[Feature Request] Add Positron to set of VS Code forks that Claude Code knows about

[jmcphers]

Based on my reading of Claude Code's documentation, it is looking for common VS Code forks on $PATH, and, if it finds one, installing its extension. This works for code, cursor, and windsurf:

https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/ide-integrations#vs-code-extension-not-installing

We maintain a VS Code fork focused on data science that (for Claude's purposes) works identically to other forks. It is called positron when installed on the $PATH. This IDE already provides a chat agent integrated with the Anthropic API, but we think people would like to use Claude Code in it, too.

Could Claude Code's set of known VS Code forks be amended to include positron?

More about Positron: https://positron.posit.co/

On Github: https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/

[sudarshan227]

As a regular user of Positron and Claude Code, I wholeheartedly endorse this. Would allow me to use Positron exclusively moving forward.

[blois]

Is Positron able to use the extension which is published at https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=anthropic.claude-code?

[sudarshan227]

Positron cannot use the official VSCode marketplace, it can only use OpenVSX extensions. Interestingly, there is a Claude Code extension published by Anthropic to OpenVSX that I have been using for the past couple of days that is working well. There is a version mismatch between the OpenVSX version (1.0.29) and the latest version of CC, however interestingly this hasn't caused any issues yet in terms of the ide integration on my end.

[coussens]

@sudarshan227 thanks for mentioning the OpenVSX version of the CC extension! I opened this feature request a couple of months back asking for a github-hosted .vsix file as a work-around (before it was hosted on OpenVSX), but this is definitely better, assuming Anthropic could keep it up-to-date.

@blois I think it would be great if Anthropic would be willing to augment their workflow just a bit so they simultaneously push updates to both the VSCode marketplace and the OpenVSX marketplace, so all VSCode-based IDEs (including Positron) would have easy access. Right now, it looks like the VSCode marketplace-hosted extension is updated on a more-or-less daily basis, but it looks like the OpenVSX-hosted extension hasn't been updated since it was posted last month.

[gustavovalverde]

Can we even trust this extension? https://open-vsx.org/extension/Anthropic/claude-code it seems to be from a random user.

[smach]

@gustavovalverde Igor Kofman works for Anthropic -- I don't know why he doesn't say that on his GitHub profile, maybe he doesn't want people asking their Claude questions in his GitHub. And the OpenVSX marketplace says that the extension is part of Anthropic's official namespace.
@jmcphers FYI I am currently able to run the extension in my Positron.
And it seems to be the same version as the one on the official VS Code marketplace, at least today.

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