Clawdius 1.126.0

Clawdius is a Claude-Code-native fork of VS Code (Code-OSS): the familiar editor with Claude Code built in as the default assistant, no GitHub or Copilot account, and a privacy-first, zero-egress posture. This release rebases onto VS Code 1.126.0 and adds a large batch of Claude-native features, UI polish, and privacy hardening since Clawdius 1.125.0.

Native Claude Code experience

• First launch now installs and configures the official Claude Code chat plugin for you, shown in a dismissible startup card with progress and animated artwork instead of a silent background setup. It can also install the optional Remote - SSH and Remote - WSL extensions so you can start on remote machines right away.
• Clawdius detects a Claude Code you already have installed (its native binary, or claude on your PATH) and runs that engine instead of the bundled copy, so the available models and behavior track your own self-updating install. Detection is a local file check with no network calls, and you can turn it off or pin a specific engine in Settings.
• The new Control Center is a tabbed manager for your Claude Code setup: Usage, Permissions, MCP servers, Skills, Plugins, and Hooks. It opens from the bottom-left button, now labeled and iconed as the Claude Code Control Center instead of a generic Accounts menu. The Skills tab groups plugin-provided skills under collapsible per-plugin headings and marks them read-only, keeping them separate from your own skills.
• Live MCP tool discovery: when you add a permission rule in the Control Center, a new action briefly connects to a configured MCP server and lists the tools it actually offers, so you can allow or deny a tool by name instead of typing it blind. Clawdius connects only when you ask, never automatically in the background.

Claude in the editor

• Every editor's title bar gains three Claude actions: Open Chat (reveal the chat side panel), New Session (a fresh Claude chat tab), and New Terminal (a terminal running Claude), each with a custom Claude icon that follows your light or dark theme. The top-bar chat toggle uses the same icon.
• A new model widget in the status bar, next to the effort selector, shows the default Claude model for new chats and lets you switch versions in one click, including the extended 1M-context variants.
• The Claude Code usage indicator and dashboard are built entirely from data already on your machine. They reflect your real session history and now work the same way in remote WSL and SSH windows.
• A new setting hides all of Clawdius's Claude status-bar widgets at once (effort level, model, permission mode, context budget, and usage). It applies immediately with no reload, and the prompt to install the Claude Code plugin still appears.
• The permission-mode and context-budget indicators now carry their own text and background colors, so they stay readable under themes that restyle only the background. The usage capacity bar also got a higher-contrast fill.

Extensions and remote

• The Claude Code plugin can no longer be uninstalled by accident. The extension Clawdius depends on stays installed whether you remove it from the Extensions view, the command line, or as part of an extension pack.
• Clawdius refuses to install AI-assistant extensions that would conflict with its built-in Claude Code, such as GitHub Copilot, whether the extension comes from the gallery, a local VSIX file, or Settings Sync.
• Claude Code now works over remote connections (SSH, WSL, and tunnels). Clawdius installs the plugin on the remote server as well as locally, and remote sessions start Claude Code rather than an assistant that is not available there.

Branding and themes

• More of the interface reads "Clawdius": the open-window action, the Voice Mode confirmation buttons, and their command-palette entries now say "Open in Clawdius."
• A new Disable animations setting swaps the animated Clawd artwork on the empty-editor screen and the Control Center header for static stills.

Privacy and zero-egress

• Telemetry stays completely off, and this release closes a tracing hook that newer upstream code added outside the normal telemetry switch. Left in place, it could have sent Claude prompt and response traces to an external collector if one was configured in your environment, even with telemetry off. Clawdius disables it in both local and remote sessions and removes those tracing variables from the Claude process, so no diagnostic data leaves your machine.
• The usage dashboard makes no network calls. The only outbound request is a single check of your Claude subscription capacity, made only when you open the usage view.

Upstream: rebased onto VS Code 1.126.0

• Clawdius now sits on VS Code 1.126.0, so you get that release's editor and platform improvements, with the Claude-native experience and privacy protections carried over unchanged.
• GitHub Copilot surfaces stay excluded, including ones newly added upstream: Copilot sign-in prompts, Copilot chat, and Copilot CLI session types.
• The new agent-host trace exporter that upstream added is gated off for zero egress (see Privacy and zero-egress above).
• The upstream "MCP Servers" and "Agent Plugins" sections are hidden from the Extensions view, since Clawdius manages both in its own Control Center.

