Claude Code VS Code: Sessions List, Plan View, and Native MCP Management
Claude Code's VS Code extension gets major upgrades: session management in activity bar, full markdown plan view with comments, native MCP server dialog, compaction cards, and more.
Between versions 2.1.50 and 2.1.71, Claude Code’s VS Code extension has gone from a convenient chat panel to a genuinely integrated development companion. This article covers every significant VS Code improvement shipped during that window, from session management and plan review to native MCP controls and compaction visibility.
Session List in the Activity Bar
Starting with v2.1.69, a new spark icon appears in the VS Code activity bar. Clicking it opens a dedicated session list that shows every Claude Code conversation — both local and remote.
Each session can be opened as a full editor tab rather than being confined to the chat panel sidebar. This means you can split your editor to have code on one side and a Claude conversation on the other, or quickly switch between multiple ongoing conversations without losing context.
Session management was introduced earlier in v2.1.63, which added rename and remove actions for individual sessions. Before that change, old sessions would accumulate without any way to organize or clean them up. Now you can give meaningful names to long-running sessions (such as “auth refactor” or “API migration”) and remove completed ones to keep the list manageable.
For teams working on remote development environments, v2.1.63 also fixed a bug where remote sessions were not appearing in the conversation history. If you use VS Code’s Remote-SSH or Dev Containers and previously noticed missing sessions, that issue has been resolved.
Full Markdown Plan View with Comments
The plan view feature received a significant upgrade in v2.1.69. Plans now render as full markdown documents inside VS Code, complete with headings, code blocks, lists, and all the formatting you would expect.
The most impactful addition is comment support. You can attach comments directly to specific sections of a plan, providing targeted feedback that Claude can act on. This transforms plan review from an all-or-nothing approval process into a collaborative editing workflow.
Earlier improvements from v2.1.47 laid the groundwork for this feature: plans auto-update as Claude iterates, the comment interface only activates when plans are ready for review, and rejecting a plan keeps the preview open so Claude can revise it in place. The v2.1.69 update builds on that foundation with the full markdown rendering that makes plans genuinely readable rather than plain text summaries.
In practice, this means you can review a multi-step implementation plan the same way you would review a pull request — scanning the structure, leaving inline feedback, and approving specific sections while requesting changes to others.
Native MCP Server Management
Managing MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers previously required switching to the terminal, editing JSON configuration files, and restarting connections manually. Version 2.1.69 brings MCP management directly into the VS Code chat panel.
Type /mcp in the chat panel to open the server management dialog. From there you can:
- View all configured MCP servers with their current connection status
- Enable or disable servers with a single click, useful when you want to temporarily disconnect a resource-heavy server without removing its configuration
- Reconnect servers that have lost their connection, which is common after laptop sleep or network changes
- Manage OAuth authentication for servers that require it, handling token refresh and re-authorization flows without leaving VS Code
This is a meaningful workflow improvement for developers who rely on multiple MCP servers. Instead of context-switching to a terminal to debug a connection issue or toggle a server, you can handle everything from the same interface where you interact with Claude.
Compaction Display Cards
Long conversations in Claude Code trigger automatic compaction, where the system summarizes older messages to free up context window space. Before v2.1.69, compaction happened silently and the summarized content was hidden from view.
Now, compacted content appears as a collapsible card in the chat panel. Expanding the card reveals the summary that Claude generated from the earlier conversation. This provides two practical benefits: you can verify that important context was preserved during compaction, and you can quickly remind yourself of decisions made earlier in a long session without scrolling through hundreds of messages.
The card design is consistent with other collapsible elements in the VS Code chat interface, keeping the UI clean when you do not need the compaction details while making them immediately accessible when you do.
Permission Mode Picker
Version 2.1.69 also refined how permission modes work in the VS Code extension. The permission mode picker now respects the permissions.disableBypassPermissionsMode setting, which means organizations that use managed policies can prevent users from switching to bypass mode.
When bypass mode is disabled through policy, the option is completely hidden from the picker rather than appearing grayed out. This reduces confusion for developers working in environments with strict security requirements. The picker also correctly honors other managed and policy-level permission settings, ensuring that the VS Code extension behaves consistently with the terminal-based Claude Code experience.
Other Notable Improvements
Several smaller but worthwhile fixes arrived across the v2.1.50 to v2.1.71 range:
Extra usage visibility (v2.1.50): The /extra-usage command is now supported in the VS Code chat panel, letting you check your current token consumption and rate limit status without switching to a terminal.
RTL text rendering (v2.1.69): Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian text now renders correctly in the chat panel. Previously, right-to-left scripts could display with broken character ordering or alignment issues.
Windows startup fix (v2.1.70): A bug that caused extra VS Code windows to open on Windows startup has been resolved. This was particularly disruptive for developers who keep VS Code in their startup applications.
Teleport marker rendering (v2.1.70): Teleport markers — visual indicators that Claude uses when navigating between files — now render correctly in the chat panel, improving the readability of multi-file operations.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of VS Code Integration
These features work best when used together as part of your daily development workflow. Here are some practical recommendations.
Use the session list as a project organizer. Create separate sessions for distinct tasks: one for a feature implementation, another for debugging, a third for code review. Rename each session immediately so you can find it later. This is especially valuable during multi-day projects where you need to resume context across work sessions.
Treat plan view as your first code review. Before Claude writes any code, review its plan in the full markdown view. Leave comments on sections where you want a different approach or where you see potential issues. This catches misunderstandings early, before Claude has invested tokens in the wrong direction.
Manage MCP servers proactively. Open the /mcp dialog at the start of each session to verify that the servers you need are connected. If you are working on a task that does not require database access, disable that MCP server to reduce noise in Claude’s available tools. Re-enable it when you need it. This small habit keeps Claude focused on relevant capabilities.
Check compaction cards after long sessions. When you notice a compaction card appear, take a moment to expand it and verify the summary captures the key decisions. If something important was lost, you can re-state it in a new message to ensure Claude retains the context going forward.
Combine these features for review workflows. Open a session in a full editor tab alongside your code, use plan view to review proposals, leave comments for revisions, and check the MCP dialog to ensure Claude has access to the tools it needs. This integrated approach is significantly more efficient than bouncing between the terminal and editor.
Looking Ahead
The pace of VS Code integration improvements over the past twenty releases signals that Anthropic is investing heavily in making Claude Code a native IDE experience rather than a terminal tool with an IDE wrapper. The session list, plan view, and MCP management features collectively address the three biggest friction points that VS Code users have reported: managing conversations, reviewing plans, and configuring tool access.
For developers who have been using Claude Code primarily through the terminal, these updates make a strong case for trying the VS Code extension as your primary interface.