Why claude Isn't on Your PATH After Installing the VS Code Extension
You install the Claude Code VS Code extension and use its panel
successfully. Then you open the integrated terminal and run
claude mcp add, and the shell reports command not found: claude.
Why?
The correct answer is "The extension bundles its own private CLI copy, not on PATH."
The VS Code extension is a native graphical panel, not a thin wrapper
around a system-wide install — it bundles its own private copy of the
CLI purely for its chat panel, and installing it does not put claude
on your shell PATH. To run CLI-only commands like claude mcp add or
claude --resume from the integrated terminal, you still need the
standalone CLI install.
The distractors don't match how the extension actually installs: there's no sudo-privileged install step involved; this has nothing to do with the JetBrains plugin, which has the opposite problem (no bundled CLI at all); and there's no separate paid license gating CLI access.
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