Run several Claude Code tasks at once, each on its own branch. Undo any turn. Queue work for when your limit resets.
On the Pro or Max plan you already pay for, on Windows 10 and 11. No API keys, no per-token billing.
And a pixel hermit crab who scuttles off to do it.
Website · What's new · Why Shellby, if you have Claude Code? · Community packs · How it works · Skins · Security · Changelog
1. Tell him what you want → 2. Helper crabs work on it side by side → 3. He brings it home, and you both level up
Open a tab per task. With copies on (one switch in Settings → Claude), each tab works in its own copy of your repo, on its own branch, so two tasks never trip over each other's files. When one is done, Bring it home merges it back, never with a force-push, or Ship it opens a pull request. If the merge would clash, nothing is merged and he can sort it out on his branch first.
Didn't like what Claude did? Undo puts back every file the turn changed, or just one step of it, including what a script or npm install did.
Queue heavy tasks ("refactor X", "write tests for Y") for when your 5-hour window resets, or for tonight. They start by themselves, one after another, with the PC kept awake. A task that runs out of usage partway picks its conversation back up after the next reset.
Already use Claude Code?
- 🧠 It's the real
claude. The official CLI you installed and signed in to. No model of its own, no fork. - 🔁 Nothing to migrate. Your skills, agents, hooks, MCP servers,
CLAUDE.mdfiles and permission rules carry over, and anything you set up in Shellby works in your terminal too. - 🛠️ The difference is the tooling you'd otherwise script yourself: the three above, plus review, alerts and workflows. Why Shellby, if you have Claude Code →
What can it do to my repo without asking? Only what you've allowed: the default Ask first mode asks before every edit and command your own rules don't already permit, and the fenced-off Autonomous mode is never on unless you pick it. Work in a copy only comes home when you say so. Permission modes →
Before you install
Does it use extra tokens?
No. Your tasks go through your own claude, so they count against your Pro or Max plan just as they would in a terminal. Shellby only makes a Claude Code call of its own when you turn on a feature that needs one (Keep warm, or reading Linear or Jira issues for a project), and each turn shows its tokens and its share of your 5-hour window.
Does it send my code anywhere?
Only to Anthropic, through Claude Code, the same as in your terminal. Shellby has no accounts of its own and no telemetry. Its only server is a public one that gives sponsors' crabs a signed badge. Sync and crash reports are off until you say yes. The privacy policy lists every connection, and SECURITY.md covers how to report a problem.
Do I need to open a terminal?
No. If Claude Code isn't on your PC, the first screen offers to install it with Anthropic's official installer, then opens the sign-in in your browser.
Can I uninstall cleanly?
Yes. The uninstaller asks whether to delete your data (%APPDATA%\Shellby and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Shellby) as well. Claude Code and your ~/.claude settings belong to Claude Code, so they stay.
- Download the installer (
Shellby-Setup-x.y.z.exe) and run it on Windows 10 or 11. - Pick Claude Code + crab (uses your Claude Pro or Max plan), Work mode (the same tools, first on the bar, and a quiet crab), Claude Code on another computer (over ssh), or Just the crab: no Claude, no account, still a desk pet who talks, plays and dresses up.
- He moves onto your desktop. Click him to open the panel.
Windows may show a SmartScreen warning the first time; Install explains it, along with the Claude Code setup.
