/workflows slash command not recognized in VS Code extension

[piercephilip981-glitch]

Description

The /workflows slash command (used to monitor live workflow progress) is not recognized in the Claude Code VS Code extension. Typing /workflows in the chat input treats it as plain text rather than executing it as a command — no workflow monitor, no progress tree, no response.

The Workflow tool documentation explicitly says "Use /workflows to watch live progress," implying it should be supported wherever Claude Code runs, including the VS Code extension. Without it, there is no way to observe running workflows from inside VS Code — users must switch to a separate terminal session to monitor them.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install the Claude Code VS Code extension (anthropic.claude-code).
2. Start a workflow — e.g. via the Workflow tool in a multi-agent task, or any skill that internally launches one.
3. In the VS Code chat input, type /workflows and submit.

Expected Behavior

The live workflow progress panel/tree appears — showing phases, active agent slots, and narrator lines — equivalent to what the terminal CLI renders.

Actual Behavior

The /workflows command is not recognized. It is treated as plain text input; no monitoring UI or output appears.

Environment

Claude Code CLI	2.1.179
VS Code extension	anthropic.claude-code 2.1.195
VS Code	1.124.2 (x64)
OS	Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux x64)

Workaround

None within VS Code. A separate terminal session running the Claude Code CLI would be required to monitor workflows — but this creates significant friction for VS Code-native users who run the extension as their primary interface.

Impact

Multi-agent workflow orchestration is a core Claude Code capability. Without /workflows support in the extension, VS Code users cannot observe workflow execution in real time, making it difficult to detect stalls, review phase progress, or intervene when something goes wrong.

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] /design-sync slash command not available in Claude Code v2.1.195 #71738
2. VS Code extension: register /btw slash command in thin-client registry #67495
3. /btw slash command not available in VS Code extension #54602

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

• If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
• To prevent auto-closure, add a comment or 👎 this comment

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically closed as a duplicate of #71738.

If this is incorrect, please re-open this issue or create a new one.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[michaelandrewgamble]

Adding a data point and an interim workaround for this gap.

I built an open-source plugin that reconstructs the /workflows experience for the VS Code/Cursor extension from the on-disk run artifacts (~/.claude/projects/** records, journals, and agent transcripts): workflows-conductor — a live localhost dashboard plus /conductor:* skills, with per-agent state/tokens/models and streaming transcript feeds.

Two takeaways for this issue from building it:

1. The observational half of /workflows is fully reconstructable from disk — everything except run control. That suggests extension parity for the monitor view may be a smaller lift than it appears; the data contract already exists implicitly in the run artifacts.
2. The control half (p/x/r) is impossible externally — pause/resume/stop live only inside the owning session's process. I've filed that as a separate API request since it gates any third-party (or first-party out-of-process) run management, not just this panel.

Happy to share anything from the reverse-engineering (schema notes, edge cases like resumed-after-kill runs reusing their run ID) if useful to whoever picks this up.

[piercephilip981-glitch]

Reopening — checked the three issues cited as duplicates and none of them are actually about /workflows:

• [BUG] /design-sync slash command not available in Claude Code v2.1.195 #71738 is about the /design-sync command not being recognized
• VS Code extension: register /btw slash command in thin-client registry #67495 is about the /btw command not being registered in the VS Code thin-client registry
• /btw slash command not available in VS Code extension #54602 is also about /btw (and is already closed as completed)

This looks like the auto-dup-detection bot pattern-matched on the generic issue shape ('slash command X not recognized in VS Code extension') rather than the specific command name. /workflows support in the VS Code extension is still an open gap — reopening so it doesn't get lost.