Catalyst UI

A multi-vendor AI workbench in one desktop app

Embedded Claude Code terminal · a curated 41-model catalog · Hugging Face + Ollama · resource, cost, and knowledge tooling wrapped around a real terminal.

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Formerly Claude Code Studio. The app was renamed at v4.0.0; the on-disk id stays claude-code-studio on purpose so v3.x installs upgrade in place.

Provided as is, without warranty; you use it at your own risk. See DISCLAIMER.md.

🗺 Status & roadmap

Status: shipping and healthy. The release badge above is the current tagged version. CI and release pipelines are green.

In progress / known issues:

• v4.1.0 cut in progress: terminal profiles and Catalyst Brain are on master, pending tagging.
• macOS auto-update reliability fix in progress (Windows and Linux installers are unaffected).
• macOS builds are currently unsigned; code signing + notarization are planned (see below).

Roadmap:

• Ship the v4.1.0 release (terminal profiles + Catalyst Brain).
• Per-provider API-key management UI.
• macOS code signing + notarization (pairs with the auto-update fix).
• Per-model VRAM tracking (GPU is reported system-wide today).
• Extend Catalyst Brain's RAG search across full session history, not just notes.

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🚀 Quick install

Download from the latest release and double-click. The installer downloads Node + the Claude CLI for you and launches the app. Sign in to Claude in the first-launch modal and you're done.

• Windows: the NSIS .exe installer
• macOS (Apple Silicon): the .dmg; drag to Applications
• Linux: .AppImage (portable), .deb (Debian/Ubuntu), or .rpm (Fedora/RHEL)

Assets carry the version in the filename (Catalyst-UI-<version>-Windows.exe, -Mac.dmg, -Linux-Universal.AppImage, and so on). Per-platform steps, SmartScreen/Gatekeeper workarounds, and build-from-source are in Installing below.

Upgrading from Claude Code Studio v3.x? It's an in-place upgrade and settings carry over. See docs/MIGRATING_FROM_CCS.md.

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Overview

Catalyst UI embeds the Claude Code CLI in a desktop app, alongside an integrated Hugging Face Hub browser, an Ollama model bridge, and an Obsidian-compatible knowledge layer. The core is a genuine terminal (node-pty + xterm.js) running claude. The sidebar adds tooling around it and stays out of the way of the terminal-first workflow.

✨ Features

Terminal & CLI

• Embedded terminal: real PTY running claude, with a Windows-Terminal-style tab strip and session persistence. + opens a profile picker (Claude / Claude skip-permissions / Ollama / Aider / Gemini / system shells); tabs pop out into their own windows.
• Claude (Chat) profile: runs Claude in non-interactive stream-json mode rendered as a structured chat (text / tool-use / tool-result / thinking blocks) via the chat skin overlay.
• Shell profiles: launch any detected system shell (PowerShell, Bash, Git Bash, WSL, Zsh, Fish) as a terminal tab alongside Claude.

Model management

• Multi-model catalog: a curated set of 6 API models (Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter) plus 35 local ones (Qwen, DeepSeek, Llama, Gemma, Granite, Phi, Mistral, embeddings, and more). Hardware-tier auto-detect, cwd-aware recommendations (frontend vs backend), an in-panel terminal + pop-out windows for launched models, and a first-run picker that pre-pulls your hardware's defaults. Vetting notes are in docs/MULTI_MODEL.md.
• Hugging Face Hub browser: Browse / Cached / Research sub-tabs: live Hub search with hardware-aware GGUF fit badges, a one-click GGUF → Ollama import & launch bridge, direct GGUF downloads with progress, a chat-template viewer, and a disclaimer-gated Research catalog with audit log.
• Ollama bridge: detect, pull, delete, start/stop/restart the daemon. Pull progress streams in real time with cancel support.
• Blind model compare: select 2-4 Ollama models, enter a prompt, and see responses side by side. Blind mode hides model names for unbiased evaluation; reveal when ready.

Knowledge & productivity

• Catalyst Brain: Obsidian-compatible .md knowledge folder. Read, edit (with diff-before-write preview), create, and delete notes with YAML frontmatter + [[wikilinks]] preserved. Includes RAG semantic search (Ollama embeddings), a wikilink graph with backlinks, obsidian:// URI interop, and Canvas/Bases file support.
• Notes: quick-capture notes with markdown rendering, tags, search, pinning, and sort. Stored locally in your user-data directory.
• LMM journaling: in-app Lincoln Manifold Method workflow (RAW → NODES → REFLECT → SYNTHESIZE).
• Snippets: persistent text snippets insertable via the command palette.

DevOps & monitoring

• GitHub integration: repos, commits, branches, PRs, and issues; PAT stored encrypted via Electron safeStorage.
• Resource monitor: live CPU / RAM / GPU gauges, with CPU and RAM also split by process bucket (Claude PTYs, model PTYs, Ollama daemon). GPU is reported system-wide.
• Token cost tracker: per-session input/output token estimates with daily budgets and 30-90 day rolling history.
• Compact controller: reads and toggles the claude-compact-controller hooks and session state from inside the app.

