Windows, macOS and Linux

Claudette runs on all three, and almost everything works the same. This page collects what differs, with a link to the page that explains each part.

What you need

Windows: an MSIX package for x64 or Arm64.
macOS: a .dmg for Apple silicon or Intel, on macOS 12 or later.
Linux: a desktop on x64, with X11 or Wayland. There’s no package yet, so you build Claudette from source, in a few commands. Every change to Claudette is built and tested on Linux, as on Windows and macOS.
Everywhere: Claude Code, installed first.

See What you need, Installing, Installing on Linux and Running from source.

Installing and updating

Windows: the MSIX installs like any app, and Claudette can install its own updates. A copy that isn’t the MSIX can’t.
macOS: drag Claudette.app from the .dmg to Applications. macOS runs an app opened straight from Downloads from a temporary read-only copy, which can’t update itself, so move it to Applications first.
Linux: a build from source keeps up with the branch its checkout tracks instead of releases: it offers to pull, build and restart into new commits, and to restart into each build you make yourself. See Installing on Linux. A copy that isn’t a package and isn’t run from its checkout can’t install updates, but still hears about each release, with a link to its page.

Updating restarts Claudette with every tab as it was. See Claudette’s updates and When an update fails.

Look and feel

Windows: the header is the window’s title bar, as in JetBrains Rider, with minimize, maximize and close at its right; drag the header’s gaps to move the window. Claudette’s other windows have their own title bars too, the same way. Settings → Appearance → Use the system’s title bar puts Windows’ own title bar over each window instead.
macOS: the header is the window’s title bar too, with the traffic lights at its left (or, with Use the system’s title bar, the native title bar over it), and a menu bar with File → New Tab, Open Recent, History… and Close Tab, Help → User Guide, Ask on Discord and Report an Issue, and Settings… in the app menu. Each command with a shortcut shows it, from Settings → Keyboard.
Linux draws Claudette’s window through X11, and through XWayland on a Wayland desktop, with your window manager’s title bar over the header, always: a window manager may not draw the buttons of a window that takes its title bar. Its menu entry is a desktop entry you add (Installing on Linux).
In the Claude style, Claude’s replies are set in a serif: Charter on macOS, Georgia or Cambria on Windows, and Charter, Noto Serif or DejaVu Serif on Linux.

See Styles and themes.

Shortcuts

The command key is Ctrl on Windows and Linux and Cmd on macOS. A shortcut you set on one machine means the same on the other when settings sync. Zoom, motion and the rest of the window work the same everywhere. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Opening folders

Windows: the taskbar’s jump list lists your favorite and recent folders. It stays empty if you turned off Show recently opened items in Windows’ Start settings.
macOS: File → Open Recent and the Dock icon’s menu list them.
Everywhere: drag a folder onto the sidebar, or start Claudette with --folder. See Opening tabs and Command line and environment.

The project menu’s Show in Explorer is Show in Finder on macOS and Show in file manager on Linux.

Notifications and the icon

Windows shows toasts. The taskbar button’s overlay shows the number of tabs needing input, Claude’s spark while tabs work and an hourglass while a tab waits for a usage limit, and the button flashes when a tab starts needing you while Claudette isn’t in front.
macOS uses its notification center, which needs Claudette.app: a build run with dotnet run has no notifications, and Settings says so. The Dock icon has the number as a badge, and Claudette on it types, waves or waits by an hourglass.
Linux uses notify-send. Without it there are no notifications, and Settings says so. The badge and the icon’s animation are for the Windows taskbar and the macOS Dock.

See Notifications and The Dock and taskbar icon.

Keeping the computer awake

Keeping the computer awake uses the OS’s own call on Windows, caffeinate on macOS, and systemd-inhibit on Linux. Without systemd-inhibit, the header’s cup and the setting are disabled and say why.

The entry that Start Claudette when I log in makes is different on each system, and can be turned off outside Claudette:

Windows: the MSIX’s startup task, or a Run entry for other builds. Task Manager’s Startup apps can turn either off.
macOS: a LaunchAgent. Allow in the Background, in System Settings → General → Login Items, can turn it off.
Linux: a claudette.desktop file in your autostart folder.

See Starting at login.

Passwords and keys

Perforce passwords and API keys go in the OS’s credential store: Windows Credential Manager, the macOS Keychain, or the Secret Service on Linux. The Secret Service needs secret-tool, from the libsecret-tools package. Without it, Settings says so, and passwords can only be asked for. See Perforce and Passwords and keys.

Your environment

Windows apps get your full environment. On macOS and Linux, an app started from the Dock, Finder or a desktop launcher gets only a minimal one, so Claudette reads your login shell’s environment, as VS Code does, and gives it to claude and the other programs it starts. See Command line and environment and Claude can’t find a program.

Smaller differences

CPU on the Processes page. On Windows, 100% means all cores, as in Task Manager. On macOS, 100% means one core, as in Activity Monitor. See Processes.
Your own actions run through cmd.exe on Windows and your $SHELL elsewhere. See Actions and links.
Project tools look for engines in each system’s places: Epic’s launcher and registry on Windows, its support folder on macOS and none on Linux, Unity Hub’s folders, and Scoop and WinGet for Godot on Windows. Project files for starts as Visual Studio on Windows, Xcode on macOS and VS Code on Linux. See Unreal Engine, Unity and Godot.
Pasted screenshots. Windows’ Snipping Tool and Win+Shift+S, macOS screenshots and PNG or JPEG pictures on Linux’s clipboard are all attached. See Attachments and large pastes.
Reduced motion follows Windows’ Show animations in Windows, macOS’s Reduce motion and GNOME’s enable-animations. See Accessibility.

What hasn’t been tried on a real machine

Some parts have so far been checked only by automatic tests, not on a real machine of each kind. If one misbehaves, tell us with Reporting an issue.

Notifications and the Dock or taskbar badge, on Windows and macOS.
Starting at login: the MSIX’s startup task and the macOS LaunchAgent.
Installing Claudette’s updates on Windows and macOS.
The login shell’s environment in a Claudette started from the Dock or a desktop launcher.
Keeping the computer awake, on all three.
Perforce against a real server, with P4V and single sign-on, and the credential stores in the running app.
Unreal Engine, Unity and Godot projects on machines with the engines installed.