Claude Overlay

Talk to Claude Code without ever leaving the app you're in — and let it actually see your screen.

_{Windows 10 / 11 only (for now) · runs on your existing Claude subscription — no API key}

Claude Overlay is a frameless, always-on-top chat window that floats over everything you do. Ask a question, and Claude looks at your real screen — every monitor — to answer. No copy-pasting error messages, no describing what you're staring at, no alt-tabbing to a browser. And because it runs the full Claude Code agent under the hood, it doesn't just chat — it can read, edit, and run things for you, right where you work. Point it at the slide deck, document, or spreadsheet you have open and it can change the file you're looking at — you never have to tell it where the file lives or even alt-tab away.

Best of all, it costs nothing extra: it drives your own claude CLI login, so it uses your existing Claude subscription — no API key, no metered billing.

⭐ If a screen-aware Claude that floats over your work sounds useful, star the repo — it helps other people find it.

✨ Why you'll want it

• 👁️ It sees what you see. Auto-captures each monitor on every message and labels primary vs. secondary — just ask "what's wrong here?" and it looks.
• 🪟 Never breaks your flow. Always-on-top and frameless; it collapses to a tiny draggable orb when you're not using it (with a real Windows taskbar button to click it back), and drops a ✓ on the orb when a reply finishes while it's tucked away — so you know a task is done without expanding it.
• 🏷️ Name each overlay; run several at once. Click the title to name an overlay for the task it's on — the name rides under the orb when collapsed, so a row of orbs (one per task) stays tellable apart at a glance.
• 🧠 A real agent that acts, not a chatbot. Full Claude Code (Opus 4.8) — it edits files, runs commands, and can even reach into the app on your screen (say, fix the wording on your open slide, or build a model in your open Excel), not just answer questions.
• 🔁 Conversations survive restarts. Relaunch the overlay (say, after an update) and it offers a one-click Resume last conversation — and if the connection to the CLI drops mid-session, it reconnects into the same conversation instead of losing your context.
• 💸 No API key, no extra cost. Runs on your existing Claude subscription.
• 🖼️ Screenshots and pasted images. It grabs your screen automatically on every message, or paste any image with Ctrl+V to ask about it.
• ⚡ Live, polished UI. Responses stream token-by-token with clean tool-call chips, an in-place model switcher, and a context-usage meter.
• 🎨 Looks the part, crisp anywhere. Styled after the Claude desktop app, DPI-aware on HiDPI displays, resizable from any edge, with live Ctrl +/– zoom.
• 🔒 Local & private. Runs entirely on your machine against your own login.

Where a floating overlay wins

The CLI and the desktop app are perfect when you're already in a terminal or a chat window. The overlay earns its place by floating over whatever you're doing, seeing it, and acting on it — so it shines exactly where those can't:

• ✍️ Edit what's right in front of you. Don't just ask about the open document — ask it to change it. Fix a typo on the current slide, tighten a paragraph in your draft, fill a cell, or reword a heading. Because it's a full Claude Code agent with a shell, it can drive the app you already have open (e.g. via PowerShell/COM automation) to edit the file you're looking at — no file path needed. It works this out at run time rather than from a built-in integration, so it's not infallible: sanity-check important documents first (see the Security note near the end of this README).

Ask it to fix the open slide — it edits the deck you already have open, no file path given.

• 📊 Build, not just edit. Ask for a spreadsheet and it builds the real thing in your open Excel — sourced assumptions, live formulas, a top-down calculation, even a low/base/high sensitivity, laid out like a banker's model. One sentence in the overlay, a working model in the sheet.

Ask in the overlay; it drives Excel to build the model — assumptions, formulas, and a sensitivity.

