Clawd on Desk

中文版 · 한국어 · 日本語

_{🌏 Don't see your language? Open a PR to add one — Español, Français, Deutsch, etc. all welcome.}

Clawd lives on your desktop and reacts to what your AI coding agent is doing — in real time. Start a long task, walk away, come back when the crab tells you it's done.

Thinking when you prompt, typing when tools run, juggling subagents, reviewing permissions, celebrating when tasks complete, sleeping when you step away. Ships with two built-in themes: Clawd (pixel crab) and Calico (三花猫), with full support for custom themes.

Supports Windows 11, macOS, and Ubuntu/Linux. Windows releases provide separate x64 and ARM64 installers. Source builds require Node.js. Works with Claude Code, Codex CLI, Copilot CLI, Gemini CLI, Cursor Agent, CodeBuddy, Kiro CLI, Kimi Code CLI (Kimi-CLI), and opencode.

Features

Multi-Agent Support

• Claude Code — full integration via command hooks + HTTP permission hooks
• Codex CLI — official hooks with JSONL fallback (~/.codex/sessions/), registered automatically with real permission bubbles
• Copilot CLI — command hooks via ~/.copilot/hooks/hooks.json
• Gemini CLI — command hooks via ~/.gemini/settings.json (registered automatically when Clawd starts, or run npm run install:gemini-hooks)
• Cursor Agent — Cursor IDE hooks in ~/.cursor/hooks.json (registered automatically when Clawd starts, or run npm run install:cursor-hooks)
• CodeBuddy — Claude Code-compatible command hooks + HTTP permission hooks via ~/.codebuddy/settings.json (registered automatically when Clawd starts, or run node hooks/codebuddy-install.js)
• Kiro CLI — command hooks injected into custom agent configs under ~/.kiro/agents/, plus an auto-created clawd agent that is re-synced from Kiro's built-in kiro_default whenever Clawd starts, so you can opt into hooks with minimal behavior drift via kiro-cli --agent clawd or /agent swap clawd (registered automatically when Clawd starts, or run npm run install:kiro-hooks). State hooks are verified on macOS and Windows.
• Kimi Code CLI (Kimi-CLI) — command hooks via ~/.kimi/config.toml ([[hooks]] entries) (registered automatically when Clawd starts, or run npm run install:kimi-hooks)
• opencode — plugin integration via ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json (registered automatically when Clawd starts); zero-latency event streaming, permission bubbles with Allow/Always/Deny, and building animations when parallel subagents are spawned via the task tool
• Multi-agent coexistence — run all agents simultaneously; Clawd tracks each session independently

Animations & Interaction

• Real-time state awareness — agent hooks and log polling drive Clawd's animations automatically
• 12 animated states — idle, thinking, typing, building, juggling, conducting, error, happy, notification, sweeping, carrying, sleeping
• Eye tracking — Clawd follows your cursor in idle state, with body lean and shadow stretch
• Sleep sequence — yawning, dozing, collapsing, sleeping after 60s idle; mouse movement triggers a startled wake-up animation
• Click reactions — double-click for a poke, 4 clicks for a flail
• Drag from any state — grab Clawd anytime (Pointer Capture prevents fast-flick drops), release to resume
• Mini mode — drag to right edge or right-click "Mini Mode"; Clawd hides at screen edge with peek-on-hover, mini alerts/celebrations, and parabolic jump transitions

Permission Bubble

• In-app permission review — when Claude Code, CodeBuddy, or opencode request tool permissions, Clawd pops a floating bubble card instead of waiting in the terminal
• Allow / deny / agent-native extras — one-click approve or reject, plus permission rules / Always actions when the source agent supports them
• Global hotkeys — Ctrl+Shift+Y to Allow, Ctrl+Shift+N to Deny the latest permission bubble (only registered while bubbles are visible)
• Stacking layout — multiple permission requests stack upward from the bottom-right corner
• Auto-dismiss — if you answer in the terminal first, the bubble disappears automatically
• Per-agent toggle — open Settings… → Agents, pick an agent, and turn off Show pop-up bubbles to keep prompts in that agent's own terminal/TUI

Session Intelligence

• Multi-session tracking — sessions across all agents resolve to the highest-priority state
• Subagent awareness — juggling for 1 subagent, conducting for 2+
• Sessions dashboard + HUD — right-click or tray → Open Dashboard to inspect live sessions, recent events, aliases, and jump to a terminal; a compact HUD near Clawd keeps current live sessions visible
• Terminal focus — Dashboard/HUD actions jump to a specific session's terminal window; notification/attention states auto-focus the relevant terminal
• Process liveness detection — detects crashed/exited supported agent processes and cleans up orphan sessions
• Startup recovery — if Clawd restarts while any supported agent is still running, it stays awake instead of falling asleep

System

• Click-through — transparent areas pass clicks to windows below; only Clawd's body is interactive
• Position memory — Clawd remembers where you left it across restarts (including mini mode)
• Single instance lock — prevents duplicate Clawd windows
• Auto-start — Claude Code's SessionStart hook can launch Clawd automatically if it's not running
• Do Not Disturb — right-click or tray menu to enter sleep mode; all hook events are silenced until you wake Clawd. Permission bubbles are suppressed during DND — Codex and opencode fall back to their native prompts, while Claude Code and CodeBuddy fall back to their built-in permission flow
• Sound effects — short audio cues on task completion and permission requests (toggle via right-click menu; 10s cooldown, auto-muted during DND)
• System tray — resize (S/M/L), DND mode, language switch, auto-start, check for updates
• i18n — English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese UI; switch via right-click menu or tray
• Auto-update — checks GitHub releases; Windows installs NSIS updates on quit, macOS/Linux git pull + restart when running from a cloned repo

