My annoyance is that it sounds like I can't just use Claude Code directly in XCode? I like how Zed does it, it's not perfect, but it works really nicely.

Xcode is using the Claude Agent SDK, which means that you "get the full power of Claude Code directly in Xcode—including subagents, background tasks, and plugins—all without leaving the IDE¹". I assume that means iOS development plug-ins like Axiom² should work as well.

¹ https://www.anthropic.com/news/apple-xcode-claude-agent-sdk ² https://charleswiltgen.github.io/Axiom/