README.md

Super CLI — AI Coding Agent CLI Launcher for VS Code

Visual Studio Marketplace · Open VSX · CI · Sponsor

One launcher. Every coding agent.

Launch Claude Code, OpenAI Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Google Antigravity, OpenCode, Amp, goose, Cline CLI, Mistral Vibe, Rovo Dev CLI, and other AI coding agents inside VS Code from one sidebar and the native integrated terminal. Super CLI keeps every supported agent one click away without replacing its official command-line experience.

It works on Windows, macOS, Linux, and WSL, and on any editor that supports the VS Code extension model — VS Code itself plus the forks that install from Open VSX or from a .vsix, such as Cursor, Windsurf, Google Antigravity, Kiro, Trae, VSCodium, and Gitpod. It is free, open source, and has no telemetry or automatic CLI installers.

Install Super CLI in VS Code

Install Super CLI from the Visual Studio Marketplace, or run:

code --install-extension mikesoft.vscode-super-cli

You can also open the Extensions view, search for Super CLI, and select Install.

Which editors it runs in

Super CLI needs an editor that runs VS Code extensions. That covers VS Code and its forks — Cursor, Windsurf, Google Antigravity, Kiro, Trae, VSCodium, Gitpod and others. Because Microsoft's Marketplace is licensed for Microsoft products only, forks generally install from Open VSX, where every release is published too, or from the .vsix attached to each GitHub release via Extensions: Install from VSIX….

The manifest requires VS Code 1.93 or newer — the actual floor of the terminal APIs used — rather than the latest version, so forks that track upstream at a delay can still install it.

Editors with their own extension system cannot run it, and no configuration changes that: Zed extensions are Rust crates compiled to WebAssembly, and JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm, …) use JVM plugins. Neither loads a .vsix. Note this is about the editor: agent CLIs like Qoder CLI are supported as agents to launch, whichever supported editor you launch them from.

This extension is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic, OpenAI, GitHub, Google, or any other vendor. See the third-party notices.

Interface

Agent sidebar and editor launcher

The activity bar opens a status-aware list with vendor-specific agent icons. A live Running group leads the list the moment you launch an agent, followed by your own Favorites group, then Ready agents; CLIs not found on the active PATH are grouped under Setup required. Agents are sorted alphabetically within each group. The colored Router S in the editor toolbar opens the same launcher without leaving the current file.

Focused configuration

All settings are available in one filtered view. Commands can be shared across platforms or defined explicitly for Windows, macOS, and Linux; WSL deliberately selects the Linux command.

Features

• One launcher for every agent. A Super CLI view in the activity bar lists all configured agents; click one to open it in a terminal beside your editor. A toolbar button and the Super CLI: Launch Coding Agent command open a quick pick of the same list.
• Favorites, one keystroke. Star as many agents as you like from either the sidebar or launcher; they lead the sidebar in their own Favorites group, matching the same launcher section. Launch with Ctrl+Alt+A (Cmd+Alt+A on macOS; remap it in Keyboard Shortcuts): with exactly one favorite it launches directly, with several it opens a quick pick scoped to just your favorites, and with none it opens the full picker and offers to remember your choice.
• Ready and setup states. The sidebar groups ready agents, unknown WSL states, and CLIs that need setup, each its own section below Favorites. Agents are alphabetical within each section.
• Running sessions, live. A Running group appears at the top of the sidebar the moment you launch an agent, showing every active session and how long it has been running. Click one to bring its terminal back into focus, use the inline restart button to stop and relaunch it in the exact same folder, the inline stop button to end it, or Stop All on the group header to end every running session at once. It clears itself as soon as the CLI exits (with terminal shell integration available) and always when the terminal closes. Super CLI never reads terminal content to show this — only the terminal's own lifecycle.
• Survives a window reload. Reloading the window (or installing an update) restarts the extension but not your agents: VS Code reconnects their terminals, and Super CLI picks them back up into the Running group instead of losing sight of them. Recovered sessions are marked reconnected, because their original start time is gone with the previous session and reporting a duration would be a guess.
• Agent Manager. Choose exactly which built-in CLIs appear from the sidebar toolbar or with Super CLI: Manage Built-in Agents. Hiding a favorited agent safely removes just that one from your favorites, leaving the rest untouched.
• Agent Doctor. Run an explicit, bounded local diagnostic to see detected CLI versions and missing or failing version checks. It does not perform network update checks and its report omits environment variables, PATH contents, launch commands, and raw diagnostic output. The report is a single read-only virtual document that is replaced on every run and is never written to disk.
• Agent-specific artwork. Every built-in has explicit light- and dark-theme SVG variants. Monochrome marks switch between black and white for contrast, while fixed-color marks preserve their vendor palette. Documented compact fallbacks cover Kimi and Codebuff; custom agents use a theme-aware ThemeIcon fallback.
• Built-in presets. Claude Code, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Grok CLI, Kilo CLI, Kiro CLI, OpenClaw CLI, Antigravity CLI, OpenCode, Command Code, Cursor CLI, Droid CLI, Crush, Devin CLI, Hermes, MiMo Code, Pi, Kimi Code CLI, Qoder CLI, Qwen Code CLI, Amp, OpenClaude, Oh My Pi, goose, Auggie CLI, Cline CLI, Codebuff, Continue CLI, Mistral Vibe, and Rovo Dev CLI are available out of the box.
• Add your own, no code required. Define new agents in settings.json. The sidebar updates automatically.
• Update from the sidebar. Agents with a known update command show an update button next to Launch, which runs the CLI's official update (e.g. codex update, amp update, goose update, cline update, omp update, vibe --check-upgrade). CLIs that update themselves don't show one. With terminal shell integration available, Super CLI reports whether the update completed or failed and can bring the update terminal back into focus. Super CLI: Update All Agents in the sidebar toolbar runs every updatable agent's update in sequence, one at a time, in a single shared Super CLI: updates terminal, skipping any agent currently believed to be missing from PATH. It is cancellable at any point, and closing the terminal stops the run — so an update waiting on an interactive prompt can never strand the rest.
• Official installation docs. If a supported CLI isn't found, Super CLI opens that agent's verified official installation documentation in your browser. It never installs a CLI, runs an installer, or changes your shell profile.
• Native integrated terminal. Each agent runs in a real VS Code terminal, inheriting your shell, PATH, and environment. No bundled emulator, no runtime dependencies. The working directory follows the active editor's folder; in a multi-root workspace with no active editor, Super CLI asks which folder to use instead of guessing — declining the prompt falls back to the first folder.
• One-time rating nudge. After 20 successful launches, Super CLI shows a single notification asking for a Marketplace rating. It never repeats after that, however you respond, and the launch count lives only in this extension's local state — nothing is sent anywhere.

