Using Downsizing with Claude for IDE

How this works

"Claude for IDE" refers to Anthropic's official IDE integrations for Claude Code: the VS Code extension (anthropic.claude-code, also available for Cursor and other VS Code forks) and the JetBrains plugin (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, Android Studio, etc.).

Both are thin front-ends over the same Claude Code CLI, and both read the same ~/.claude/settings.json used by the CLI:

• The JetBrains plugin runs the claudebinary directly in the IDE's integrated terminal — there is no separate config file at all.
• The VS Code extension bundles its own private copy of the CLI for its chat panel, but per Anthropic's docs, "Claude Code settings in ~/.claude/settings.json: shared between the extension and CLI. Use for allowed commands, environment variables, hooks, and MCP servers."

That means there is nothing IDE-specific to configure: if you've already run ds link claude, both IDE integrations are already routed through Downsizing. This page walks through the same steps for anyone setting up the IDE extension/plugin directly.

Prerequisites

Install the Downsizing CLI — see the CLI guide if you haven't already. The JetBrains plugin additionally requires the standalone claude CLI on your PATH — it launches that binary rather than bundling its own.

Link Claude Code (Recommended)

Since both IDE integrations read ~/.claude/settings.json, the same link command used for the CLI covers them:

ds link claude

The CLI prompts you to choose a scope — global (all projects) or local (current folder only). You can skip the prompt by passing the scope directly:

ds link claude global

ds link claude local

The CLI writes the correct ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN to the appropriate settings file. Fully quit and reopen your IDE (or restart the integrated terminal session) afterwards — both integrations read the file at process start.

Manual Setup

If you prefer to configure manually, edit ~/.claude/settings.json (global) or .claude/settings.local.json in your project directory (local) and add:

{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.downsizing.dev/YOUR_INFERENCE_ID/anthropic",
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "dws_YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
}

Find your Inference ID and API key on the Inference API page. In the VS Code extension, you may also need to enable Disable Login Prompt(Settings → Extensions → Claude Code) so it doesn't prompt for an Anthropic account sign-in instead of using the API key.

Verify

Open the Claude panel in VS Code (or launch Claude Code from your JetBrains integrated terminal) and send a prompt. If Claude responds, Downsizing is set up correctly. You can also check your savings dashboard to see the request appear in your usage metrics. As a quick sanity check from a terminal, you can also run:

claude -p "hello"

Unlinking

To remove Downsizing from Claude Code (CLI and both IDE integrations) and restore your original settings:

ds unlink claude