• 🖥️ Mid-presentation. Stay in full-screen slideshow. Summon the overlay to fact-check a number, translate a term, or field an audience question on the spot — then dismiss it without ever leaving the deck.
• 🌐 Reading in another language. On a foreign-language page, PDF, or slide, ask it to translate or explain what's on screen, in place — no copy-pasting into a separate translator tab.
• 📄 Skimming something long. "TL;DR this", "what does it say about X?" — about the article, whitepaper, or PDF you're looking at, without selecting or pasting a word.
• 🧩 Any GUI with no terminal. A cryptic error dialog, a settings panel, a BI dashboard, a spreadsheet formula — point your screen at it and ask. It works over apps that have no command line and nothing to copy.
• 🖥️🖥️ Across monitors. It captures every screen, so ask it to reconcile the spec on one monitor against the figure or table on the other.
• 🎥 On a call or screen-share. A discreet, always-on-top helper to look things up about what's being shown — without alt-tabbing away from the meeting.

Not using it? It collapses to an orb that floats out of the way — click to bring it back.

How it works

Overlay (Tkinter UI)  →  claude-agent-sdk  →  spawns the `claude` CLI  →  Anthropic
        ▲ screenshots (Pillow ImageGrab, one image per monitor)

• UI — Tkinter (ships with Python; no extra GUI runtime).
• Brain — claude-agent-sdk spawns your installed claude CLI as a subprocess and talks to it. It is not a direct API client, so the CLI is required.
• Eyes — Pillow ImageGrab snapshots each monitor separately; the prompt labels which is the primary vs secondary screen, and Claude reads each with its Read tool. The window hides itself during capture.

Prerequisites

You need three things. The included setup.cmd handles #2 and #3 for you — it auto-installs the Claude Code CLI if it's missing and installs the Python packages.

1. Windows 10 / 11

The app uses Win32 APIs (DPI awareness, rounded corners, multi-monitor capture), so it currently runs on Windows only.

2. Claude Code CLI — installed and logged in

The overlay has no brain of its own; it drives the claude command line.

Easiest: just run setup.cmd (below) — it installs the CLI for you with the official native installer if you don't already have it. To install it yourself:

• Native installer — recommended, no Node.js (PowerShell):
  hljs language-powershell

  Copy

  irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
  

  (or winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode). It auto-updates itself.
• npm (needs Node.js 18+): npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Log in with your own Claude account (Pro/Max subscription — no API key needed): run claude auth login (in PowerShell or CMD — not Git Bash) and follow the browser prompt once.

Verify — this must print a version number:

claude --version

If it says "command not found", the CLI isn't installed / on PATH yet.

3. Python 3.10+

Install from https://www.python.org/downloads/ and tick "Add python.exe to PATH" in the installer.

Verify:

python --version

Install

Pick whichever you like — all three end with the overlay ready to run.

🖱️ One double-click — setup.cmd (recommended)

Get the repo, then double-click setup.cmd. It checks Python, auto-installs the claude CLI if it's missing (and offers to log you in), and installs the Python packages — so even a fresh machine is one double-click from ready.

git clone https://github.com/shengyanlin/claude-overlay.git

(or download the ZIP from the green Code button and unzip it.)

⚡ Let Claude install it (if you already have the CLI)

It's an agent — so it can set itself up. With the claude CLI already installed (see Prerequisites), run this from wherever you want it to live:

claude "Set up Claude Overlay for me: clone https://github.com/shengyanlin/claude-overlay, make sure Python 3.10+ is installed (install it if missing), ensure pip is present (python -m ensurepip --upgrade), then run python -m pip install -r requirements.txt, then launch it with pythonw. Tell me when it's running."

Claude will ask before each step.

🛠️ By hand

git clone https://github.com/shengyanlin/claude-overlay.git
cd claude-overlay
python -m ensurepip --upgrade          # only needed if pip is missing; harmless otherwise
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

This installs only the Python packages (claude-agent-sdk, pillow, keyboard) — you still need the claude CLI installed and logged in (see Prerequisites). Use python -m pip (not a bare pip): it works even when Python's Scripts\ folder isn't on PATH, and ensurepip bootstraps pip if your Python install shipped without it.

Update

The overlay shows its version in the bottom status line (e.g. v1.7.2) and checks GitHub for a newer release on startup — when one exists you'll see a 🔔 note and a ⬆ next to the version. To upgrade:

🖱️ One double-click — update.cmd (recommended)

Double-click update.cmd. It runs git pull, refreshes the Python packages, and — if you already have a Desktop shortcut — refreshes its icon to match the current version.

