collab-claw

collab-claw

Pair-program with one Claude across multiple laptops.

collab-claw lets a group of teammates collaborate inside a single Claude Code session. The host runs Claude as usual; teammates connect from their own laptops via a small CLI and see the conversation live. Their prompts get prefixed with their name ([Sankalp]: ...) and delivered to the host's Claude as if they had typed them locally.

• Only the host needs Claude Code installed.
• Only the host pays for tokens — joiners run a thin CLI client.
• Local-first: the host machine runs the relay over your LAN. No accounts, no servers, no signup.

┌────────────────────────┐                     ┌────────────────────────┐
│  Surya (host)          │                     │ Sankalp / Abhinav      │
│  ─────────────         │                     │ ───────────────        │
│  $ claude              │                     │ $ collab-claw join \   │
│  > /collab-claw:host   │   join-url + DM     │   http://...#secret=…  │
│  ┃ relay :7474         │  ───────────────►   │  ┌──────────────────┐  │
│  ┃ monitor (always-on) │                     │  │  TUI             │  │
│  ┃ hooks (Stop, …)     │  joiner prompts     │  │  status bar      │  │
│  ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ │  ◄────────────────  │  │  transcript      │  │
│   billed to host    ┃ │   host responses     │  │  prompt          │  │
└─────────────────────┻─┘   ────────────────►  └──┻──────────────────┘──┘

Install

You need Node.js ≥ 18 on every machine. The host also needs Claude Code (the claude CLI).

1. Install the CLI everywhere (host + joiners)

# from a git checkout (works today):
git clone https://github.com/sankalpgunturi/collab-claw.git
cd collab-claw
npm link            # installs `collab-claw` globally

# (npm publish coming; once live: npm install -g collab-claw)

2. Install the host plugin (host only)

In a Claude Code session on the host's machine:

/plugin marketplace add sankalpgunturi/collab-claw
/plugin install collab-claw

Restart claude (or /plugin reload).

3. Set your display name (everyone)

collab-claw set-name Sankalp

Usage

Hosting

In Claude Code on the host's machine:

/collab-claw:host

Claude will print your join URL:

collab-claw room is live.

  relay:    http://10.0.0.42:7474
  host:     Surya
  roomId:   ab3K9z

  join URL (DM this to teammates):
  http://10.0.0.42:7474#secret=XXXXXXXXXXXXX

DM that URL to your teammates. Then keep working with Claude as you normally would. When a teammate joins, you'll see:

[collab-claw] Sankalp wants to join the room. Approve with /collab-claw:approve <id>

Run /collab-claw:approve <id> (or /collab-claw:kick <id> to deny).

When you're done:

/collab-claw:end

Joining

In any terminal on a teammate's machine:

collab-claw set-name Sankalp        # one-time
collab-claw join http://10.0.0.42:7474#secret=XXXXXXXXX

You'll see a TUI with the host's transcript scrolling. Type a prompt and hit Enter — it'll be delivered to the host's Claude as [Sankalp]: <your prompt>. Press Ctrl-C to leave.

Other commands

collab-claw status                  # show current room state
collab-claw leave                   # leave (joiner)
collab-claw end                     # tear down the room (host)

# All work from /slash inside Claude too:
/collab-claw:host
/collab-claw:end
/collab-claw:status
/collab-claw:approve <id>
/collab-claw:kick <name>

How it works

1. /collab-claw:host spawns a small Node HTTP+SSE relay on the host's LAN (default port 7474), mints a room secret + host token, writes ~/.collab-claw/session.json, and prints a join URL containing the secret in the URL fragment.

2. The plugin's always-on monitor (started by Claude Code at session start) reads session.json to decide whether the room is live. If yes, it opens an SSE connection to /prompt-stream and emits incoming joiner prompts as [Name]: <text> lines on stdout — Claude treats these as user notifications and wakes up to respond.

3. The plugin's Stop hook runs after each Claude turn, parses the transcript JSONL, extracts the last assistant message, and POSTs it to /events. The relay fans this out to all subscribed joiner CLIs over /transcript-stream.

4. PreToolUse and PostToolUse hooks send compact summaries (e.g. ▸ wants to run Bash: npm test → ✓ Bash: npm test) so joiners can watch what Claude's doing in real time.

5. UserPromptSubmit hook forwards the host's own typed prompts to the relay so joiners see both sides of the conversation.