Developer Rishi Gulati built an unofficial Visual Studio extension for Claude Code after Anthropic's official IDE integrations skipped Microsoft's IDE. The extension bridges the same protocol used by VS Code and JetBrains plugins, enabling automatic connection without manual configuration.

The standout feature replaces terminal-based edit prompts with Visual Studio's native diff viewer. Developers can accept or reject changes directly in the IDE, with an option to provide feedback that sends Claude back to reconsider. Compiler errors and current code selections flow automatically to the CLI, eliminating copy-paste workflows.

A dockable panel tracks connection status and token usage with estimated costs. The extension requires Visual Studio 2026 and an authenticated Claude CLI installation, making no independent model calls. It binds only to localhost with token validation for security.

While VS Code and JetBrains enjoy first-party support, Visual Studio developers can now access similar functionality through this community implementation. The project remains unaffiliated with Anthropic and depends on an undocumented protocol that could break with future CLI updates.