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Signed builds for Windows (x64 and arm64), macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), and Linux (x64 and arm64) are attached below, each with an entry in SHA256SUMS.

Clawdius 1.125.0

Clawdius 1.125.0

A 💌 love letter to Visual Studio Code, Claude Code, and Clawd.

The first release of Clawdius — a fork of Visual Studio Code built around Anthropic's official Claude Code plugin. It's the editor you already know, with Claude Code wired in and a set of native tools for working with it: it tracks your token usage, lets you configure Claude Code without hand-editing JSON, shows what fills your context window, and connects through whatever Claude Code provider you already use (a Claude subscription, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, or a custom endpoint).

What's inside

Claude Code, built in

On first launch, Clawdius installs Anthropic's official anthropic.claude-code plugin from Open VSX and signs in with your existing ~/.claude login — the same engine as the CLI, no second account, no reimplementation. The pane opens in the sidebar. VS Code's Copilot chat is retired so Claude is the default: github.copilot and github.copilot-chat are blocked from install, the Claude Code plugin is protected from accidental removal, and a status-bar safety net re-offers it if it ever goes missing.

The chat surface registers Claude Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku as selectable models (vendor clawdius), each backed by the local CLI. A per-model effort dropdown (Low through Max) maps to the CLI's effort flag and defaults to your ~/.claude/settings.json.

Token and context awareness

A status-bar meter shows session and weekly token use, computed locally from your Claude Code transcripts, with a hover popup for account identity and capacity. The full Usage dashboard breaks the same numbers down by window and model, with a per-day chart, a contribution heatmap, 24-hour activity, and streaks. It works in local windows and over SSH/WSL remotes — in a remote window the stats and subscription limits are read on the remote machine, where your ~/.claude actually lives. It refreshes only when you open it; the one network call it makes is a user-initiated capacity fetch from Anthropic using your existing OAuth token.

The Context Budget Inspector reports, for the file you are editing, what Claude actually loads: memory, rules, and skills, split into what applies every turn, what loads on demand, and what is skipped, each with an estimated token cost. It also shows the measured cached prefix from your last session. A status-bar pill flags the file's always-on total when it crosses a threshold you set, and a Lint Claude Context command writes Problems-panel markers for memory and rule files whose always-on cost runs high.

The Control Center

A native pane edits your ~/.claude and project .claude configuration so you never have to touch raw JSON, with a Global / Project / Project-local scope selector. Its tabs cover:

• Permissions: the default permission mode and the allow/ask/deny rule lists, with a builder for built-in tools, MCP tools, or raw rules.
• MCP: add, toggle, and inspect Model Context Protocol servers, with per-server approval and opt-in live tool discovery.
• Skills: enable or disable individual skills, plus the bundled-skills kill switch.
• Plugins: manage marketplaces and install plugins from the merged catalog.
• Hooks: a structured editor for lifecycle hooks and the disable-all switch.

Two more controls sit in the status bar: a permission-mode pill (Plan, Ask before edits, Edit automatically, Bypass) and an effort pill with a block-bar meter that also toggles Ultracode.

Remote development (SSH and WSL)

Clawdius builds its own remote extension host (REH) server for Linux x64 and arm64 and serves it from the GitHub release. With the Open Remote - SSH or Open Remote - WSL extensions, a remote session pulls the matching server tarball straight from the release instead of a Microsoft CDN, and the Claude Code plugin and the usage tooling run on the remote machine where your code and ~/.claude live.

Updates

"Check for Updates" compares your version against the project's GitHub releases and, when a newer one exists, links you to it. An update-channel setting (clawdius.update.channel) chooses Stable or Pre-release; a pre-release build defaults to the Pre-release channel. An optional check-on-startup setting exists and is off by default, so out of the box launch makes no request. Updates are notify-and-link — there is no in-app auto-download or install.

Privacy and trust posture

No telemetry, no crash reporting, no automatic update pings. Out of the box the only outbound traffic is what you start: a Claude turn, an extension you install, the on-demand usage fetch, or a Check-for-Updates you run. Outbound link clicks are gated by default to github.com and the Claude sign-in domains (claude.ai, claude.com). The extension gallery is pinned to Open VSX, and anthropic and jeanp413 are trusted publishers so their extensions install without a prompt.

