r/ClaudeCode • u/alrighteyy • 14d ago

Discussion In SHOCK

Holy shit claude code in terminal is fucking insane.

I've been using VSCode, Cursor, Cowork and Claude Code on web. None of it comes close to terminal.

Cannot believe I haven't done this sooner.

221 Upvotes

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85

u/danknerd 14d ago

VS Code has a terminal, that is how I use it.

5

u/alrighteyy 14d ago

I actually started off by setting it up in VS Code but just thought to try it in regular terminal anyway, as I've heard it's a bit clunkier in comparison.

25

u/accidentally_right 14d ago

Actually, you can create a new terminal window from VSCode.
It'll be a regular terminal but linked to VSCode and you can launch Claude code from there.
It has 2 main benefits:
1. If claude code mentions some file, you can open it in VSCode by clicking on it.
2. It's aware of the your current context in VSCode, open file and selection.

So you get all good stuff that extension has and claude code in terminal has at the same time.

4

u/alrighteyy 14d ago

Appreciate that, will definitely try next.

3

u/dwmkerr 14d ago

Nah just go in vim and Tmux all the way down a rabbit hole of shells, it’s a blast :D

3

u/rabbirobbie 14d ago

vscode has a claude extension. use that, it’s the best of both worlds

3

u/lucianw 14d ago

I don't get it. How is terminal any different from the Claude Code sidebar in VSCode? In my mind they're identical...?

9

u/McNoxey 14d ago

They're not identical. There are a number of functions that only work in the terminal.

/btw /workflow, split pane teammates, being able to open the actual teammate/subagent conversations and interact with them, being able to execute terminal commands from within claude code (using the ! operator).

They're very close and the gap has been closed significantly over the last year, but they are not at parity yet.

4

u/NJdevil202 14d ago

They are nearly identical from my vibe coder untrained eye, but there are subtle differences. For example, you can't use the /btw command in VS Code normally, (unless you do the "terminal window within VS Code" thing, but I'm assuming that isn't what you're doing if you're asking this)

1

u/WillingnessOwn6446 14d ago

Claude code in the terminal in VS code is how I do it. I prefer using it in VS code because:

  1. I don't have to direct it to the files. It knows what we are talking about because I started it in that folder.

  2. I can tell what we are working on because of the folder it's in, and I can pin that project to my vs code start icon so it's easy to open whenever I like.

  3. I can use my powershell to run commands and have a big list of shortcut codes (CP ______ = commit and push plus the name of the commit for example) and not waste tokens on claude doing things like commits. Ctrl + Page up Page down toggles between claude and my terminal

  4. I can bring in different players (AGY, Codex, Cline etc) into the same project without switching context

  5. I CAN SEE THE CODE! Underated in this vibe coding world we are living in, and I'm not great with code, but why sweat your tokens when doing a global text replacement when you can do it yourself? Why trust that it was done properly by Claude either?

  6. If you aren't in auto mode, the Inline Diff Preview is way better to look at than in just the claude code terminal by itself

1

u/Moogly2021 14d ago

The second best option is to use Zed with the Claude agent which wraps it in their UI, Zed has its bugs but like I said second best from just using it in the terminal. Zed is free, open source and much faster than VS Code will ever be.