Customization & UX

• Theming: dark base with 13 built-in accent presets (Purple, Blue, Emerald, Rose, Amber, Cyan, Slate, Indigo, Crimson, Forest, Magenta, Midnight, Solarized) plus custom themes via a hex color picker.
• Background patterns: optional animated canvas backgrounds (dots, grid, digital rain, particles) with adjustable intensity.
• Layout density: compact, comfortable, or spacious spacing presets.
• Font selection: system, monospace, Inter, or Fira Code.
• Frosted glass: optional backdrop-filter blur on panels.
• Accessibility: 8 live controls: high-contrast, font scale, reduce motion, color-blind palettes (protanopia / deuteranopia / tritanopia), large focus ring, 44px targets, dyslexia font, and keyboard hints. (Screen-reader mode and audio captions are in the panel but still stubs: they persist a preference without full behavior yet.)
• Resizable right panel: 420px default, drag to resize (280-800), double-click to reset; persisted across restarts.
• Keyboard shortcuts overlay: press ? to see all keybindings.
• Toast notifications: in-app alerts for sync errors, budget warnings, update availability, and PTY exits.
• Command palette: fuzzy search across panels, themes, snippets, and terminal actions. Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P.
• Rebindable hotkeys: customize the key chords for every action.
• System tray: minimize to tray on close.
• Incognito tabs: ephemeral Claude sessions via the profile picker or command palette; not persisted across restarts.
• Command palette history: arrow-up on an empty palette input recalls previously executed commands.
• Escape menu stack: overlays dismiss in LIFO order; Escape always closes the topmost overlay first.

Cloud & sync

• Auth + settings sync: optional account with cross-device settings sync.
• Vault sync: push compact-controller vaults to a private GitHub repo with append-only upload and per-file backoff.
• Multi-provider API keys: one key store for Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, and OpenRouter. Encrypted via safeStorage (DPAPI on Windows, Keychain on macOS, libsecret on Linux).

Platform

• Auto-updater: stable and beta channels via GitHub Releases (Windows & Linux; macOS auto-update is currently disabled pending code-signing, see Status).
• Cross-platform: Windows (NSIS), macOS (DMG), Linux (AppImage/deb/rpm).
• First-run bootstrap: installs Node + the Claude CLI automatically.
• --dangerously-skip-permissions toggle: Settings → Claude CLI. Auto-injects the flag when spawning Claude; off by default.

Platform support

Catalyst UI ships on Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon), and Linux (AppImage / .deb / .rpm). All three include the same bootstrap that installs Node + the Claude CLI for you, so there are no manual prereqs.

Upgrading from Claude Code Studio v3.x is an in-place upgrade (settings carry over). See docs/MIGRATING_FROM_CCS.md. v1.0 was Windows-only via Squirrel.Windows; v1.0 users see docs/MIGRATING_FROM_V1.md for the one-time uninstall + reinstall path.

📦 Installing

Grab the asset for your OS from the latest release and follow the per-platform steps below. Filenames carry the version, so the commands here use a VER variable. Set it to the version shown on the release page.

Windows

1. Download Catalyst-UI-<version>-Windows.exe.
2. Run it and follow the NSIS installer (you can choose the install directory). It downloads Node + the Claude CLI, then launches Catalyst UI. ~30 seconds total. You don't need to set up anything else.

SmartScreen warning (first install, until code-signing is added in a future release):

• Click "More info" → "Run anyway".
• Appears once per machine; subsequent launches are clean.

macOS (Apple Silicon; Intel via Rosetta)

1. Download Catalyst-UI-<version>-Mac.dmg (Apple Silicon native; runs on Intel Macs via Rosetta).
2. Open the DMG, drag Catalyst UI into Applications.
3. Eject the DMG, open Catalyst UI from Launchpad / Spotlight.
4. First launch: an onboarding modal downloads Node + the Claude CLI into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude Code Studio/runtime/. Click Sign in to Claude. The in-session /login command opens your browser to complete OAuth.

Gatekeeper warning (first launch, until notarization is added in a future release):

• macOS may say "Catalyst UI cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified."
• Right-click the app icon → Open → confirm in the dialog. Required only once.

Apple Silicon vs Intel: use the arm64 build on M-series chips for the best performance. It also runs on Intel Macs through Rosetta, but native is faster.

Linux

Three formats are published per release. Pick whichever matches your distro.

AppImage (any distro, no install)

VER=4.0.3   # set to the version on the latest-release page
wget https://github.com/LxveAce/catalyst-ui/releases/download/v$VER/Catalyst-UI-$VER-Linux-Universal.AppImage
chmod +x Catalyst-UI-$VER-Linux-Universal.AppImage
./Catalyst-UI-$VER-Linux-Universal.AppImage

First launch: an onboarding modal downloads Node + Claude CLI into ~/.config/Claude Code Studio/runtime/; sign in via the modal. For a desktop entry + menu integration, drop the AppImage into ~/Applications/ and use AppImageLauncher.

