Claude Code gets native LSP support

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Feature availability & setup

  • Users discover LSP support via /plugin → Discover → search “lsp” and install language-specific plugins, but availability depends on having the “official” marketplace enabled and being on recent Claude Code versions.
  • Several report that LSP plugins appear but don’t seem to actually run language servers (especially in the CLI), leading to suspicion the feature was released prematurely or is broken in 2.0.76.
  • Some accounts/projects see auto-prompts to install LSPs (e.g., Go, Swift), others see no trace of LSP support at all. Behavior is inconsistent across machines and accounts.

What LSP integration is supposed to do

  • Intended capabilities match IDE LSP features: go-to-definition, find references, hover docs, symbol search, call hierarchy, etc. One user showed Claude listing those operations explicitly.
  • Benefits discussed: more reliable refactors (e.g., renames across a codebase), accurate symbol lookups, type information, and cheaper context vs brute-force grepping or huge diffs.
  • Some question the value if you’re already in an IDE with LSP, asking whether Claude itself uses these features internally or if it’s just duplicative.
  • Current implementation is missing key LSP pieces like diagnostics for real-time errors and “rename symbol,” so users still need linters/compilers.

UX, reliability, and CLI vs IDE

  • Permission prompts for LSP sometimes glitch (not blocking, repeated prompts), and the plugin/marketplace system is widely called “half-baked.”
  • Several users haven’t seen Claude actually call LSP tools in practice, despite them being installed.
  • There’s debate over why people are excited about CLI agents when IDE-based agents supposedly get this “for free.” Others argue CLI form factors:
    • Avoid locking into a single editor.
    • Fit better with terminal-centric workflows and general “orchestration” of tools on a machine.
    • Sometimes provide a noticeably better agent experience than IDE integrations.

Comparisons & ecosystem

  • OpenCode and other agent frameworks (Serena, MCP-based LSP bridges) have had LSP-style integration for months; some find them faster-moving, others still prefer Claude Code’s polish and results.
  • Users compare Claude Code to Codex, Cursor, Zed, and JetBrains IDEs; Claude Code is often described as the best overall agent experience, though not universally.
  • JetBrains is frequently criticized for slow or clumsy AI integration and for not exposing their strong refactoring engines/PSI model to agents.

Security & distribution concerns

  • Claude Code’s plugin system is criticized as a “supply chain nightmare”: no lockfiles, plugins installing MCPs via uvx/PyPI, plus the main CLI distributed as an npm global running from $HOME.
  • Some users work around dependency/supply-chain worries with Nix or pinned environments and want more secure, deterministic setups.