The Minimal IDE Setup for Claude Code
The Minimal IDE Setup for Claude Code
The best IDE setup for Claude Code is barely an IDE at all. Plain terminal for the agent. Cursor open separately for reading and reviewing. Git worktrees when you need parallel agents. That is the whole stack.
Why Plain Terminal Wins
Claude Code is a CLI tool. It does not need an IDE wrapper, a plugin system, or an integrated file browser. Running it in a plain terminal - iTerm, Warp, or even the default Terminal.app - gives you the cleanest interaction.
The terminal handles scrollback naturally, so you can review the full conversation history. You get proper keyboard shortcuts for scrolling, searching, and copying. And there is zero overhead between you and the agent.
Running Claude Code inside an IDE's integrated terminal works, but you give up screen space to panels you are not using during agent-driven development.
Cursor for Reading and Reviewing
While Claude Code writes the code, you need a way to review what it wrote. Cursor fills this role perfectly. Keep it open in a separate window or monitor with the project directory loaded.
When Claude Code finishes a task, switch to Cursor to read the diff. Cursor's AI features help here too - you can ask it to explain changes the agent made, spot potential issues, or suggest improvements before you commit.
The separation matters psychologically too. The terminal is where action happens. Cursor is where review happens. Keeping those in different windows prevents the urge to micromanage the agent mid-task.
Git Worktrees for Parallel Agents
When you need multiple agents working simultaneously and they might touch overlapping files, git worktrees give each agent its own working directory while sharing the same repository.
Each worktree gets its own terminal window running Claude Code. You can see all of them at a glance on a large monitor or use a tmux layout.
The Full Layout
Three things on screen: terminal with Claude Code in the main position, Cursor in a secondary window for review, and a small terminal for git commands and quick checks. This setup scales from one agent to five without any changes to the tooling.
- Terminal IDE for Multiple AI Agents
- Claude Code vs Copilot - Parallel Agents Advantage
- tmux Worktree Parallel Agent Management
Fazm is an open source macOS AI agent. Open source on GitHub.