Adding or overriding an agent

Add agents through the superCli.agents setting. Each entry creates a new agent, or — when it reuses a built-in id — overrides that built-in (for example to point at a custom binary path).

"superCli.agents": [
  {
    "id": "my-agent",
    "label": "My Agent",
    "command": "my-agent",
    "icon": "rocket"
  },
  {
    "id": "claude",
    "label": "Claude Code",
    "command": "\"C:\\Tools\\claude\\claude.exe\""
  },
  {
    "id": "adaptive-agent",
    "label": "Adaptive Agent",
    "command": {
      "windows": "adaptive-agent.exe",
      "macos": "adaptive-agent-macos",
      "linux": "adaptive-agent-linux"
    }
  }
]

• id — unique identifier; reuse a built-in id to override it.
• label — name shown in the sidebar and quick pick.
• command — the command that starts the CLI. Use one string when it is cross-platform, or an object with windows, macos, and linux strings for OS-specific commands. On Windows, quote executable paths that contain spaces.
• icon — optional ThemeIcon id, e.g. sparkle or rocket.
• installationDocumentationUrl — optional verified official installation documentation URL. When the command is missing, Super CLI offers to open this URL in your external browser; it does not run any installation command.
• env — optional environment variables set for the agent's terminal, e.g. to opt out of a CLI's IDE-extension auto-install via its own variable: { "CLAUDE_CODE_IDE_SKIP_AUTO_INSTALL": "1" }.
• updateCommand — optional command to update the CLI. It accepts the same cross-platform string or windows/macos/linux object as command, and adds an update button next to the agent.
• versionCommand — optional command used only when you explicitly run Agent Doctor. It accepts the same cross-platform forms and should print a short version string without requiring authentication.

Every built-in preset defines its launch and update commands through the same platform-aware model. When superCli.useWsl is enabled on Windows, Super CLI selects the linux command variant because the command runs inside WSL.

Only the user (global) value of superCli.agents is used; workspace overrides are ignored so that an untrusted repository cannot inject commands.

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
superCli.agents	[]	Your agents (added to or overriding the built-ins).
superCli.useBuiltins	true	Include the built-in agent presets.
superCli.hiddenBuiltins	[]	Built-in ids hidden by Manage Built-in Agents. Prefer the manager over editing this list.
superCli.favoriteAgents	[]	Ids of the agents launched by Ctrl+Alt+A. Set them with the ★ button in the sidebar rather than by hand.
superCli.terminalLocation	beside	Open the terminal beside the editor or in the panel.
superCli.useWsl	false	On Windows, open agents in WSL and use their Linux command variants. Ignored on macOS/Linux.

Run Super CLI: Open Settings from the sidebar or the command palette to jump straight to these settings.

