gui · ui · app
Claude Code GUIs, compared on facts
"A GUI for Claude Code" can mean a desktop app, a web interface, or something inside your editor. Here are the main ones, what each is for, and where Claude Code Manager fits.
What kind of GUI do you want?
Some tools replace the terminal with a full app you chat in. Others add a web interface you can reach from your phone. Others live inside your editor. Claude Code Manager is the last kind, and it doesn't replace the chat — it manages what Claude Code keeps on disk. Here's the field, from each project's own description.
The main options
| Tool | Form | What it's for (its own words, shortened) | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code for VS Code | VS Code extension, by Anthropic | Claude Code in your editor: chat, diffs, plans, session history | Anthropic's terms |
| opcode (formerly Claudia) | Desktop app | A GUI and toolkit: custom agents, interactive sessions, background agents | AGPL-3.0 |
| Claude Code UI / CloudCLI | Web and mobile UI | Use Claude Code and other agent CLIs from the web or your phone | AGPL-3.0 |
| Nimbalyst (formerly Crystal) | Desktop app | A visual workspace running several coding agents in parallel | MIT |
| claude-devtools | Desktop and web | Inspect session logs, tool calls, token usage and the context window | MIT |
| Claude Code Manager | VS Code extension | A sidebar for sessions, usage and limits, accounts, MCP, skills, hooks, agents, plugins, checkpoints, prompts and memory | Apache-2.0 |
Descriptions and licences from each repository on 2026-10-11.
Choosing
- Want to chat in a window that isn't a terminal? Use the official extension, or a desktop app like opcode or Nimbalyst.
- Want Claude Code on your phone or another machine? A web UI such as CloudCLI.
- Want to dig into what a session did, call by call? claude-devtools.
- Already in VS Code, and want to find, sort and fix everything Claude Code leaves behind? Claude Code Manager — alongside any of the above.
Free, open source, and it stays on your machine.
Apache-2.0. No telemetry, no account, no network client. Works with the Claude Code CLI and the official extension.
code --install-extension vishalguptax.claude-manager