One trust default to know: because Open VSX does not Microsoft-sign extensions, Clawdius defaults extensions.verifySignature to false. Forcing verification would block every install, including into remotes, with a "Signature verification was not executed" error. Set extensions.verifySignature: true to turn it back on.

Themes and branding

Clawdius ships Dark, Light, High Contrast, and High Contrast Light themes tuned toward Claude's palette, and rebrands the application throughout (name, data folders, the clawdius:// URL protocol, and the issue/license/release links). A "Sponsor Clawdius" action links to GitHub Sponsors.

Platforms and signing

Every published artifact is signed:

• Windows x64 and arm64 — Azure Trusted Signing (the default ClawdiusSetup per-user installer, the ClawdiusSystemSetup all-users installer, and the portable zip).
• macOS arm64 and x64 — Apple Developer ID signing plus Apple notarization (.dmg and .zip).
• Linux x64 and arm64 — GPG-signed SHA256SUMS (.deb, .rpm, and tarball); the .deb/.rpm also publish to Cloudsmith.
• REH server x64 and arm64 — GPG-signed SHA256SUMS.
• Snap x64 and arm64 — built and attached here.

Install

Pick your platform; full per-platform steps and exact asset names are in the README.

• Windows: run ClawdiusSetup-<arch>-<version>.exe (per-user, no admin), or ClawdiusSystemSetup-<arch>-<version>.exe for all users; a portable zip is also provided.
• macOS: open Clawdius-darwin-arm64-<version>.dmg (Apple Silicon) or Clawdius-darwin-x64-<version>.dmg (Intel) and drag Clawdius into Applications.
• Linux (Debian / Ubuntu): sudo apt install ./clawdius_*_amd64.deb
• Linux (Fedora / RHEL / openSUSE): sudo dnf install ./clawdius-*.x86_64.rpm
• Snap: sudo snap install --classic --dangerous ./clawdius_*_amd64.snap (arm64: ..._arm64.snap)

Known limitations

• Extension signature verification is off by default (see the trust note above).
• The Snap Store listing isn't live yet, so the snap installs with --dangerous; both x64 and arm64 snaps are built and attached.
• Updates are notify-and-link — "Check for Updates" points you to the new release; there is no in-app auto-download or install.
• A signed app from a new publisher has little reputation yet, so SmartScreen (Windows) or Gatekeeper (macOS) may warn on first launch; the README covers how to proceed.

Built on

Visual Studio Code 1.125 (microsoft/vscode). Clawdius is an independent fork and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft or Anthropic.

Repository: https://github.com/chapmanjw/clawdius
Full feature tour and screenshots: see the README.

v1.125.0-alpha3

Full Changelog: v1.125.0-alpha1...v1.125.0-alpha3

v1.125.0-alpha1

Clawdius 1.125.0-alpha1

A 💌 love letter to Visual Studio Code, Claude Code, and Clawd.

The first public alpha of Clawdius, a fork of Visual Studio Code built around Anthropic's official Claude Code plugin. This is a pre-release: the editor underneath is stable VS Code 1.125, but the Claude integration is new and still settling, so expect rough edges and please file what you find.

Clawdius keeps the editor you already know and adds native tooling for working with Claude Code. It tracks your token usage, lets you configure Claude Code without hand-editing JSON, estimates what fills your context window, and routes through whatever Claude Code provider you already use (a Claude subscription, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, or a custom endpoint).

What's in this build

Claude Code, built in

On first launch, Clawdius installs Anthropic's official anthropic.claude-code plugin from Open VSX and signs in with your existing ~/.claude login. The pane opens in the sidebar, runs on the same engine as the CLI, and there is no second account and no reimplementation. VS Code's Copilot chat is retired so Claude is the default. github.copilot and github.copilot-chat are blocked from install, the Claude Code plugin is protected from accidental removal, and a status-bar safety net re-offers it if it ever goes missing.

The chat surface registers Claude Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku as selectable models (vendor clawdius), each backed by the local CLI. A per-model effort dropdown (Low through Max) maps to the CLI's effort flag and defaults to the value in your ~/.claude/settings.json.

Token and context awareness

A status-bar meter shows session and weekly token use, computed locally from your Claude Code transcripts, with a hover popup for account identity and capacity. The full Usage dashboard breaks the same numbers down by window and model, with a per-day chart, a contribution heatmap, 24-hour activity, and streaks. It refreshes only when you open it; the one network call it can make is a user-initiated capacity fetch from Anthropic using your existing OAuth token.

