Setting Up Claude Code

Use Set Up for Claude Code in the Project menu to configure your project for use with Claude Code. This writes several configuration files for Claude Code and opens a Claude Code tool panel. You can also set up Claude Code when creating a new project by checking the Set Up for Claude Code option in the New Project dialog.

The setup dialog asks you to select a directory where the configuration files will be written. This is typically the top-level directory of the source tree you want Claude Code to work in. If you have previously set up Claude Code for this project, the dialog defaults to the previously used directory.

Wing's Claude Code integration and the Tasks tool work with projects on the local host and on remote hosts. They are not currently supported for projects that run Python in a container or cluster. Email us at support@wingware.com if you need this feature.

Updating Configuration

Wing automatically updates its configuration files whenever relevant project properties change, or if needed to support new features in the currently running version of Wing.

If the project's home directory changes, Wing will automatically move the configuration files to the new location.

What the Setup Process Does

When you click OK, Wing performs the following steps:

Writes .mcp.json to the selected directory. This tells Claude Code about Wing's MCP servers (see below). If a .mcp.json file already exists, Wing makes sure it has the content needed to support its features, while leaving other parts of the file intact. A copy of any old file is kept in .mcp.json.old.
Generates .claude/CLAUDE.md in the selected directory. This provides Claude Code with the information it needs to work with Wing's functionality.
Writes .mcp.metadata.json to the selected directory. This contains fully-resolved project configuration (Python path, test framework, environment variables, etc.) so that Wing's MCP servers can run tests and debug code with the correct settings.
Adds the directory to the project if it is not already included.
Opens the Tasks tool in the first editor split and a Claude Code tool panel in the second editor split (if present), giving each the width it needs. The panels can be moved from there to any other panel location.

The files .mcp.json, .mcp.metadata.json, and the .claude/ directory are specific to your local Wing installation and should not be committed. You may want to add them to your version control ignore file (e.g., .gitignore or .hgignore).

MCP Servers

Wing provides four MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that give Claude Code access to Wing's testing, debugging, review, and source analysis capabilities. These servers help to drastically reduce token, and thus costs, use during AI agent driven development:

wing-analysis -- Allows Claude Code to query Wing's Python source analysis engine for points of definition and points of use, and to get at the code for named scopes much more efficiently and accurately than it can without Wing.
wing-debug -- Allows Claude Code to run code under Wing's debugger, set breakpoints, evaluate expressions, and inspect the call stack.
wing-testing -- Allows Claude Code to discover, run, and inspect the results of unit tests with Wing's test runner.
wing-review -- Allows Claude Code to start a change review in Wing's user interface. Wing shows all uncommitted changes and lets you approve, request adjustments, or cancel. See The Claude Code Tool for details on the review workflow.

These servers are launched automatically by Claude Code when it starts. They read project configuration from .mcp.metadata.json so they use the same Python environment, test framework, and other settings configured in your Wing project.