mochiiwuff/capri-desktop

Capri is a fan-made desktop companion that hooks into Claude Code and turns its activity into animated reactions and comments. It is a fun add-on for people already running Claude Code on Windows, not a tool that improves the coding workflow itself.

The problem

Claude Code runs in a terminal or editor and works quietly: you start a task, then switch away and check back to see whether it is waiting for approval, still working, or finished. Capri changes that check-in loop. Once connected to Claude Code's hooks, the character appears on screen, comments on actions as they happen, comes to find you when Claude needs permission, and reacts when a job is done. The result is a visible, character-driven status signal rather than a bare terminal you have to revisit.

What's different

The mechanism is hook-based observation: Capri watches what Claude Code does and maps events to a large library of hand-animated behaviours, such as sitting on window edges, peeking in from screen edges, falling, and a menu-driven "how does it work?" tour. There is also a daily mission report card designed to be screenshotted and copied as an image, and an optional local chat mode through Ollama that answers in character with knowledge of the current session and the day's activity. The trade-off is that this is a personality layer, not a monitoring dashboard: the entertainment value depends on the character and the animations, and the actual project state remains the terminal's job. The animation catalogue is extensive, but it is a curated, authored repertoire rather than something you configure generically.

Who should try it

The good fit is someone who already uses Claude Code daily on Windows, enjoys the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners character, and wants a playful presence that makes long agent runs more visible. The poor fit is someone who wants a lightweight status indicator or works entirely in a terminal without wanting an always-on desktop overlay; for those users, Capri adds visual noise without changing the workflow. If the character is the main draw, the biggest gating factor is Claude Code itself: without it, she still floats, sits on windows, and idles, but the narration and reports never trigger.

Requirements and limitations

Windows gets the full experience: an unsigned installer that needs no admin rights, no Node.js, and no separate API key for Capriproject instructions. SmartScreen will warn because the installer is not code-signed, and the Claude Code hooks must be installed and Claude Code fully restarted before she reacts. Claude Code itself needs a paid Claude plan or API account, and the source route for macOS and Linux requires Node.js 20+ and a terminal left open; window tricks are Windows-only, and the transparent overlay is best on X11project instructions. Linux Wayland transparency and click-through can be problematic, and only Claude Code is supported among coding assistants. The optional chat mode requires installing Ollama and pulling a model such as llama3.2 (about 2 GB)project instructions.

HotRepo's take

The repository has 138 total stars and appeared on HotRepo's NEW-REPOSITORY board for JavaScript at #7 on 2026-10-26, a single recorded observation and not a daily-growth number. There is no comparable daily-board history, so persistence cannot yet be judged from HotRepo's stored samples. Before committing, verify the documented hook status and the restart step for Claude Code, since that is what separates a working companion from an idle desktop character.