What’s the Best Way to Use Claude Code: IDE Terminal or Separate Terminal?

I've created a unique setup that really works for me: I keep my project open in VS Code on one monitor, have several Warp terminal instances running Claude Code on my main screen, and then a web browser open on a smaller monitor.

For me, using Visual Studio Code is fantastic right now. It integrates well, and everything flows smoothly.

I'm using iTerm2, and the notifications are a game-changer for me. I often juggle about five projects at once, so knowing when Claude is waiting on something is super helpful!

I've had the best experience with Warp terminal. It lets me drag images and screenshots into my prompts, which I couldn't do in WebStorm, so that was a dealbreaker for me. Besides, using Claude Code in the IDE terminal doesn't seem to offer many benefits right now. I find that Claude Code does a decent job of displaying proposed changes in the terminal, so I just stick to checking my git branch and use the Source Control tab in Cursor to see changes clearly.

I prefer using the IDE and its built-in git features to see what changes the agent makes. Being able to view diffs and recent additions directly is really useful.

Not to sound overly technical, but I really enjoy using Emacs. If I'm not on that, I prefer running Claude Code with tmux or screen in a regular terminal and managing splits that way.

Did you check out the new Claude extension they just released for Visual Studio Code? The changes now pop up in a sidebar, and once you approve them, the sidebar quickly disappears, which helps keep things neat!

I've tried using it in Goland, but it snagged focus every time it made a change—super frustrating! So now, I run Goland alongside Claude Code, which helps a lot since I work on multiple projects. That focus issue is definitely a headache.

I started using the IDE window, but I found out I work much better with a standard Mac terminal with multiple tabs—or even separate terminal windows for different projects.