Run Claude Code next to your IDE, without alt-tabbing

Updated July 2026 · Disclosure: written by the maker of Sticky for Claude, which is option 4 below.

The context switch is the real cost of AI-assisted coding. Every Cmd-Tab to check on Claude Code is a small purchase: you pay with your mental model of the code you were reading. Fifty switches a day and the tax is enormous. Here are the four setups that remove it, in increasing order of comfort.

1. Split your terminal into the IDE

VS Code, Cursor and JetBrains all embed a terminal: run claude in it and the session lives inside your editor. Free and simple. The trade-offs: the session competes with your editor panes for space, it's tied to that one window, and it disappears with the IDE in fullscreen if you also use other apps.

2. Tile two windows

macOS window tiling: editor left, terminal right. Free, built in, reliable. You lose a third of your screen permanently, and the layout breaks each time you need a browser or a design tool in the mix.

3. tmux panes

If you live in the terminal anyway, a tmux pane per Claude Code session is a classic. Powerful, scriptable, free. It stays a terminal: no rich Markdown, images as file paths, and the whole thing vanishes behind any fullscreen app.

4. A floating window above the editor

The setup Sticky for Claude was built for: Claude Code in a compact floating window that stays above your IDE, even in true fullscreen. It fades to near-invisible when idle, comes back on hover, and never steals your keyboard focus. One window per project folder, each with its own slash commands and permission modes; a chat window on the side for quick questions; double-tap ⌘ to summon or hide everything.

A floating Claude window with a rich Markdown answer above a fullscreen app on macOS — Ask, glance, keep typing: the answer floats over your work instead of replacing it.

Which setup for whom

You	Best setup
One project, IDE-centric, no fullscreen	Embedded terminal (1)
Two apps max, big screen	Tiling (2)
Terminal native, SSH, scripts	tmux (3)
Fullscreen lover, several projects, wants rich answers	Sticky for Claude (4)

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