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One Install Script, 9 IDEs: How We Made HexaClaw Work Everywhere

·HexaClaw Team

Developers don't use one tool. They use five.

Claude Code on Monday. Cursor on Tuesday. VS Code for the legacy project. Gemini CLI for quick questions. OpenClaw for the hobby project on the weekend.

Every AI tool platform makes you install separately for each IDE. Different config formats. Different setup steps. Different documentation pages. Half of them don't work on the first try.

We built one install command that handles all nine.

The Problem: Fragmented Developer Tooling

The AI coding assistant market has exploded. In the last year alone, we've seen Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Kiro, Gemini CLI, Codex, and OpenCode all launch or mature significantly. Each has its own strengths. Most developers use at least two.

But each IDE has its own plugin/extension format:

  • Claude Code uses MCP server configs in ~/.claude/
  • Cursor uses .cursor/mcp.json in your project or home directory
  • VS Code uses MCP extensions or settings.json
  • Gemini CLI has its own config format
  • OpenClaw uses mcp-servers.json

If you're a tool provider, you have two choices: pick one IDE and ignore the rest, or build and maintain 9 different installation flows. Most pick option A.

We picked option B.

One Curl, All IDEs

curl -fsSL https://hexaclaw.com/install.sh | bash -s -- -k YOUR_API_KEY

That's it. The installer detects which IDEs you have installed, configures each one, and verifies the setup. When you open Claude Code, HexaClaw tools are there. Open Cursor, same tools. Open Gemini CLI, same tools.

18 tools. All working identically across every editor.

What You Get

Every IDE gets the same set of tools:

  • Web search and scraping — search the web, read pages, crawl entire sites
  • Image generation — create images from text descriptions
  • Video generation — produce videos from prompts or images
  • Audio generation — create sound effects and music
  • Text-to-speech — convert text to natural-sounding audio
  • Email — send emails programmatically
  • Memory — store and recall information across sessions
  • Vector storage — semantic search over your documents
  • Embeddings — generate text embeddings for similarity matching
  • Browser automation — control a cloud browser for web tasks
  • Multi-model chat — route prompts to any model (GPT, Gemini, Llama, Claude, etc.)

Your AI assistant in Claude Code can generate an image. Your Cursor agent can search the web. Your Gemini CLI can send an email. Same capabilities, regardless of which editor you're in.

Why This Matters

Your Workflow Shouldn't Depend on Your IDE

You switch IDEs for different tasks. Cursor for frontend work. Claude Code for backend refactoring. VS Code for debugging. The tools you rely on shouldn't disappear when you switch.

With HexaClaw installed once, every IDE has access to web search, image generation, memory, and everything else. The context might change. The capabilities don't.

New IDEs Get Instant Support

When a new AI coding assistant launches (and they launch frequently), our installer adds support for it. You re-run the install, and the new IDE is configured. You don't wait for us to build a dedicated plugin. You don't file a feature request. It just works.

Team Consistency

In a team of 5 developers, you'll have 5 different IDE preferences. "The image generation tool? Oh, that only works in Cursor." Not anymore. Everyone gets the same tools, the same way, regardless of their editor choice.

The Technical Insight

The reason this works is MCP — the Model Context Protocol. Most modern AI coding assistants have converged on MCP as the standard for tool integration. It's the USB-C of AI tooling: one protocol, many devices.

Our installer doesn't build 9 different plugins. It configures one MCP server in 9 different config file formats. The tools are identical. The wiring is different.

This is a bet on MCP becoming the universal standard — and so far, that bet is paying off.

The Credit System Follows You

Your HexaClaw account works across all IDEs. Generate an image in Claude Code, check your credit balance in Cursor, search the web in Gemini CLI — it's one account, one balance, one API key.

No per-IDE subscriptions. No "you need the Pro plan for VS Code support." One key. Everywhere.

Getting Started

If you have a HexaClaw API key:

curl -fsSL https://hexaclaw.com/install.sh | bash -s -- -k YOUR_API_KEY

If you don't have one yet, sign up at hexaclaw.com and grab your key from the dashboard.

The installer takes about 30 seconds. Your tools will be waiting in every IDE you open.

One install. Every IDE. All the tools.