Claude Code for Eclipse IDE

Unofficial community port — This is an independent Eclipse IDE adaptation of the Claude Code VS Code extension, built by eilonwy06. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or maintained by Anthropic.

An Eclipse IDE plugin that integrates Claude Code — Anthropic's AI-powered CLI — directly into your Eclipse development environment.

Installation

1. Open Eclipse and go to Help → Install New Software
2. Click Add and enter:
   • Name: Claude Code
   • URL: https://eilonwy06.github.io/claudecode-eclipse-ide/com.anthropic.claudecode.eclipse.site/
3. Select the Claude Code for Eclipse IDE feature and follow the install prompts
4. Restart Eclipse when prompted

Prerequisites

• Eclipse IDE (tested with Eclipse 2023-12+)
• Java 21 or later
• Claude Code CLI installed and available on your PATH
• A valid Anthropic API key
• Windows: x86_64
• Linux: x86_64
• macOS: aarch64 (Apple Silicon) and x86_64 (Intel)

Setting Up Claude Code CLI

1. Install Node.js (v18 or later) from nodejs.org if you don't have it
2. Install Claude Code CLI globally via npm:

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
   

3. Verify the install — open a terminal and run:

   claude --version
   

   You should see a version number. If the command is not found, ensure your npm global bin directory is on your PATH.

Setting Up Your Anthropic API Key

Claude Code CLI requires an Anthropic API key to function. You have two options:

Option A — Interactive login (recommended):

claude auth

Follow the prompts to log in. Your credentials are stored securely and reused automatically.

Option B — Environment variable:

Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in your environment before launching Eclipse:

• Windows: In System Properties → Environment Variables, add ANTHROPIC_API_KEY = sk-ant-...
• macOS/Linux: Add to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.):

  export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
  

You can get an API key from console.anthropic.com.

Usage

Opening the Views

Go to Window → Show View → Other → Claude Code and open the views you want:

• Claude Code — server status, launch/resume/restart controls
• Claude CLI — dedicated interactive terminal with native embedded console (Windows: conhost, Linux/macOS: PTY + StyledText with full ANSI color support)
• Claude Chat — web-based chat interface with markdown rendering

Getting Started

1. In the Claude Code view, click Launch Claude Terminal — this opens the Claude CLI view and starts Claude automatically
2. Type directly in the Claude CLI terminal, or switch to Claude Chat for a richer markdown interface
3. Claude can read your open files, selection, and workspace context automatically via MCP tools

Note (Windows): The Claude CLI view embeds a native Windows console (conhost) directly into the Eclipse view — no WebView2, xterm.js, or TM Terminal required. Right-click paste is supported (Ctrl+V is not currently available).

Note (Linux/macOS): The Claude CLI view uses a native Rust PTY rendered in an SWT StyledText widget with full ANSI color, keyboard input, scrollback, and resize support. The monospace font defaults to Monospace on Linux and Menlo on macOS.

Keyboard Shortcuts

These are also available from the Claude Code menu in the menu bar and from the right-click context menu in any text editor.

Chat Controls

• Clear — clears the chat display
• New Session — starts a fresh conversation
• Resume Session (Claude Code view) — resumes the previous CLI session with --resume
• Restart Server (Claude Code view) — restarts the internal MCP server

What Claude Can Do in Eclipse

Claude has access to the following MCP tools, which it invokes automatically:

Configuration

Go to Window → Preferences → Claude Code to configure:

Architecture

The plugin follows a Rust-first approach: all heavy logic (HTTP/SSE server, MCP protocol, chat process management, PTY handling, console embedding) lives in a native Rust library loaded via JNI. Java is a thin glue layer responsible only for Eclipse/SWT API calls.

Claude CLI  <--NDJSON-->  Rust (chat.rs)  --JNI callbacks-->  Java (ClaudeChatView)
                          Rust (mcp.rs)   --JNI tool call-->  Java (McpToolRegistry)
                          Rust (server.rs) --SSE-->           Claude CLI

Project Structure

Building the Native Library

The Rust library must be compiled for each target platform:

Windows (native build):

cd claude-eclipse-core
cargo build --release
cp target/release/claude_eclipse_core.dll ../com.anthropic.claudecode.eclipse/native/windows/x86_64/

Linux (via Docker):

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/src" rust:latest bash -c \
  "cd /src/claude-eclipse-core && cargo build --release"
cp claude-eclipse-core/target/release/libclaude_eclipse_core.so \
   com.anthropic.claudecode.eclipse/native/linux/x86_64/

macOS (native build — must be built on a Mac):

rustup target add aarch64-apple-darwin x86_64-apple-darwin
cd claude-eclipse-core
cargo build --release --target aarch64-apple-darwin
cargo build --release --target x86_64-apple-darwin
cp target/aarch64-apple-darwin/release/libclaude_eclipse_core.dylib \
   ../com.anthropic.claudecode.eclipse/native/macos/aarch64/
cp target/x86_64-apple-darwin/release/libclaude_eclipse_core.dylib \
   ../com.anthropic.claudecode.eclipse/native/macos/x86_64/

Cross-compiling to macOS from Windows/Linux requires Apple's SDK and is not supported — build on a Mac.

Updating the Plugin

After making changes and rebuilding the update site in Eclipse:

git add .
git commit -m "vX.X.X - description of changes"
git push

GitHub Pages will redeploy within ~1 minute and the new version will be available to install.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full release history.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

License

MIT