Command reference ยท Claude Code
/ide
Manages IDE integrations and shows their status.
/ide manages the connection between Claude Code and your editor and shows its status. From an external terminal โ that is, not the IDE's own integrated terminal โ the command establishes the connection to a detected VS Code or JetBrains IDE (such as IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm) and activates features like diff view in the editor, shared selection context, and automatically shared diagnostic messages. If a supported IDE is running but doesn't yet have the matching plugin installed, /ide installs it automatically and then asks you to restart the IDE; once connected successfully, Claude Code confirms this with a message like "Connected to IntelliJ IDEA.". If, on the other hand, you start claude directly from your IDE's integrated terminal, Claude Code usually connects automatically without you having to run /ide manually.
โ WHEN TO USE IT?
Establish the connection from an external terminal
Start claude from a regular terminal (not the IDE terminal) and run /ide there to connect to a running VS Code or JetBrains IDE
Check the IDE connection status
After opening VS Code alongside the terminal, run /ide to confirm that Claude Code is connected
โ WHEN NOT TO?
Wanting to install the IDE extension for the first time
/ide only automatically installs the plugin when it detects a running but not-yet-connected IDE โ without a running IDE, the command isn't enough for the initial install.
Better: Install the matching Claude Code extension directly from the editor's marketplace (VS Code Marketplace or JetBrains Marketplace)
Claude is already running in the integrated IDE terminal
In this case, Claude Code usually connects automatically; /ide is then mostly unnecessary.
Better: First check whether the connection is already active (e.g. via diff view) before calling the command again
SOURCES
- Claude Code docs (official) โ code.claude.com
MORE COMMANDS ยท Claude Code