Animations

Idle	Thinking	Typing	Building	Juggling	Conducting
Error	Happy	Notification	Sweeping	Carrying	Sleeping
Calico Idle	Calico Thinking	Calico Typing	Calico Building	Calico Juggling	Calico Conducting

Full event-to-state mapping, mini mode, and click reactions: docs/guides/state-mapping.md

Multi-display

Clawd adapts to multi-monitor setups: proportional sizing uses the display Clawd launches on, portrait monitors get a bounded boost so the pet stays readable on tall narrow screens, and you can drag Clawd across displays.

clawd-multi-monitor-demo.mp4

_{Demo video contributed alongside PR #103.}

Quick Start

For normal use, download the latest prebuilt installer from GitHub Releases:

• Windows: Clawd-on-Desk-Setup-<version>-x64.exe or Clawd-on-Desk-Setup-<version>-arm64.exe
• macOS: .dmg
• Linux: .AppImage or .deb

Launch Clawd after installing it; supported agent hooks/plugins are synced automatically on startup.

Run from source only if you're contributing, testing unreleased code, or debugging integrations. Source installs download Electron/build tooling and can create a large node_modules tree.

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/rullerzhou-afk/clawd-on-desk.git
cd clawd-on-desk

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start Clawd (auto-registers Claude Code hooks on launch)
npm start

Claude Code and Codex CLI work out of the box with auto-registered hooks. Gemini CLI, Cursor Agent, CodeBuddy, Kiro CLI, Kimi Code CLI (Kimi-CLI), and opencode auto-register when Clawd launches (if they're installed). Copilot CLI still needs one-time hook setup. Also covers remote SSH, WSL, and platform-specific notes (macOS / Linux): docs/guides/setup-guide.md

For the official Codex + WSL status, Clawd's current implementation boundary, and why this is easy to misread, see: docs/guides/codex-wsl-clarification.md

Known Limitations

Some agents have feature gaps (no permission bubble, polling latency, no terminal focus). See the full table: docs/guides/known-limitations.md

Custom Themes

Clawd supports custom themes — replace the default crab with your own character and animations.

Quick start:

1. Scaffold a theme:

   node scripts/create-theme.js my-theme
   # or
   npm run create-theme -- my-theme

   No argument also works: it creates the next available my-theme scaffold in your user themes directory.
2. Edit theme.json and create your assets (SVG, GIF, APNG, WebP, PNG, JPG, or JPEG)
3. Restart Clawd or open Settings… → Theme → select your theme

Minimum viable theme: 1 SVG (idle with eye tracking) + 7 GIF/APNG files (thinking, working, error, happy, notification, sleeping, waking). Eye tracking can be disabled to use any format for all states.

Validate your theme before distributing:

node scripts/validate-theme.js path/to/your-theme

Theme cards in Settings… → Theme now expose capability badges such as Tracked idle, Static theme, Mini, Direct sleep, and No reactions, so users can tell what a theme supports before switching.

See docs/guides/guide-theme-creation.md for the full creation guide with tiered paths (beginner → advanced), theme.json field reference, and asset guidelines.

Third-party SVG files are automatically sanitized for security.

Roadmap

Some things we'd like to explore in the future:

• Codex terminal focus via process tree lookup from codex.exe PID
• Auto-registration of Copilot CLI hooks (like we do for Claude Code)
• Theme registry and in-app download
• Hook uninstall script for clean app removal

Contributing

Clawd on Desk is a community-driven project. Bug reports, feature ideas, and pull requests are all welcome — open an issue to discuss or submit a PR directly.

Maintainers

@rullerzhou-afk 鹿鹿 · creator

@YOIMIYA66 maintainer

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who has helped make Clawd better:

Show all 40 contributors

PixelCookie-zyf	yujiachen-y	AooooooZzzz	purefkh	Tobeabellwether	Jasonhonghh	crashchen
hongbigtou	InTimmyDate	NeizhiTouhu	xu3stones-cmd	androidZzT	Ye-0413	WanfengzzZ
TaoXieSZ	ssly	stickycandy	Rladmsrl	YOIMIYA66	Kevin7Qi	sefuzhou770801-hub
Tonic-Jin	seoki180	sophie-haynes	PeterShanxin	CHIANGANGSTER	JaeHyeon-KAIST	hhhzxyhhh
TVpoet	zeus6768	anhtrinh919	tomaioo	v-avuso	livlign	tongguang2
Ziy1-Tan	tatsuyanakanogaroinc	yeonhub	joshua-wu	nmsn

Acknowledgments

• Clawd pixel art reference from clawd-tank by @marciogranzotto
• Shared on LINUX DO community

License

Source code is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).

Artwork (assets/) is NOT covered by AGPL-3.0. All rights reserved by their respective copyright holders. See assets/LICENSE for details.

• Clawd character is the property of Anthropic. This is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.
• Calico cat (三花猫) artwork by 鹿鹿 (@rullerzhou-afk). All rights reserved.
• Third-party contributions: copyright retained by respective artists.