DEV Community: herval

One app to chat with Claude Code, Codex and OpenClaw on Windows, and what broke getting there

herval — Sat, 07 Nov 2026 14:20:14 +0000

If you run Claude Code, Codex and OpenClaw on a Windows PC and want one app to chat with all of them, like a messaging app, I know of two that cover all three today: AionUi, a big workspace with an agent of its own, and littleguys, a 7 MB chat app where each agent is a contact.

Disclosure: I make littleguys. It only got a Windows build on November 1, so this post is half answer, half field notes on what broke.

What's out there

littleguys is free and MIT. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenClaw and Hermes sit in one list like contacts, you reply and approve their commands from one window, and a little guy by the taskbar clock shows who's working and who needs you. It has no agent of its own.
AionUi is free and Apache-2.0, and much bigger: it brings its own agent, 20+ CLI agents, office-document assistants and cron tasks. It starts its own session for each chat.
Happy Desktop runs Claude Code, Codex and Gemini on your subscriptions, with phone apps.
Orca is the pick if your agents write code and you want each task in its own git worktree.
One vendor only: the Claude desktop app, OpenClaw Windows Hub and Codex in the ChatGPT app are each very good at exactly one agent.

Two apps that do this on a Mac don't help here: Agent Hub is Apple silicon only, and Aight is an iPhone and Mac app.

What Windows actually changed

littleguys is a Tauri app, Rust underneath, so "port it" sounds like a checkbox. Claude Code did most of the work, which seems fair, since the worst bug was about Claude Code. A Windows CI job went green with 169 Rust tests. And the first release with Windows still had a bug that blocked permission prompts on some PCs.

There's no `sh`

littleguys follows Claude Code sessions through a small plugin of hooks. On a Mac each hook is a shell one-liner. Claude Code's docs spell out the catch: hooks default to bash on Windows only if Git Bash is installed, and to PowerShell if it isn't. So on a PC without Git for Windows, sh hook.sh ran in PowerShell, where sh doesn't exist. A failing PermissionRequest hook blocks the request, which meant the plugin could stop the very prompts it was there to show. Version 0.2.2 shipped with this. Version 0.2.3 fixed it by never going through sh on Windows:

{
  "type": "command",
  "shell": "powershell",
  "command": "try { & ([scriptblock]::Create([IO.File]::ReadAllText((Join-Path $env:CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT 'hooks\\hook.ps1')))) PermissionRequest 86000 } catch {}; exit 0"
}

Two things in that line earn their keep. The script is read in as a script block, so the execution policy doesn't apply. And it always exits 0, because a hook that dies must never be the reason a prompt can't be answered.

No unix socket, and refused connections are slow

On a Mac the hook talks to the app over a unix socket only this user can open. On Windows it's 127.0.0.1 with a per-launch secret: each launch writes <port> <secret> <pid> to a file next to the hook, and requests without the secret are refused.

Then the hook needs to do nothing, fast, when the app isn't running. On Windows a refused connection takes seconds, and that delay lands on every hook. So the hook checks whether the process is still there first:

if (-not $owner -or -not (Get-Process -Id ([int]$owner) -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) { exit 0 }

Your PATH isn't what you think it is

A GUI app doesn't get your terminal's PATH, and a running process keeps the one it started with. littleguys reads the saved PATH from the registry, adds the usual npm, Node and Claude Code folders, and reads it again after installing something. claude might be claude.exe and npx is npx.cmd, so finding a program means trying the extensions too. Everything it spawns needs CREATE_NO_WINDOW, or your screen flashes console windows. And stopping an agent means taskkill on the whole process tree, not just the shim you started.

The updater quit the app mid-run

On the Mac, updates wait until no agent is working. On Windows the updater's install step runs the installer and quits the app at once, which would have cut off an agent mid-run. Now it only downloads in the background, and runs the installer at the same idle moment the Mac relaunches at.

Smaller things

Claude Code writes attached files as - name: C:\... on Windows. The transcript parser skipped those, so attached images didn't show.
The tray sprite had to be redrawn white and square for a dark taskbar, and Windows likes to tuck it under the ^ arrow.
The popover opens above the tray, not below it. Mica and Acrylic stand in for macOS vibrancy.

What still isn't great

The installer isn't code-signed. The first run says Windows protected your PC. Click More info, then Run anyway. It installs for your user alone, with no admin rights.
There's no Arm build, and no Linux version.
It's new. If something doesn't work on your PC, open an issue.

The lesson I'd pass on: CI proved the Rust worked on Windows, and said nothing about what Claude Code does on a PC without Git Bash. Anything that plugs into another tool's hooks needs testing in that tool, on a machine set up like your users' machines, not only in your own test suite.

Drafted with AI help from littleguys' commits and code. I checked it and I stand behind it.