Already use Claude Code on this PC? The tool screens are on the bar from the start: History, Projects, Notes, Health, the Toolbox and Automate. New to it, you start with just him, a chat box and First steps: open a project, give Claude a task, see what he changed, and say hi to the crab. Each step ticks itself off when you really do it, and any of them can be skipped. The tool screens open as he works: History, Projects and Notes after his first task, Health and the Toolbox after his third, Automate after his fifth. The game side (Finds, the Bugdex, Us and the Tank on his screen, the Sticker Book on Outfits, the Crew over the Toolbox's Agents, a project's Reef and Review mastery) waits until First steps are done or he reaches level 3, then opens as tasks earn it, each with a "new" on its door. Can't wait? More → Show every screen, or Settings → General → Screens → Show everything now, puts them all out, and Work mode starts with every one of them. If you used Shellby before First steps existed, nothing changes for you.
| ⚡ Gets things done | Helper crabs, tabs on their own branches, undo any turn, comments on the diff |
| 🗂️ Runs your dev day | Every repo and dev server, crash help, flaky tests, time per project |
| 🌊 Gets out more | Your terminal, your phone, CI on your pull requests, your stream and GitHub |
| 🔒 Keeps you in control | Permission cards, five modes, a spending guard, nothing leaves your PC |
| 🦀 And a crab who does the work | How you see Claude working, plus a desk pet, outfits and PC health if you want them |
 |
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| Helpers work in parallel, each in its own lane | Lean Shell shows what every conversation carries |
Work in parallel
Drag a tab into the chat to split it: up to twelve conversations side by side, or pop one out into its own window
- Helper crabs: every subagent gets a lane in the panel and a crab on your desktop, and each kind levels up into a named crew member.
- Tabs on their own branches: with copies on (Settings → Claude → Copies of a project), each one works in its own copy of the repo. Bring it home merges it back, never with a force-push.
- Up to twelve side by side, or branch from any turn to try it another way.
Keep your code safe
- Undo any turn, or any step within one, including what a script or
npm installdid. - Run checks stamps your test results on a turn, with before and after pictures.
- Comment on the diff, line by line, and send all your comments back as one follow-up.
- Learns from your corrections: correct Claude the same way twice and he offers to add it to
CLAUDE.mdas a rule.
See what it costs
- Every turn shows its tokens and its share of your 5-hour window, and Lean Shell shows what each new conversation carries before you type, plus the files, commands and hooks that keep filling it. What it covers
- Spend less on helpers and small asks: run the helpers Claude sends out on Sonnet, start a quick question on Sonnet, and get a word before a cold cache or a pile of screenshots makes a message expensive.
- Keep warm while you're away: press the mug in the tab strip before lunch. Each conversation of 200k tokens or more gets one tiny message just before its cache's hour runs out, so your first message back reads the conversation from the cache instead of writing it all again. It turns itself off when you're back, or after 3 hours.
Work your way
- Ctrl+K for everything, every slash command, and push-to-talk.
- All files (Ctrl+Shift+F): the whole project beside the chat, each file with its git mark, lit up as Claude reads, writes and commits. Click a file and it goes along with your messages, so "this" means that file.
- A Toolbox for your skills, agents, MCP servers and hooks.
- Hand a conversation to the terminal and back, or run Claude Code on another computer over ssh.
Everything he does with Claude Code → · Already use Claude Code in a terminal or editor? Here's what he adds →
 |
 |
| Every repo you work in, and its dev servers | A crash, with what to send Claude a click away |
- Projects: the repos you work in, here and on GitHub, with their branches and unpushed work. Start a dev server and a
:5173pill sits by the crab. - When a server crashes he holds up a red sign. The card marks the error lines and shows exactly what would go to Claude, and nothing is sent until you say so.
- Start from where the work is: Fix this build on a red pull request sends Claude the failing step's log, Address the review quotes the comments still open (a new review comment offers it on its notification), and Next up ranks what to work on in each project (your tasks, your notes, its GitHub issues and milestones, the TODOs in its code), each with Do this: a conversation in a copy on its own branch, the prompt waiting for you to send.
- Notes for later: jot an idea on a project's Notes, or ask Claude to note it from the chat. Plan, Build or Ask turns one into a conversation, Plan and Build in a copy of their own.
- Time on each project: hours worked out from what he already sees, clients and rates, a PDF or CSV timesheet, and a day at a time to Toggl, Clockify or Harvest when you send it. Off until you turn it on.
