I.

Last week, I wrote anClaude Code integration with domestic large modelsThe tutorial, some students asked me why not use VS Code?

Good question. I'm used to the command line and indeed overlooked VS Code.

Today I'll make up for it and introduce how to use Claude Code in VS Code without plugins.

I genuinely think Claude Code is better than the plugin, so let's try skipping the plugin and using it directly inside VS Code.

Just like before, this time Claude Code is also connected to a domestic large model. I choseMiniMax M2Its quality is very good, and there is an event this week.

II.

The topic of this review is quite interesting, and I personally love it.

It was recently conceived by a foreign programmer and has already caused a sensation abroad.

He used nine well-known models to generate animations for a web clock, and then placed these animations on the website , which is titled "AI Clock".

Strangely enough, this test seems easy, but the results generated by most models were not good, and some were even terrible.

For example, the image below shows the clock generated by OpenAI's GPT-5 model, which is quite frustrating.

The prompt for this clock is as follows, and everyone can try it themselves.

Create HTML/CSS of an analog clock showing ${time}. Include numbers (or numerals) if you wish, and have a CSS animated second hand. Make it responsive and use a white background. Return ONLY the HTML/CSS code with no markdown formatting.

翻译成中文就是：

"创建一个显示时间 ${time} 的模拟时钟的 HTML/CSS 代码。如果需要，可以包含数字，并添加 CSS 动画秒针。使其具有响应式设计，并使用白色背景。仅返回 HTML/CSS 代码，不要包含任何 Markdown 格式。"

我也拿它来测试，看看 MiniMax M2 的效果如何。

III.

Before getting to the point, I want to emphasize that VS Code and Claude Code are two completely different tools.

VS Code is an IDEAre you using AI inside an IDE.

Claude Code is a command-line toolYou are using AI in a terminal window.

Their characteristics are completely different. IDE supports smart awareness (intellisense) and auto-completion, while command line supports calling system tools and scripts, can also automate integration, and execute in parallel.

So,They are not substitutes but complementary.You should choose the most suitable tool according to your needs.

The method I want to demonstrate is precisely combining the IDE and the command line, giving you maximum flexibility.

IV.

The model I use for testing isMiniMax M2Why did you choose it.

It was released at the end of last month (October 27th), and many reviews show that it is one of the most powerful open-source models in terms of programming capabilities. Moreover, on the OpenRouter platform, it is the most heavily called domestic model in terms of token usage.

I did it to it at that timeReviewDo you still remember? The conclusion is that its programming performance exceeded my expectations.

But back then, it didn't have a monthly subscription plan and could only charge based on API usage, which made people reluctant to use it excessively.

It's different now. Last weekend, it suddenly launched the Coding Plan monthly subscription plan with three tiers of pricing.

The lowest tier is designed for regular use, priced at just 9.9 yuan for the first month (29 yuan/month thereafter), which is quite a deal.

Besides this promotion, it has two features that are very suitable for this tutorial.

(1) Good compatibility, making it easy to integrate external tools. I had no trouble integrating Claude Code and VS Code with it.

The official documentation provides comprehensive examples for the API, including Cursor, Cline, Codex, Kilo Code, Droid, Trae, Grok, OpenCode, iFlow, and more.

(2) Response speed, generation speed . Its API server, the response time within China is generally tens of milliseconds, the number of tokens generated per second (i.e., the TPS metric) exceeds 100, much faster than foreign models

. Five,

Now getting to the point, first some preparations, to connect MiniMax M2 to Claude Code

The specific steps are not detailed, everyone follows the previous tutorial

Simply put, it's to create a new claude-minimax script (below), fill in the interface parameters obtained from the MiniMax M2 official website .

, you can test it to see if it runs normally.

$ claude-minimax --version

Section 6:

Below is the test of generating a web clock using Claude Code in VS Code.

First step, create a local directory as the project directory, for example ai-clock.

$ mkdir ai-clock 

Then, open this directory ai-clock in VS Code as your workspace.

Second step, open the "Terminal/New Terminal" menu in VS Code, and enter claude-minimax in this terminal window.

$ claude-minimax

At this point, the window will prompt you to grant permissions. After agreeing, you will enter the main interface, which is roughly as shown below.

Now, we can use Claude Code in the command line within VS Code.

At this point, you can both write code using the IDE and use the AI model via the command line, enjoying the advantages of both.

Step three: After the Claude Code prompt, enter the /init command to generate a CLAUDE.md file in the repository, recording the AI's operations on this repository.

/init

After generation, you can open and review the CLAUDE.md file (see the image below).

Since our example repository is empty, there's not much content in the file. For a repository with existing code, the file will contain detailed AI analysis of the codebase.

The purpose of this file is to serve as context, with each query to the model automatically appending this file so the model can understand the codebase.

If you enter a backslash in the prompt box, Claude Code will display all available commands (see image below).

With these commands, we can use the powerful features of Claude Code to perform various AI operations.

This step is the basic usage of Claude Code and is applicable to all projects.

In the fourth step, enter the previous prompt word in the prompt box (see image below) to let the model generate a web clock.

MiniMax M2 took less than a minute to generate (see image below) and automatically wrote these codes into the file index.html.

Open the web to see the following effect.

It's really great, achieving such an effect on the first try. The clock face shape is correct, the second hand animation is very smooth, refreshing every second to display the current time.

everyone can use this prompt to generate their own content. If you don't have Claude Code handy, you can execute it on the official website .

you can also check out the complete code I obtained , copy and save it as an HTML file, then open it in a browser.

7.

From these test results, the generation results of MiniMax M2 are satisfactory, whether compared horizontally or in terms of actual performance.

Considering its current price, it offers great value for money, and I believe it's worth recommending for everyone to try.

Lastly, here's a repost of their Coding Plan event. , priced at 9.9 yuan for the first month, just the cost of a cup of coffee, subscribe monthly to use the latest AI programming model, first come first served.

(End)