my ULTIMATE claude code setup (after months of daily use)

I've been using this setup every single day for months. never showed anyone the full thing until now. here's exactly what it is.

16 million people have installed the extension this runs on. most are still using it inside an app that's slower, crashes more, and can't even see the files you're working on. I run my entire business out of this setup instead, newsletter, content, marketing, finance, all of it, without writing a single line of code.

why I stopped using the claude desktop app

the claude desktop app just isn't good. I know that sounds harsh, but I've used it enough to say it flat.

the same request that takes a few seconds in a terminal or in an editor takes noticeably longer inside the app. I'm not fully sure why, maybe it's the sheer number of people hitting the same servers, but the gap is real and you feel it the moment you've worked anywhere else.

then there's the crashes. claude code has gone down on the app more than a few times while I was mid task, and when I checked the same session running elsewhere, it was working fine. the servers weren't actually down, just that specific version of them.

and the bigger issue isn't speed at all. it's that you can't see your own files. you're writing an article and you want to have it open next to the conversation, editing while claude works. the desktop app just doesn't let you do that. you're stuck describing what you want changed instead of watching it happen.

what actually replaces it

visual studio code. most people know it as VS Code, and most people think of it purely as a coding tool. it isn't, not the way I use it.

it's free, open source, built originally by microsoft, and it takes about two minutes to download. out of the box it looks nothing like my setup. plain file tree, no claude code panel, ugly rendering on anything that isn't raw text. what makes it function like mine is a short list of extensions, which I'll walk through properly in a second.

but before the extensions, the bigger shift is the folder structure underneath everything.

running the whole business out of one folder

I keep basically everything inside a single folder I just call OS. inside that, subfolders for finance, newsletter, content, marketing, whatever department needs its own space. when I want to work on something specific, I just open that folder on the left hand side and everything relevant to that piece of work sits right there.

say I'm writing an article about a new model release. I open the content folder, open the actual article file, and it renders like a proper document, not a wall of raw markdown. headings, to do lists, dividers, all of it formatted the way you'd expect from something like notion. except claude is sitting in the same window, watching the same file, making the same edits I'd otherwise have to describe to it from a separate screen.

that's the actual unlock. it's not that VS Code is a better chat interface. it's that the model and the work live in the same place, so nothing gets lost in translation between what I'm asking for and what claude can actually see.

what it looks like without any of it

it's worth seeing the contrast, because it's the exact reason most people try VS Code once and go straight back to the desktop app.

download it fresh and open a folder, any folder, and there's no claude code panel at all. instead there's a built in copilot agent, which isn't claude and isn't good. open an actual article inside it and the formatting breaks completely, no headings, no dividers, just raw text with symbols scattered through it.

that gap, from raw and unusable to the environment I actually work in, comes down to six extensions. nothing else changes.

opening more than just text

this is where it stops feeling like a coding tool entirely. images open directly in the panel, so if I'm working through creative for a brand, I can have the actual photo sitting there while claude works on it. I did exactly this on an ecommerce project recently, product images open on one side, claude editing and adjusting them on the other, no separate app, no exporting back and forth. PDFs, word docs, and powerpoints open the same way, all inside the same window.

I can run claude code and codex in the same window at the same time, both pointed at the same folder, both working in parallel if I need a second opinion or a second pass on something. that's not something the desktop app lets you do at all.

there's also a small command worth knowing, typing /context inside a session brings up a clean little panel showing exactly how much of the conversation's capacity is being used. small thing, but it means you're never guessing whether a session's about to run out of room.

the exact extensions, one by one

the first and most important is the Claude Code extension itself, the official one built by Anthropic. 16 million downloads at the time I'm writing this, which tells you it's not some obscure trick, it's just underused. install it and the panel shows up on the right side of your screen, ready to go.

next is a theme called Min. it gives you a genuinely clean dark mode and an equally clean light mode, nothing cluttered, nothing distracting. I run light mode during the day and switch to dark at night.

then Symbols, purely for the file icons down the left hand side. small thing, but it makes scanning a folder full of documents actually pleasant instead of a wall of identical grey file markers.

Pixel Agents is the one people usually laugh at first and then end up loving. it shows every active claude code session as a little animated person in an office, so you can glance over and see what's actually running and what it's working on.

Office Viewer lets you open word docs and powerpoints directly inside the editor instead of bouncing out to a separate app. and a markdown editor extension handles the notion style formatting for anything written in plain text, headings, dividers, to do lists, all rendered properly instead of showing raw symbols.

that's the full list. six extensions total, and the entire environment transforms from a blank code editor into something built specifically for knowledge work.

why I packaged it into one click

setting all of this up manually takes a while the first time, figuring out which extensions actually matter, getting the settings right, tuning the theme. so I built a one click install that just hands you my exact setup. same extensions, same theme, same claude code settings, including things like bypass permissions mode that most people never think to turn on.

you download VS Code, click the link, and it creates a new profile with everything already configured. no hunting through extension marketplaces, no guessing which combination actually works well together.

the actual lesson underneath all of this

it's easy to assume the model is the whole story. better model, better output, end of conversation. but the environment you're working inside changes what's actually possible just as much as which model you're running.

a great model stuck inside a slow, crash prone app that can't see your files is still a great model working with one hand tied behind its back. the same model, sitting inside an editor where it can see everything you're working on, read your documents, watch your folder structure, suddenly does noticeably more with the same intelligence underneath it.

that's really the whole idea behind an AI operating system. it's not one clever prompt or one impressive demo. it's the boring infrastructure underneath, the folder structure, the extensions, the environment, that decides whether all of it actually sticks or quietly falls apart after week two.

I haven't opened the claude desktop app in months. once you get used to working like this, there's genuinely no going back, and it's not just me saying that, most of the serious claude code users I know online run some version of this same setup, VS Code, extensions, the whole environment. not always the exact same look, but always out of the desktop app.

p.s. if you want my exact setup, extensions, theme, and settings included, I built a free one click install, grab it through the newsletter at: aiwithremy.com.

and if you want the entire system built out for your own business, that's what the AI course hands over:

reserve your seat here → awr-gamut-exploration.vercel.app/self-paced#reserve

Remy

Links

• aiwithremy.com
• awr-gamut-exploration.vercel.app/self-paced#reserve