Troubleshooting

• "… was not found." The configured command was not found. Open the official documentation offered by Super CLI, or fix the command in settings. The launcher uses the active editor's workspace folder as the working directory.
• Nothing happens on launch. Make sure the workspace is trusted — the launcher is disabled in untrusted workspaces because it runs terminal commands.
• "Setup required" looks wrong. The indicator is a best-effort check of your PATH and doesn't spawn the CLI. WSL agents stay in the neutral Agents group because the Windows PATH doesn't reflect what's installed inside WSL. Use Refresh Agents after installing a CLI.
• The wrong OS command runs. Platform-specific custom commands must define all three keys: windows, macos, and linux. Super CLI selects the host OS automatically; WSL deliberately uses the linux variant because the command runs inside the WSL terminal.
• A version is unavailable. Run Super CLI: Run Agent Doctor. A custom agent needs a verified versionCommand; untrusted workspaces skip version commands, and each check is limited to five seconds and 4 KB of output.
• Companion editor extensions. Super CLI does not modify agent configuration files or shell profiles. It launches Claude Code with the official CLAUDE_CODE_IDE_SKIP_AUTO_INSTALL=1 environment variable so its companion extension is not installed automatically.
• I don't see a "Running" section. It only appears once at least one agent has an active terminal session — launch an agent from the sidebar and it appears at the top instantly. It disappears once that terminal closes, or sooner when the CLI itself exits — the latter needs terminal shell integration, so without it (or on a shell that doesn't support it) the row stays until you close the terminal.
• Super CLI asks which folder to launch in. This only happens when it genuinely can't tell on its own — no active editor, and more than one folder open in a multi-root workspace. Press Escape to fall back to the first folder instead, same as every launch before this existed. Restarting a running session never asks — it reuses that session's original folder directly.
• Update All Agents seems stuck on one agent. An update command that waits for input (a confirmation prompt, a credential) can't complete on its own. Cancel the progress notification, or close the Super CLI: updates terminal — either one ends the run and reports how far it got. Cancelling stops Super CLI from starting further updates; a command already running in the terminal keeps going, so check that terminal before closing it.
• I updated the extension but nothing changed. Reload the window (Developer: Reload Window from the Command Palette) or restart your editor. Extension code loaded into a running window is not replaced until the window reloads, even after a newer version finishes installing.
• A running agent didn't come back after a reload. Recovery matches a surviving terminal to an agent by the terminal's name, so a renamed terminal can't be matched. It also relies on VS Code's own terminal persistence: if terminal.integrated.enablePersistentSessions is off, the terminals themselves don't survive a reload and there is nothing left to recover.
• Sessions in another window aren't listed. Each window sees only its own. VS Code gives an extension no access to another window's terminals, so a shared view across windows (or across two different editors) isn't something Super CLI can do today.

FAQ

How do I launch Claude Code in VS Code?

Install Super CLI, open the Super CLI view in the activity bar, and select Claude Code. The official claude CLI opens in a native integrated terminal beside your editor. You can also set it as your favorite and launch it with Ctrl+Alt+A (Cmd+Alt+A on macOS).

How do I run Codex CLI or GitHub Copilot CLI in VS Code?

Select Codex CLI or GitHub Copilot CLI from the Super CLI sidebar or run Super CLI: Launch Coding Agent from the Command Palette. Super CLI starts the official codex or copilot command in the current workspace.

Can I use Google Antigravity, Kiro CLI, and OpenClaw CLI in VS Code?

Yes. Google Antigravity, Kiro CLI, and OpenClaw CLI are built-in presets. Super CLI detects their commands, links to official setup documentation when available, and launches them with the correct Windows, macOS, Linux, or WSL command variant.

Which AI coding agents are supported?

Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI, Grok, Kilo, Kiro, OpenClaw, Antigravity, OpenCode, Command Code, Cursor, Devin CLI, Droid, Crush, Hermes, MiMo Code, Pi, Kimi Code CLI, Qoder CLI, and Qwen Code CLI out of the box — plus any CLI you add in settings.json.

Does Super CLI work on Windows, macOS, Linux, and WSL?

Yes. On Windows you can also launch agents inside WSL with superCli.useWsl.

Is Super CLI free, and does it collect data?

Free and open-source (MIT), with no telemetry. It only runs the commands you configure, in your own integrated terminal.

Support

If Super CLI is useful to you, consider sponsoring its development. Bug reports, feature requests, and contributions are welcome on GitHub.

Privacy

This extension does not collect telemetry, analytics, or personal data. It never installs CLIs or modifies shell profiles; it only runs launch and user-requested update commands in your integrated terminal, plus bounded version commands when you explicitly run Agent Doctor. The only state it keeps locally is your configuration (favorites, hidden built-ins) and a launch counter used solely to show the one-time rating nudge described above — neither is ever transmitted anywhere.

Keep credentials in each CLI's supported credential store or environment configuration rather than embedding them directly in launch, update, or version command strings.

Building

npm ci
npm run check     # compile + unit tests + VS Code integration smoke test
npm run package   # produce the .vsix