- Flaky tests caught and fixed for real, dependencies checked weekly with a pull request to bump them, and Is it safe to leave? before you lock up or shut down.
- He knows your limits: when you'll hit your 5-hour window, and a message held for after the reset goes by itself.
- Run it when my limit resets: queue heavy tasks ("refactor X", "write tests for Y") on the Routines page, for when the window resets or for tonight. They start by themselves, overnight too, one after another, with the PC kept awake. Each result goes to your phone, and a task that runs out of usage partway carries on after the next reset.
- Workflows and routines: a schedule, a red build, a release or a file landing in a folder starts a list of steps: Claude, commands, web requests, a question for you. Workflows.
- Your MCP servers in them: tick the servers a step may use and Claude files the Linear issue or posts to Slack without stopping to ask, or call one tool directly with no Claude turn at all. Pair it with n8n for everything else.
Projects, time, tests and dependencies →
shellby do "tidy my Downloads"
shellby do @review
shellby say "all green"
shellby status
shellby time last-weekFrom any terminal, and Claude can drive him too, through the plugin's MCP server: have him say what a skill is up to, or celebrate when a release lands. It can't start tasks of its own. |
|
- 📱 Your phone: a permission prompt, a finished run or a red build can reach it. ntfy is one QR scan, and Telegram finds your chat by itself. Answer Allow or Deny from it if you like.
- 🦀 Shellby on your phone: the whole thing as an app on your phone, served by your own PC over Tailscale: every conversation live, Allow and Deny, new tasks, diffs, Undo and Bring it home, with notifications that open the right card. No account of ours, no server in the middle. Shellby on your phone →
- 🎥 On stream: an OBS browser source on a transparent background. 💡 On your desk: OpenRGB lighting that follows his mood. 🎛️ On a Stream Deck: Allow, Deny, Stop, Bring it home and Ready to review as hardware keys, each showing what's waiting. 🎮 On Discord: his level and what he's up to on your profile.
- ✅ CI on your pull requests: a ✗ sign when a build goes red, a dance when it's fixed, and Fix this build to hand Claude the failing log.
- Sync and visiting crabs, with an optional GitHub sign-in that only asks for what you turn on.
Phone, stream, lights and GitHub →
- Permission cards: Allow, Always allow or Deny, with Y / A / N. The card warns you when a command runs a script Claude wrote, or an edit touches Claude Code's own setup.
- Five permission modes, from Ask first to a fenced-off Autonomous. See Permission modes.
- Spending guard: routines and workflows stop before they use the share of your 5-hour window you keep for yourself.
- Your plan, your PC: no API keys, no telemetry, and your history stays on your PC.
He's how you see the work without opening anything. He scuttles while Claude works, raises a claw when it needs you, sends a helper crab out for every subagent, holds up a red sign when a build breaks or a dev server crashes, and says "all green!" when the tests pass. He lives on the wallpaper layer, behind every window, and there's nothing to look after.
