claude-panel

Claude Panel

Claude Code gets its own screen — it decides what you need to see

Main screen (Claude's content) → Status dashboard → Ambient screensaver

Claude Panel is a persistent TUI that sits next to your Claude Code terminal. Claude autonomously updates the panel with whatever it thinks matters — code it just wrote, a diagram, next steps, or a mood emoji. A structured dashboard tracks the current task, files changed, and key decisions, refreshing after every response. And when you're between tasks, ambient terminal screensavers keep the vibe going.

Three Screens

Claude manages the content, you manage the screensaver. The main and status screens update automatically — Claude reads the conversation, decides what's worth pinning on screen, and writes it. No manual commands needed.

Ambient Screensavers

Twelve built-in terminal animations ship with the package. Navigate with arrow keys or panel(show="ambient").

aurora

tokyo-drift

Also available: neon-dreams | neon-street | space-flight | rain-city | city-lights | matrix | noir | banquet | dvd-bounce | synthwave

All screensavers are bundled with the package — they work out of the box on a fresh install.

Custom screensavers

Drop a .py file in ~/.claude-panel/screensavers/ and it becomes available immediately. User screensavers override bundled ones of the same name, so you can customize any built-in screensaver without touching the package.

# List available screensavers
panel(screensaver="rain-city")

# Or ask Claude to create one
# "make me a screensaver with falling snow"

Screensavers are plain Python scripts that draw to a Rich canvas. Creating your own takes ~10 lines.

Install

# As a Claude Code plugin (recommended)
claude plugin marketplace add alex-radaev/claude-panel
claude plugin install claude-panel@claude-panel

git clone https://github.com/alex-radaev/claude-panel
cd claude-panel
uv sync

Usage

The panel opens automatically when you start a Claude Code session — an iTerm2 (macOS) or Windows Terminal (WSL) split pane launches with the viewer. No manual commands needed.

To disable auto-open, set "auto_open": false in ~/.claude-panel/config.json.

You can also open it manually:

# From Claude Code
panel_open()

# Manual
uv run claude-panel

Once running, Claude takes over. The main and status screens update on their own. You can switch views:

panel(show="ambient")              # switch to screensaver
panel(show="main")                 # switch to main canvas
panel(show="status")               # switch to status dashboard
panel(screensaver="tokyo-drift")   # change screensaver

iTerm2 tip: The panel pane may look washed out because iTerm2 dims inactive split panes by default. To fix: Settings > Appearance > Dimming and uncheck Dim inactive split panes.

How It Works