The Context Budget Inspector reports, for the file you are editing, what Claude actually loads: memory, rules, and skills, split into what applies every turn, what loads on demand, and what is skipped, each with an estimated token cost. It also shows the measured cached prefix from your last session. A status-bar pill flags the file's always-on total when it crosses a threshold you set, and a Lint Claude Context command writes Problems-panel markers for memory and rule files whose always-on cost runs high.

The Control Center

A native pane edits your ~/.claude and project .claude configuration so you never have to touch raw JSON, with a Global / Project / Project-local scope selector. Its tabs cover:

• Permissions: the default permission mode and the allow/ask/deny rule lists, with a builder for built-in tools, MCP tools, or raw rules.
• MCP: add, toggle, and inspect Model Context Protocol servers, with per-server approval and opt-in live tool discovery.
• Skills: enable or disable individual skills, plus the bundled-skills kill switch.
• Plugins: manage marketplaces and install plugins from the merged catalog.
• Hooks: a structured editor for lifecycle hooks and the disable-all switch.

Two more controls sit in the status bar: a permission-mode pill (Plan, Ask before edits, Edit automatically, Bypass) and an effort pill with a block-bar meter that also toggles Ultracode.

Privacy and trust posture

Telemetry, crash reporting, and update pings are off. The only outbound traffic is what you start: a Claude turn, an extension you install, or the on-demand usage fetch. Outbound link clicks are gated to github.com by default. The extension gallery is pinned to Open VSX, and anthropic and jeanp413 are trusted publishers so their extensions install without a prompt.

One trust default to be aware of: because Open VSX does not Microsoft-sign extensions, Clawdius defaults extensions.verifySignature to false. Forcing verification would block every install, including into remotes, with a "Signature verification was not executed" error. To turn signature checks back on, set extensions.verifySignature: true in settings.

Remote development (SSH and WSL)

Clawdius builds its own remote extension host (REH) server for Linux x64 and arm64 and serves it from this GitHub release. With the Open Remote - SSH or Open Remote - WSL extensions, a remote session pulls the matching server tarball straight from the release instead of a Microsoft CDN. The first-run install also brings in the jeanp413 remote extensions for your platform.

Themes and branding

Clawdius ships Dark, Light, High Contrast, and High Contrast Light themes tuned toward Claude's palette, and rebrands the application throughout (name, data folders, the clawdius:// URL protocol, and the issue/license/release links). There is no auto-update server yet, so "Check for Updates" opens the GitHub releases page, and a "Sponsor Clawdius" action links to GitHub Sponsors.

Platforms and signing

Every published artifact in this release is signed:

• Windows x64 and arm64: Azure Trusted Signing (user installer, system installer, and portable zip).
• macOS arm64: Apple Developer ID signing plus Apple notarization (.dmg and .zip).
• Linux x64 and arm64: GPG-signed SHA256SUMS (.deb, .rpm, and tarball). The .deb and .rpm also publish to Cloudsmith.
• REH server x64 and arm64: GPG-signed SHA256SUMS.
• Snap x64: built and attached here (see Known limitations).

Install

Pick your platform. Full per-platform steps and the exact asset names are in the README.

• Windows: run ClawdiusUserSetup-<arch>-<version>.exe (per-user, no admin) or the System installer for all users; a portable zip is also provided.
• macOS (Apple Silicon): open Clawdius-darwin-arm64-<version>.dmg and drag Clawdius into Applications.
• Linux (Debian / Ubuntu): sudo apt install ./clawdius_*_amd64.deb
• Linux (Fedora / RHEL / openSUSE): sudo dnf install ./clawdius-*.x86_64.rpm
• Snap: sudo snap install --classic --dangerous ./clawdius_*_amd64.snap

Known limitations

• This is alpha software. The editor is stable VS Code 1.125, but the Claude integration is new.
• Extension signature verification is off by default (see the trust note above).
• macOS builds are Apple Silicon only. There is no Intel build.
• Snap is x64 only and the Snap Store listing is not live yet, so the snap needs --dangerous to install. A native arm64 snap is deferred.
• There is no auto-update. Check the releases page for new builds.

Built on

Visual Studio Code 1.125 (microsoft/vscode). Clawdius is an independent fork and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft or Anthropic.

Repository: https://github.com/chapmanjw/clawdius
Full feature tour and screenshots: see the README.