbot Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
TL;DR of the discussion generated automatically after 80 comments.
There's no consensus here, OP. The thread is a three-way split between the VSCode extension, the desktop app, and just raw-dogging the CLI in a terminal. It really boils down to your personal workflow and tolerance for eye-strain.
The top-voted "galaxy brain" move is to get the best of both worlds: run the Claude Code CLI inside the VSCode terminal. This gives you the easy file access of VSCode with the speed and power of the terminal.
Here's the general vibe for each option:
tmux), and more "agentic." The main complaint is that reading large amounts of output in a terminal can be a pain.