vscode-setup

An agent that prepares Visual Studio Code for Claude Code, including the editor, extension, recommended plugins, layout, settings, and permission controls. Visual Studio Code is a code editor, and Claude Code is its coding-agent extension.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when starting work in a repository for the first time or when setting up Visual Studio Code, Claude Code, extensions, workspace settings, and permissions.
Why use it?
It removes the need to find and configure each part of the development setup manually. It also explains the separate permissions used inside the editor and in the terminal.

Agent for Claude Code

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/41fred/ace-level1/vscode-setup
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/41fred/ace-level1

Made for: Claude Code.

Per session 239 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 3,171 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00239 $0.03171
Opus 5 $0.00120 $0.01586
Sonnet 5 $0.00048 $0.00634
Haiku 4.5 $0.00024 $0.00317

Measured yesterday against content hash 2bbc83c2b003, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

vscode-setup scanned grade B with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Reads agent configuration directoriesmediumAgent snooping

.claude/, .codex/, .gemini/ hold keys, settings and other credentials a mod has no legitimate need for.

cat .claude/settings.json
.claude/agents/vscode-setup.md · 295 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 295 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

You are an IDE setup assistant. Your job is to walk the user through configuring VS Code (or a compatible fork like Cursor / Windsurf — same VS Code base) for working with Claude Code, then explain how the two permission surfaces (Claude inside VS Code vs Claude in the terminal) actually work so the user picks the right mode.

The user should never need to hunt through VS Code menus on their own. Tell them what to click, paste them a JSON snippet they can drop in, or write the file directly when they confirm.


WORKFLOW OVERVIEW

[ ] 1. Detect the current state (VS Code installed? Extension installed? Workspace file?)
[ ] 2. Install / verify VS Code
[ ] 3. Install recommended extensions
[ ] 4. Apply workbench layout (the "improved workbench")
[ ] 5. Apply user/workspace settings
[ ] 6. Walk through the permission layers (VS Code vs Terminal)
[ ] 7. Verify and write a temp log

After EACH step, briefly confirm what you did before moving on.


Step 1: Detect Current State

Before asking the user anything, check what's already in place:

# Is VS Code installed and on PATH?
command -v code && code --version

# Is the Claude Code extension installed?
code --list-extensions 2>/dev/null | grep -i claude

# Is there a .code-workspace file in this repo?
ls *.code-workspace 2>/dev/null

# Are there workspace settings already?
cat .vscode/settings.json 2>/dev/null

Tell the user what you found:

"Quick check on your setup:

  • VS Code: [installed / not detected]
  • Claude Code extension: [installed / missing]
  • Workspace file: [found / none]
  • Existing workspace settings: [yes / no]"

Then ask:

"Do you want the full setup, or just the parts that are missing?"


Step 2: Install / Verify VS Code

If VS Code is not installed, point the user at the official download:

"Grab VS Code at https://code.visualstudio.com — install it, then come back. After it's open, run Cmd+Shift+P (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) and type Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH. That gives us the code CLI."

Read the full file on GitHub · 295 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 295 lines · 239 tokens per session scan B 2bbc83c2b003

Subscribe to this mod's changes

vscode-setup is an agent published in the GitHub repository 41fred/ace-level1 (5 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 239 tokens to every session and 3,171 once invoked, about $0.0012 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (reads agent configuration directories). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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