HN Showcase
Back to browse
GitHub Repository
31 starsC#

I gave Claude Code the keys to the Visual Studio debugger

by firish·Jun 23, 2026·2 points·1 comment
Visit ProjectView on HN

AI Analysis

●●●BangerSolve My ProblemBig BrainDark Horse

Claude can drive the VS debugger — set breakpoints and step through code live.

Strengths
  • •Live debugger access lets Claude read call stacks, locals, and drive debugging sessions
  • •Native Visual Studio diff window eliminates duplicate accept/reject prompts in terminal
  • •Compiler diagnostics for C# and C++ automatically shared with Claude for fixing errors
Weaknesses
  • •Visual Studio 2026 only — excludes large installed base of VS 2019 and 2022 users
  • •Unofficial extension means potential breakage if Claude Code protocol changes
Target Audience

Visual Studio developers, .NET engineers, C# and C++ programmers

Similar To

Claude Code · GitHub Copilot · Visual Studio IntelliCode

Post Description

I use Visual Studio daily, and Claude Code only ships native integration for VS Code (annoying). So, I built the Visual Studio half myself. It's an unofficial extension that speaks Claude Code's undocumented IDE protocol.

It started simple. Review Claude's edits in the real VS diff and accept or reject there, with no duplicate y/n prompt in the terminal, plus sharing the C# and C++ compiler errors with it directly.

The infra I built for the extension allowed me to add the interesting part, the VS debugger. When you're paused at a breakpoint, Claude can read the call stack and locals, and with a toggle it can drive the debugger itself: set breakpoints, step, start and stop a session, and find a bug by running the code instead of reading it.

There's a short walkthrough in the README where it catches a bug that never shows up in the output, by watching a counter fail to reset as it steps through a loop.

Would really appreciate if you take the time to check it out. Thanks!

Similar Projects