The best alternatives to AionUi, depending on why you're leaving

herval — Sat, 07 Nov 2026 14:08:30 +0000

The best alternative to AionUi depends on which part of it you use. For an agent of its own, look at Orkas, goose or Eigent. For a small window over the CLI agents you already run, littleguys, Agent Hub or Happy Desktop. For coding agents in git worktrees, Orca. To keep agents inside your editor, Zed or a JetBrains IDE. And if you use all of it, stay put: nothing else packs as much into one free app.

Disclosure: I make littleguys, one of the apps below, so read that entry with the appropriate squint.

AionUi is four apps in a trench coat

AionUi is free, Apache-2.0 and has 34k GitHub stars. It's really four products:

An agent of its own, on any API key or a local model.
A front end for CLI agents: Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, Gemini CLI and 20+ more.
Office work: document assistants, cron tasks, a leader-and-teammates mode.
Reach from your phone: a WebUI, plus Telegram, Lark, DingTalk and WeChat bots.

If you use one of those, you're carrying the other three around. The installer is about 290 MB.

Two other things are worth knowing before you decide. The latest release is still v2.2.2, from September 9, though the repo keeps getting commits. And the README's FAQ says "Nothing is uploaded to any server", while release builds ship with Sentry wired in: crash reports, plus a gzip of that day's logs at most once every 24 hours. That's normal for a desktop app, and you may not care. You should just know it's there.

If you want an agent of its own

Orkas is the closest thing to AionUi: a Commander splits your goal into to-dos for 16 built-in specialist agents, plus Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, OpenClaw and Hermes. Mac and Windows, MIT, about 470 MB. No Linux installer, and remote control is still only planned.
goose is a general-purpose agent as a desktop app, CLI and API, with 15+ model providers. It's a Linux Foundation project, Apache-2.0, on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Eigent runs a workforce of agents that splits a task and works on it in parallel, on your own keys or local models. Free that way, with paid plans for credits. It's a 659 MB download.
Claude Cowork is the option if you only use Claude and already pay for it. It's closed source, and new tasks on Pro, Max and Ultra run on Anthropic's servers.

If you just want a window over the agents you already run

If this is the only job you use AionUi for, you can go much smaller. The question to ask is whose sessions the app shows. AionUi and Agent Hub start their own session for each chat, so a Claude Code you left running in a terminal doesn't appear.

littleguys is mine: a WhatsApp-style chat app with no agent or model inside. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Goose, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Hermes and any ACP agent are contacts with their own chats, approvals and routines, and every Claude Code session on the computer shows up, terminal ones included. It's a 17 MB download on Mac and 7 MB on Windows, MIT, with no account or telemetry. It's also a young, small project. It has no WebUI, no phone bots and no team mode.
Agent Hub is a chat window over the Claude Code, Codex, Hermes and OpenClaw CLIs, on your Mac or over SSH on any host you can reach. Free, MIT, Apple silicon only.
Happy Desktop runs Claude Code, Codex, Gemini and more on the subscriptions you already have, with phone apps showing the same sessions, end-to-end encrypted. Free, MIT, on Mac, Windows and Linux.

If your agents write code

Orca puts each task in its own git worktree, with terminals, diffs you can comment on, GitHub and Linear. Free, MIT, on Mac, Windows and Linux, with phone apps.
Zed and the JetBrains IDEs run the same agents over ACP, next to your code. If you already live in one of them, you may not need another app at all.

When to stay on AionUi

If you want Linux, office-document assistants, an agent on any API key, 20+ CLI agents and your phone through chat bots, all in one free app, AionUi is still the answer. Orkas comes closest, and it can't do all of that yet. "Too many features" is only a problem if you're not using them.

At a glance

App	Replaces	Runs on	Cost	Size
Orkas	The whole thing, nearly	Mac, Windows	Free, MIT; credits for its own models	470 MB
goose	Its agent	Mac, Windows, Linux	Free, Apache-2.0	182 MB
Eigent	Its agent	Mac, Windows, Linux	Free with your keys, or paid plans	659 MB
Claude Cowork	Its agent, Claude only	Mac, Windows, web, phone	Paid Claude plan	n/a
littleguys	Its CLI agent front end	Mac, Windows	Free, MIT	17 MB / 7 MB
Agent Hub	Its CLI agent front end	Apple silicon Macs	Free, MIT	194 MB
Happy Desktop	Its CLI agent front end	Mac, Windows, Linux, phone	Free, MIT	141 MB
Orca	Coding agents, in worktrees	Mac, Windows, Linux, phone	Free, MIT	278 MB

Sizes and features were checked against each app's own site and README in November 2026. These apps change weekly, so check before you switch.

Drafted with AI help from each app's docs and littleguys' code. I checked it and I stand behind it.