How I Use Claude Code in VS Code (And Why It’s Actually Useful)

AI coding tools are everywhere right now, but not all of them feel genuinely helpful in day-to-day development. After experimenting with a few options, I started using Claude inside VS Code, and it’s been surprisingly effective—especially for reasoning-heavy tasks. This isn’t a hype piece. It’s a practical walkthrough of how to set it up and how I actually use it while coding. What “Claude Code” Really Means There’s no official “Claude Code” button inside VS Code (yet). What people mean is using Anthropic’s Claude models through an extension or API integration. Compared to tools like Copilot, Claude feels different. It’s less about autocomplete and more about: Explaining code clearly Thinking through problems step-by-step Refactoring with context It behaves more like a teammate than a suggestion engine. Getting It Set Up (What Actually Worked for Me) There are a few ways to connect Claude to VS Code, but the easiest one I found is using an extension like Continue.dev. Here’s what I did