The rest is there if you want it, and none of it needs Claude or an account:
- A desk pet with a life of his own: a voice and a temperament (chipper, fussy, cocky or sleepy), little scenes when nothing's happening, finds he digs up, hide and seek and fetch, a bond that grows, a tank to decorate, and a beach with a sandcastle for every project you ship. On your desktop → · His tank →
- Dress him up: 175 accessories, 45 effects and 19 crabs, 148 trophies and 99 levels, a sticker for every repo you ship, and the Bugdex, where every kind of bug Claude fixes is a creature he scoops into a jar. More from other people in the community gallery. Outfits, trophies and stickers →
- He watches your PC: he sweats when the GPU runs hot, gets dizzy when memory's full and overstuffs his shell when a drive fills up, with live vitals, what's hogging it, what starts with Windows and the developer clutter you can clear. How Health works →
- Things to try: throw him at a title bar and he rides the window, fling him at the edge of the screen and he climbs it, rub the mouse over him to pet him. Pals, typing along and pranks stay off until you turn them on. All of it →
Work mode keeps him to himself: your tools lead the bar, he only speaks up about the work, and the climbing, pals, pranks and confetti take the day off. Turning it off puts every setting back as it was. Work mode →
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🖥️ Dev servers he finds · 0.95 |
🔔 Answers from your notifications · 0.94 |
📲 Your phone does more · 0.92–0.93 |
|
🪶 A leaner Claude · 0.91 |
🎨 The Crab Painter · 0.90 |
📱 Shellby on your phone · 0.90 |
And before that: all files beside the chat, keep warm, Ultracode, the Logbook and levels to 99, reef health, Claude Code installed for you, a Council that reads your project first, Shellby Wrapped, background sessions, combining tries, the file viewer, the trail, marks past 99, twelve panes, code in colour, the Outline and Problems, /debug, routines that follow you, the Council, undo to here, every conversation at a glance, seventeen new bugs, a glow-up, tools in bulk, helpers that report back, one-click modes, Search Settings, bug battles, other computers over ssh, his tank, Next up, the Bugdex, mods, /tries, MCP servers in workflows, the weekly crab card, Lean Shell, projects and dev servers, the flaky test detective, prompt snippets and time on each project. Everything is in the changelog.
Just the crab: download Shellby-Setup-x.y.z.exe (or the portable build) from Releases, run it, and pick Just the crab. That's it: Health, the Wardrobe, his voice, trophies and crab cards, no account. You can add Claude Code later from Settings.
Crab + Claude Code:
- Install Claude Code with Anthropic's installer (the one Shellby's first screen runs for you if you skip this) and sign in with your Claude account (Pro or Max):
irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex claude auth login
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-codeworks too. - Download Shellby-Setup-x.y.z.exe (or the portable build) from Releases and run it.
- Shellby walks you through a two-step check (CLI found ✓, signed in with a Claude account ✓) and asks how much freedom he gets.
From a package manager: instead of downloading the installer,
scoop bucket add shellby https://github.com/x-salmon/shellby
scoop install shellby/shellbyor winget install x-salmon.Shellby, once Microsoft's review of the package finishes. Scoop keeps him up to date with scoop update shellby (the in-app updater stands aside); a winget install updates itself like the regular installer.
"Windows protected your PC"? That's Microsoft SmartScreen. It warns about any app that few people have downloaded yet, even a signed one. Shellby is signed by Jacob Barford (see Code signing policy), and the warning fades as more people install it.
- To install anyway: click More info → Run anyway. The publisher shown should be Jacob Barford.
- To check you got the real file: every release is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged commit, and each one lists SHA-256 checksums in
SHA256SUMS.txt. Compare them withGet-FileHash .\Shellby-Setup-x.y.z.exe, check its signed build provenance withgh attestation verify .\Shellby-Setup-x.y.z.exe -R x-salmon/shellby, or build from source (below).
Updating: the installed version updates itself. He checks GitHub Releases, downloads in the background, and puts a dot on the ⚙ gear when an update is ready. Click Restart and update in Settings → General → About, or Update to x.y.z and restart in the tray menu, or just quit and it installs on the way out. Your settings live in %APPDATA%\Shellby, so they carry over. The portable build can't update itself: download the new Shellby-Portable-x.y.z.exe from Releases and replace the old one.
Keeping Claude Code current: Claude Code checks for its own updates only in an interactive terminal session, and the sessions Shellby starts aren't interactive, so a copy that only ever runs under Shellby would stay on the version you installed. Once a day Shellby asks the npm registry which version is newest and, if yours is older, says so once and puts an Update button in Settings → General → About, beside Shellby's own. It runs Claude Code's own claude update. Pick Update it for me there and he does it himself, only while no conversation is running; Leave it to me and he never asks the registry.