Debian / Ubuntu

VER=4.0.3   # set to the version on the latest-release page
wget https://github.com/LxveAce/catalyst-ui/releases/download/v$VER/Catalyst-UI-$VER-Linux-Debian.deb
sudo dpkg -i Catalyst-UI-$VER-Linux-Debian.deb
sudo apt-get install -f   # resolve missing deps if any

Fedora / RHEL / CentOS

VER=4.0.3   # set to the version on the latest-release page
wget https://github.com/LxveAce/catalyst-ui/releases/download/v$VER/Catalyst-UI-$VER-Linux-Fedora.rpm
sudo dnf install ./Catalyst-UI-$VER-Linux-Fedora.rpm

(Or sudo rpm -i if you prefer rpm directly.) First-launch bootstrap is the same modal as the AppImage.

Linux node-pty native build: the prebuild that ships with node-pty covers linux-x64 with glibc 2.17+. If you're on a very old distro (CentOS 7 era) and the embedded terminal won't spawn, that's the cause. File an issue with ldd --version output.

What the first launch does

Every install path ends at the same first-launch flow:

1. Catalyst UI checks for an existing Claude CLI on PATH or bundled runtime.
2. If missing: the onboarding modal shows an Install Claude CLI button. Click → the modal streams the install log → ~30-60 seconds → done.
3. If unauthenticated: the modal shows Sign in to Claude. Click → /login is sent to the running Claude session in the embedded terminal → Claude opens your browser → complete OAuth → the modal dismisses.
4. Subsequent launches skip the modal entirely (unless the CLI is broken or ~/.claude.json is gone).

🧱 Building from source

Developer prerequisites

• Node.js >=22.0.0 <24.0.0: Node 22 LTS is required; package.json pins engines.node to this range. Windows users: see CONTRIBUTING.md.
• node-pty native build on Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 with the C++ workload, plus the Windows 10/11 SDK (10.0.22621+).
• npm run dist (NSIS installer build, Windows-only): Windows Developer Mode enabled (Settings → Privacy & Security → For Developers). Without it, the 7za extraction of electron-builder's winCodeSign archive fails on macOS dylib symlinks.

Getting started

git clone https://github.com/LxveAce/catalyst-ui.git
cd catalyst-ui
npm install            # runs the node-pty patch postinstall
npm start              # dev: Vite + Electron with HMR

Build outputs

The build pipeline is electron-builder with per-OS targets.

# Cross-platform
npm run dist:dir            # unpacked output under dist/ — quick smoke test
npm run vite:build          # just the renderer/main bundles

# Per-OS local builds
npm run dist                # Windows NSIS installer (needs Dev Mode)
npm run dist:mac            # macOS DMG (must run ON a Mac)
npm run dist:linux          # Linux AppImage + deb + rpm

# Build all three targets
npm run dist:all

# Publish to GitHub Releases
npm run dist:publish        # Windows
npm run dist:publish:mac    # macOS
npm run dist:publish:linux  # Linux

All pipelines need Node 22. See Developer prerequisites.

🧰 Tech stack

Electron 42 · React 19 · Vite 8 · TypeScript 6.0 · node-pty · xterm.js · systeminformation · Octokit · @huggingface/hub · electron-builder

Project structure

src/
  main/       Electron main process — backend services (PTY, models,
              GitHub, Brain, sync, resource monitor, ...)
  preload/    Preload script (IPC bridge to renderer)
  renderer/   React 19 UI (App.tsx + sidebar panel modules)
  shared/     TypeScript types + IPC channel definitions
scripts/      Build helpers (node-pty patch, Vite build, runtime verify)
docs/         Documentation, release notes, migration guides
build/        Installer assets (NSIS script, branding BMPs)
obsidian-plugin/  Companion Obsidian plugin for vault interop

📚 Documentation

• CHANGELOG.md: per-release history
• docs/MULTI_MODEL.md: multi-model catalog & vetting notes
• docs/MIGRATING_FROM_CCS.md: Claude Code Studio → Catalyst UI rebrand & upgrade
• docs/MIGRATING_FROM_V1.md: v1.0 (Squirrel) → NSIS reinstall path
• docs/BACKLOG.md: open ideas & known bugs
• docs/HANDOFF.md: historical v1→v3 phased development plan
• Per-release notes: docs/RELEASE_NOTES_v4.0.0.md and earlier

🌐 Ecosystem

Catalyst UI is part of the LxveLabs project lineup. Closest neighbors:

Project	What it is
Cyber Controller	The flagship: flash, control, and coordinate ESP32 security firmware from one desktop app.
Claude Compact Controller	Auto-compaction hooks + a context vault for Claude Code, the same engine behind Catalyst's Compact panel and Vault sync.

More at lxvelabs.com.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

🔒 Security

To report a vulnerability, see SECURITY.md. Please report privately rather than opening a public issue.

📄 License

MIT © LxveAce

📫 Connect

Discord: discord.gg/lxvelabs · GitHub: @LxveAce · Email: LxveLabs@proton.me (business) · lxveace@proton.me (direct) · Sites: lxvelabs.com · lxveace.com

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