A desktop overlay for AI coding tools

Every session
gets aan crab.

Each coding session gets a pixel crawler at the bottom of your screen. It walks while the session works, waves when it needs you, and sleeps when it is done. Answer it from its bubble.

Download free See pricing

Works with Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI. Free for macOS

This shelf is live. Answer a crawler, or click one to shoo it.

Crawlers

One glance, whole picture

The mood of a crawler shows the state of its session. No notifications, no extra window.

Walks while it works

The bubble shows the file it edits, the command it runs and the lines it changed since the branch it came from. Click that branch to compare against another.

Waves when it needs you

A permission request or a question makes it wave. A destructive command gets a red bubble.

Sleeps when it is done

When the turn ends, the crawler curls up. Quiet crawlers are finished sessions.

Subagents on a leash

Each subagent is a small crawler on a leash. Its size shows its model. The parent complains while it waits.

Not only crabs

Pick a character for your sessions. Pick one here to redraw the page.

Answering

Answer from the shelf

Press a button in the bubble and the session continues. You do not have to find the terminal.

Allow or deny

The bubble shows the command or file, with Allow and Deny. In paranoid mode, Allow shows only when the bubble fits the whole call. A call that leaves the sandbox never gets Allow.

Pick an answer

Each option is a button. For a question with more than one answer, tick your answers and send.

The terminal still works

The crawler is a shortcut, not a replacement. Codex and Gemini CLI prompts make the crawler wave, but you answer them in the terminal.

Speech · MCP connector

Let a session talk

Press Connect speech, and a session can put a short line in its crawler's bubble. Disconnect removes it.

One tool, called `say`

An MCP connector, crawlers-overlay, with one tool. Each line stays for six seconds.

Word effects

A word can wave, bounce, shake or show in bold.

Nearly free

About 270 tokens per request, cached after the first. Turn it off, and the session gets no tool.

Your screens

Always in view, on the screen you choose

The shelf stays on top of all windows. A crawler that needs you is never behind your work.

Over fullscreen apps

The shelf shows on every desktop and Space, fullscreen apps too.

Pick the display

Put the shelf on any display. With Pro, send one project or setup to its own display.

Remembers where they go

Unplug a monitor and its crawlers move. Plug it back in and they walk back.

How it works

Hooks, not polling

The app installs hooks. Each hook sends one line to the app through a local socket and exits. Only the permission hook waits, for your answer.

your coding toolhook
crawwwlers --hooksocket
the appstate machinesnapshot
the overlaySvelte

Leaves your settings alone

Connect adds its hooks and keeps a backup. It never changes your own hooks. Disconnect removes only its hooks. Press it before you delete the app.

Never fails a session

A hook always exits 0. If the app is closed, the terminal asks as usual.

Knows its model and branch

The bubble shows the model, the branch and the context use. The context goes from green to red and purple as the window fills.

Per setup & project Pro

A crawler per setup, and per project

A Pro feature: $4.49 per computer, less from three computers, paid once. All other features on this page are free.

Free gives all sessions one look. Pro gives each setup its own crawler, and each project too, from a .crawlers.json in the repo. Tell your sessions apart from across the room.

A project file comes with a clone, so the app checks it strictly. A setup can turn project files off.

Get Pro, from $3.49

Pro

.crawlers.json

Pricing

Free to run. Pro to tell them apart.

All crawlers, moods and bubbles are free. Pro is one payment, not a subscription.

Free

A crawler for each coding session
Subagents on a leash
Answer permission requests and questions from the crawler
Speech: sessions talk through their crawler
Always on top, on the display you choose
One look for all sessions: any character, color and size

Download

Pro one-time

$4.49 per computer, paid once

1–2 computers$4.49 each
3–9 computers$3.99 each
10+ computers Teams$3.49 each

Everything in Free
Each setup gets its own look and display
Each project gets its own look, from a .crawlers.json
Commit it, and teammates on Pro see the same crawlers
Updates included

Get Pro