Requirements: Windows 10 or 11 (x64). For the Claude side: Claude Code 2.1+ and a Claude Pro or Max plan.
flowchart LR
C["🦀 Critter window<br/><sub>desktop layer, click / drag / drop</sub>"] -- click --> P["Panel<br/><sub>chat, approvals, settings</sub>"]
P <-- "IPC (preload bridge)" --> M["Electron main"]
M -- "stdin: user turns,<br/>permission answers, interrupt, mode" --> CLI["claude -p<br/>stream-json"]
CLI -- "stdout: events,<br/>can_use_tool requests, usage" --> M
CLI --> S[("Your Claude<br/>subscription")]
T["⌨️ shellby CLI ·<br/>🔌 plugin hooks + MCP"] -- "127.0.0.1" --> M
M -. "OBS overlay · OpenRGB ·<br/>phone notifications" .-> O["Out in the world"]
Shellby doesn't talk to any AI API itself. Each conversation is one long-lived, official Claude Code process that you signed in to yourself, driven over the same stream-json host protocol the Claude Agent SDK uses. Shellby never sees your Claude sign-in, and usage counts against your plan's normal limits, exactly as if you'd typed the task into a terminal. The protocol, billing safety and how he stays on the desktop layer are in DEVELOPMENT.md.
| Mode | Reads | Edits files | Runs commands | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ask first (default) | ✅ | asks | asks | Recommended. |
| Smart | ✅ | auto* | auto* | Claude Code's auto mode: a safety classifier approves routine steps and blocks risky ones. |
| Auto-edit | ✅ | ✅ | asks | |
| Plan only | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | Shellby proposes a plan card, and nothing changes until you approve. |
| Autonomous | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | bypassPermissions. Behind an explicit warning, never the default, and never reachable from the shellby command. |
Your own Claude Code allow/deny rules in ~/.claude/settings.json still apply in every mode.
With Node 22 or newer: git clone, npm install, npm run setup, npm start. The full setup, every test and maintenance script, and a map of the code are in docs/DEVELOPMENT.md. Every image in this README is rendered from the real app: npm run screenshots, npm run reel, npm run tricks and python scripts/make-banners.py.
Everything stays on your PC. Conversation history lives in %APPDATA%\Shellby\sessions, and Shellby has no telemetry and no servers of its own, bar one for public sponsors (below). The privacy policy lists every connection he makes and what goes over it. In short:
- Claude Code talking to Anthropic, and the updater checking GitHub Releases.
- GitHub, only if you sign in: your profile, the sync gist, pack pull requests, the CI status of your pull requests, with Visiting crabs on, your public calling card and your friends' cards, with Profile card on, the public gist holding your profile card picture, and with Built with Shellby on, the public
shellby-badgerepository holding his picture and the badge at the bottom of pull requests your tabs open. - Phone notifications, only if you turn them on, straight to the service you picked (ntfy, Pushover, Telegram, Discord, Slack or your own endpoint).
- Shellby on your phone, only if you turn it on: your PC serves the app to your own phone over your tailnet, and its notifications go encrypted through your phone's push service (Apple's, Google's, Mozilla's or Microsoft's), which can't read them.
- The npm registry once a day, to say when a newer Claude Code is out (Leave it to me in Settings → General → About stops it).
- The community gallery once a day, for its news of contests, winners and events, and while you're signed in to GitHub, its list of packs, to see whether you've earned a trophy for making Shellby. Nothing about you goes with either (Community news in Settings → Shellby → Games stops both). While you're signed in, GitHub is also asked once a day whether you sponsor Shellby, for the 🏮 Patron trophy. If you sponsor publicly, your GitHub username goes to getshellby.com for a signed proof that lets friends' crabs show your lantern.
- Crash reports to Sentry, only when you say so: he asks first, and Settings → General → About → Crash reports changes it.