🛠️ By hand

cd claude-overlay
git pull

(Installed via ZIP instead of git clone? Re-download the latest ZIP from the green Code button and unzip it over the folder — at minimum replace claude_overlay.py.)

Then restart the overlay. It's a long-running process and does not reload while running — close it and re-open Start Claude Overlay.cmd for the update to take effect. Your conversation isn't lost: the relaunch offers a one-click ↺ Resume last conversation, and Claude picks up right where you left off. (On a managed/enterprise machine, updating is what fixes the older versions that could hang on the first tool call.)

Updated by hand (git pull) and the Desktop icon still looks old? Re-run Create Desktop Shortcut.cmd once — the shortcut is a machine-specific file that git pull can't refresh (update.cmd does this for you).

Run

1. Make sure claude --version works and you've logged in (claude auth login).
2. Start it (any of):
   • Double-click Start Claude Overlay.cmd — launches with no console window.
   • pythonw claude_overlay.py — no console.
   • python claude_overlay.py — keeps a console open for logs (good for debugging).
3. The window appears. Type and hit Enter — it auto-captures your screen each message, so you can ask about whatever's in front of you right away.
4. Not using it? Hit – to collapse it to a small floating orb, and click the orb to expand it again.

Put it on your Desktop (optional)

Double-click Create Desktop Shortcut.cmd to drop a Claude Overlay shortcut — with the orb icon — on your Desktop, so you can launch it like any other app.

Don't just drag Start Claude Overlay.cmd to your Desktop — it's a portable launcher that must stay next to claude_overlay.py. The shortcut points back to it in place, which is why it keeps working.

Controls

Configuration

All settings live as constants at the top of config.py — but you don't have to edit the file. Put personal values in a small per-machine config.json instead, so your setup survives every update with no git pull conflicts:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\claude-overlay\config.json

(the same folder that already remembers your toggles). List only the settings you want to change, using the constant names below — for example:

{
  "PERMISSION_MODE": "plan",
  "THEME": "dark",
  "WORKING_DIR": "C:\\Users\\you\\Documents"
}

Overridable: WORKING_DIR, MODEL, PERMISSION_MODE, SKILLS, STRICT_MCP_CONFIG, CLI_UPDATE_CHECK, AUTO_SCREENSHOT_DEFAULT, SHOT_SCOPE, SHOT_FORMAT, SHOT_JPEG_QUALITY, HIDE_SCREENSHOT_TOOL, THEME, SHOW_IN_SCREEN_SHARE_DEFAULT, TASKBAR_BUTTON, HOTKEY, WINDOW_ALPHA, CORNER_RADIUS, ORB_SIZE, FONT_SANS / FONT_SERIF / FONT_MONO.

Precedence, weakest to strongest: the constants in config.py < config.json < an explicitly set CLAUDE_OVERLAY_* env var — and the remembered ⚙-toggle state (Window-only / Read-only) still wins over all three, exactly as it does over the constants: SHOT_SCOPE and PERMISSION_MODE from the file only seed the first launch. A typo'd key or wrong-typed value is skipped (never fatal) and called out in-chat at startup, so a mistake can't silently launch a misconfigured session. To keep the file somewhere else, point the CLAUDE_OVERLAY_CONFIG env var at it.

The settings themselves:

• MODEL — defaults to "opus", a family alias for the latest Opus, so a future Opus release is adopted automatically. Use "opus[1m]" for the 1M-context variant, or "sonnet" / "haiku" — every alias tracks the newest model of its family, and the in-app switcher lists them all (the statusline shows the concrete version each alias resolved to, e.g. claude-opus-4-8). Don't use None: the Agent SDK resolves None to an older model, not the CLI's interactive default.
• PERMISSION_MODE — "bypassPermissions" by default (see security note below); this is just the first-launch mode — the ⚙ → Read-only menu item switches the live session between "plan" (read-only) and this mode at any time, and the toggle remembers your last choice across launches (announced in-chat at startup whenever the remembered state differs from this default). Set "plan" to start locked read-only.
• WORKING_DIR — folder Claude operates in (default: your home directory).
• THEME — "light" (warm paper) or "dark".
• TASKBAR_BUTTON — True (default) gives the frameless window a real, clickable Windows taskbar button; False for the pure no-taskbar floating overlay.
• SKILLS — which Agent SDK skills to expose: "all", a list of names, or None.
• STRICT_MCP_CONFIG — True (default) keeps the overlay lean by not inheriting the MCP servers from your ~/.claude config; set False to expose them here (handier, but their tool schemas cost a lot of context).
• SHOT_FORMAT / SHOT_JPEG_QUALITY (or the CLAUDE_OVERLAY_SHOT_FORMAT / CLAUDE_OVERLAY_SHOT_JPEG_QUALITY env vars) — screenshot payload: "auto" keeps the smaller of PNG/JPEG per capture; "png"/"jpeg" force one; JPEG quality 50–95.
• SHOT_SCOPE (or the CLAUDE_OVERLAY_SHOT_SCOPE env var) — what a screenshot covers: "screens" (default) captures every monitor, one image each; "window" captures only the active window — more private and cheaper in vision tokens, but Claude can't see anything outside it. This is just the startup default; flip it live with the ⚙ → Window-only menu item — and the choice is remembered across launches (stored per-machine in %LOCALAPPDATA%\claude-overlay\state.json; setting the env var explicitly overrides it for that launch). While you're typing in the overlay, "active" means the window you were working in before it (tracked automatically), and when no usable window exists (fresh launch, desktop focused, window minimized) it falls back to full-screen capture rather than sending nothing.
• RESUME_OFFER (or the CLAUDE_OVERLAY_RESUME_OFFER env var) — on launch, offer a one-click ↺ Resume last conversation when the previous run left one behind (the session id is remembered per completed turn; Clear wipes it, so a discarded conversation is never offered back). RESUME_OFFER_MAX_AGE bounds how old a conversation may be to qualify (default 7 days). The transcript isn't replayed — Claude just remembers the context and you keep going. Note the overlay resumes the session it recorded, not "the latest conversation in this directory" — if you continue that session elsewhere (the CLI or Desktop) afterward, resume still loads its newest state, but the "from … ago" label is measured from the overlay's last turn.
• AUTO_SCREENSHOT_DEFAULT, FONT_SANS/SERIF/MONO, CORNER_RADIUS, ORB_SIZE, HIDE_SCREENSHOT_TOOL, WINDOW_ALPHA — see inline comments.

⚠️ Security note

The default PERMISSION_MODE = "bypassPermissions" makes this a fully autonomous agent: Claude can edit files and run commands in WORKING_DIR without asking, and it can see your screen. Combined with screen vision, that also lets it act on the app you have open — e.g. edit the document or slide deck on your screen via Windows/COM automation, and (with autosave on) persist those edits straight to the original file. That's the magic, but it also means it can change important documents without a confirmation step — double-check before you let it loose on anything you can't afford to lose. If you don't want that, open the ⚙ menu and turn on Read-only: it switches the live session into "plan" mode (Claude looks, reads, and answers — but edits and runs nothing), and while it's on the overlay denies every permission escalation the agent asks for (including ExitPlanMode), so read-only can't be talked out of; flip it back for full access. (One nuance: the CLI refuses to elevate a session to bypassPermissions unless it was launched in it — so when the overlay started read-only, flipping the toggle off lands on acceptEdits instead, which the overlay's auto-approval makes effectively full access; the in-chat notice always names the mode you actually got.) To start locked on first launch, set PERMISSION_MODE = "plan" — after that the toggle's last state is remembered per-machine, and a launch says so in-chat whenever the remembered choice differs from the configured default. ("acceptEdits" / "default" are of limited use here: a GUI with no terminal has nowhere to show a permission prompt, so the overlay auto-answers them — see worker._allow_tool.)

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome — bug reports, feature ideas, and especially help making it cross-platform (macOS/Linux capture + windowing). See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to get started.

License

MIT © shengyanlin

_{Built with Claude Code. If it earned a spot on your screen, leave a ⭐ — it genuinely helps.}