Catalyst UI

Formerly Claude Code Studio. Multi-vendor AI workbench in a single desktop app. Embedded terminal for Claude Code, plus integrated panels for Hugging Face model discovery, Ollama local models, multi-provider API keys (OpenAI / Gemini / OpenRouter), resource monitoring, GitHub, compact optimization, cost tracking, accessibility, and cloud sync.

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, done.

Windows: Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Windows.exe (NSIS one-click silent install)
macOS Apple Silicon: Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Mac.dmg (drag to Applications)
Linux: Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Linux-Universal.AppImage (portable), -Linux-Debian.deb (Debian/Ubuntu), or -Linux-Fedora.rpm (Fedora/RHEL)

Per-platform install details, SmartScreen/Gatekeeper workarounds, and the build-from-source instructions are in Installing below.

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

Overview

Catalyst UI embeds the Claude Code CLI in a polished Electron desktop app, alongside an integrated Hugging Face Hub browser, 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 without getting in 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 — 33-model curated catalog of local + API models (Qwen, DeepSeek, Llama, Gemma, Granite, Phi, Mistral, embeddings). Hardware-tier auto-detect, cwd-aware recommendations (frontend vs backend), in-panel terminal + pop-out windows for launched models, first-run picker that pre-pulls your hardware's defaults.
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, 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), 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 split by process bucket (Claude PTYs, model PTYs, Ollama daemon).
Token cost tracker — per-session input/output token estimates with daily budgets and 30–90 day rolling history.
Compact controller — reads/toggles the compact-controller hooks and session state.

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 theme creation via 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 (Fira Code), Inter, or Fira Code.
Frosted glass — optional backdrop-filter blur on panels.
Accessibility — 10 toggles: high-contrast, font scale, reduce motion, color-blind palettes (protanopia / deuteranopia / tritanopia), large focus ring, 44px targets, dyslexia font, screen reader mode, keyboard hints.
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 event notifications for sync errors, budget alerts, update availability, and PTY exits.
Command palette — fuzzy search across panels, themes, snippets, terminal actions. Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P.
Rebindable hotkeys — customize key chords for all actions.
System tray — minimize to tray on close.
Incognito tabs — open ephemeral Claude sessions via the profile picker or command palette; not persisted across restarts.
Command palette history — press arrow-up on an empty palette input to recall previously executed commands.
Escape menu stack — overlays dismiss in LIFO order; pressing 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 — universal 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.
Cross-platform — Windows (NSIS), macOS (DMG), Linux (AppImage/deb/rpm).
First-run bootstrap — installs Node + 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 — 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

Download the right asset for your OS from the latest release and follow the per-platform steps below.

Windows

Download Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Windows.exe.
Double-click. The NSIS installer downloads Node + the Claude CLI, then launches Catalyst UI. ~30 seconds total. No further setup needed.

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)

Download Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Mac.dmg (Apple Silicon native; runs on Intel Macs via Rosetta).
Open the DMG, drag Catalyst UI into Applications.
Eject the DMG, open Catalyst UI from Launchpad / Spotlight.
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 ~30% better performance. Both run on either chip (Rosetta translates), but native is faster.

Linux

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

AppImage (works on any distro, no install needed)

Download Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Linux-Universal.AppImage.

Make it executable and run:

chmod +x Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Linux-Universal.AppImage
./Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Linux-Universal.AppImage

First launch: onboarding modal downloads Node + Claude CLI into ~/.config/Claude Code Studio/runtime/. Sign in via the modal.

If you want a desktop entry + menu integration, drop the AppImage into ~/Applications/ and use AppImageLauncher.

Debian / Ubuntu

wget https://github.com/LxveAce/catalyst-ui/releases/latest/download/Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Linux-Debian.deb
sudo dpkg -i Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Linux-Debian.deb
sudo apt-get install -f   # resolve missing deps if any

Launch from your applications menu. First-launch bootstrap is the same modal as the AppImage.

Fedora / RHEL / CentOS

wget https://github.com/LxveAce/catalyst-ui/releases/latest/download/Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Linux-Fedora.rpm
sudo dnf install ./Catalyst-UI-4.0.3-Linux-Fedora.rpm

(Or sudo rpm -i if you prefer rpm directly.)

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 issue — file an issue with ldd --version output.

All platforms: what the first launch does

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

Catalyst UI checks for an existing Claude CLI on PATH or bundled runtime.
If missing: onboarding modal shows Install Claude CLI button. Click → modal streams the install log → ~30-60 seconds → done.
If unauthenticated: 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 → modal dismisses.
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 (electron-packager is not yet compatible with Node 24). package.json pins engines.node. Windows users: see CONTRIBUTING.md.
For node-pty native build on Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 with the C++ workload, plus the Windows 10/11 SDK (10.0.22621+).
For 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-2.6.0.7z 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 Setup.exe (needs Dev Mode)
npm run dist:mac            # macOS DMG + zip (must run ON a Mac)
npm run dist:linux          # Linux AppImage + deb + rpm

# Cross-build all 3 (Linux build host can produce Windows + Linux;
# macOS build needs a Mac)
npm run dist:all

# Publish to GitHub Releases (draft)
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 · TypeScript 6.0 · node-pty · xterm.js · systeminformation · Octokit · @huggingface/hub · electron-builder

Project structure

src/
  main/       43 backend services (PTY, models, GitHub, Brain, sync, ...)
  preload/    Preload scripts (IPC bridge to renderer)
  renderer/   React 19 UI (App.tsx + 16 sidebar panel modules)
  shared/     TypeScript types + IPC channel definitions
scripts/      Build helpers (node-pty patch)
docs/         Documentation, release notes, security reviews
build/        Installer assets (NSIS script, branding BMPs)

Documentation

docs/STATUS.md — always-current pickup doc (start here)
CHANGELOG.md — per-release history
docs/MIGRATING_FROM_CCS.md — Claude Code Studio → Catalyst UI rebrand & upgrade
docs/BACKLOG.md — open ideas & known bugs
docs/HANDOFF.md — historical v1→v3 phased development plan
docs/security-reviews/ — per-phase self-red-team reviews

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Security

To report a vulnerability, see SECURITY.md.

License

MIT © LxveAce

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 118 Commits
.github		.github
build		build
docs		docs
obsidian-plugin		obsidian-plugin
scripts		scripts
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
electron-builder.yml		electron-builder.yml
forge.config.ts		forge.config.ts
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json
vite.main.config.ts		vite.main.config.ts
vite.preload.config.ts		vite.preload.config.ts
vite.renderer.config.ts		vite.renderer.config.ts

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Catalyst UI

Quick install

Overview

Features

Terminal & CLI

Model Management

Knowledge & Productivity

DevOps & Monitoring

Customization & UX

Cloud & Sync

Platform

Platform support

Installing

Windows

macOS (Apple Silicon, Intel via Rosetta)

Linux

AppImage (works on any distro, no install needed)

Debian / Ubuntu

Fedora / RHEL / CentOS

All platforms: what the first launch does

Building from source

Developer prerequisites

Getting started

Build outputs

Tech stack

Project structure

Documentation

Contributing

Security

License

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