- Things you ask for: ssh to the computers you add under Other computers, community packs, plugins and MCP servers,
gitfetches and pushes, workflow web requests, and the weekly dependency check (npm, pnpm, Yarn, pip-audit, cargo-audit and Go's, whichever your projects use). - Things that never leave your PC: the time tracker (it reads the title of the window in front to tell which project you're in, keeps only the project, the day and the minutes, and never syncs them; a day goes to Toggl, Clockify or Harvest only when you send it), push-to-talk audio (Windows' offline speech recognizer hears it, and the microphone is only open while you hold the shortcut), your PC's health readings, OpenRGB, the OBS overlay, the Stream Deck keys (behind a token only the plugin has), the phone app's port (Tailscale is what reaches it, for your login only), the port the
shellbycommand and the plugin use, and Claude Code's own metrics (lines, accepted edits and commits, never prompts), which the conversations Shellby starts send to Shellby instead of anywhere else — all on127.0.0.1.
See SECURITY.md for the renderer sandboxing details.
Releases are signed with Azure Artifact Signing, under the maintainer's verified name, Jacob Barford. Releases before the first signed one were unsigned.
Only Shellby's own files are signed, and only when GitHub Actions builds them from a tagged commit in this repository (release workflow). The signing key stays in Microsoft's hardware and is never on a PC. Before publishing, the workflow checks that every exe is validly signed by the expected publisher. Before building, it checks that the publisher will match the last release's, so installed copies keep updating. How it works: docs/SIGNING.md.
- Committers and reviewers: x-salmon. Pull requests from anyone else are reviewed before they're merged.
- Release and signing: x-salmon
Everyone in these roles uses two-factor authentication on GitHub and Azure.
Privacy: see the privacy policy for everything Shellby sends over the network, and when. It has no telemetry.
Skins, packs, bug reports and PRs are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md, then npm install, npm run setup and npm run dev:crab gets you a dev crab that needs no Claude account.
- First time? Pick a good first issue or a pack wish.
- Made a pack? Share it in the community gallery (how).
- Questions or show-and-tell: Discussions.
- The monthly crab contest, community news and credits: docs/COMMUNITY.md. Winning skins ship in Shellby for everyone, and everyone who makes something is on the Made by list.
- Reviewing security? Start with the threat model.
Shellby is free and made in spare time. If he saves you some, you can sponsor him on GitHub: every tier has its own reward in Shellby. 🦐 Krill ($3 a month) lights an anglerfish lantern over his head, 🪼 Lanternfish ($7) adds glowing plankton that circle him, 🐚 Pearl Diver ($15) a clam for his tank that opens on a shining pearl, and 🐋 Leviathan ($40) turns him into The Abyss, a deep-sea crab lit from within. Give once instead and 🍾 Message in a Bottle ($10) or 💰 Sunken Treasure ($50, with a sunken galleon) are yours to keep.
Everyone here follows the Code of Conduct.
Shellby is free software under the GPL-3.0. Read him, change him, share him, build on him. The one condition: if you hand out a changed version, it stays open under the same licence, so fixes find their way back to everyone instead of disappearing into a closed-source app.
The name Shellby and the crab as a mascot aren't part of that licence. Fork the code all you want — just give your crab its own name, so nobody downloads yours thinking it's this one. TRADEMARK.md spells out what's reserved and what's fair game.
Contributors keep their copyright and grant x-salmon the right to also license their work commercially (why), so there may one day be paid extras alongside the free crab. The app in this repository stays GPL-3.0 and free.
Shellby is an independent open-source project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic. "Claude" and "Claude Code" are trademarks of Anthropic, PBC. Shellby only automates the official Claude Code CLI you install and sign in to yourself, and your use of it is subject to Anthropic's terms.
Shellby acts on your real files with your real permissions. Read what you approve, and keep backups.
GPL-3.0 licensed, see LICENSE and TRADEMARK.md. The bundled fonts, Pixelify Sans, Atkinson Hyperlegible and Martian Mono, are under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (see assets/fonts).