3 ms·

What do you miss from the Desktop app that the CLI doesn’t cover? I’m mostly on Linux too and have just been using the CLI, so I’m curious.

davydm 4mo ago
Mainly: true sandbox separation. I don't want the model having full access to my machine. With a dump format that Claude understands, I'm able to pass only the files I want Claude to see, and he can't break any of them. I don't care about setting up access lists and so on. I don't trust that the cli product will be properly sanboxed and it's quite clear their software offerings are largely aigen code, and I catch bugs from Claude every day. I also get useful stuff, so it's worth it, but definitely not worth it, imo, to grant it any access to my machine.
- mathstuf 4mo ago
  There are a number of utilities for this. I use jai: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/ https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/ but also have seen nono: https://github.com/always-further/nono https://github.com/always-further/nono smolvm: https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm zerobox https://github.com/afshinm/zerobox https://github.com/afshinm/zerobox and matchlock https://github.com/jingkaihe/matchlock https://github.com/jingkaihe/matchlock They all have pros and cons. Pick the one that suits you best. Then you're also agent harness flexible (I use opencode).
  - johnsonjo 4mo ago
    As a jai and linux user, myself, looking at nono's os-sandbox (from here [1]) it seems nice too. Thanks for the recommend I was looking for something that might be nice on Mac and nono seems good to recommend to coworkers and the like. [1]: https://nono.sh/os-sandbox https://nono.sh/os-sandbox
  - sophrosyne42 4mo ago
    I would like a solution that was itself not largely written by an AI
    - johnsonjo 4mo ago
      Jai is not written by ai, but only its website is. It's written by a Stanford Computer-Science professor with decades of C++ and Unix/linux experience. > [1]: Was jai written by an AI coding agent? No. While this web site was obviously made by an LLM (ChatGPT read the man page, asked some follow-up questions, and produced a prompt from which claude code built a vitepress site), jai itself was hand implemented by a Stanford computer science professor with decades of C++ and Unix/linux experience. As an experiment, the author did previously try vibe-coding a container, but the results were disastrous and repeatedly put his machine in a state that required a reboot (e.g., recursively changing the attributes of all mounts in the wrong mount namespace). The author does use coding agents to look for bugs, get feedback, and develop tests. However, rest assured that a single human understands every line of C++ in jai. [1] https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/faq.html https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/faq.html
- _aavaa_ 4mo ago
  If you don’t trust the CLI version to be properly sandbox d, why would the desktop one be?
- WhyNotHugo 4mo ago
  The cli works on regular sandboxes just fine (podman, docker, bwrap, etc). Sandboxing a GUI is typically more operational overhead than sandboxing a cli (mounting compositor sockets, GPU access, etc).
- notsirius 4mo ago
  does claude desktop actually solve this issue? I’m on mac and use docker sbx to solve this https://docs.docker.com/ai/sandboxes/get-started/ https://docs.docker.com/ai/sandboxes/get-started/
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
- jeena 4mo ago
  I made myself a very simple one from the start when I realized it can access everything on my computer https://git.jeena.net/jeena/agent-container https://git.jeena.net/jeena/agent-container my goal was that it would work transparently and the paths and user, etc. would be just the same as on the host but inside of a docker container.
- johnsonjo 4mo ago
  I've been using jai [1] for sandboxing on linux (although I use opencode and local models and not claude code) and I'm pretty satisfied with it. It comes in three different modes [2]: casual mode, strict mode, and bare mode. Here's some descriptions of each mode: Casual mode [3]: > Your home directory is mounted as a copy-on-write overlay. The jailed process sees your real files, but writes go to $HOME/.jai/default.changes instead of modifying originals, except in the directory where you ran jai. Your current working directory grants full read/write access to code in the jail (unless suppressed with -D). So files deleted there are really gone. /tmp and /var/tmp are private. The rest of the filesystem is read-only. Strict mode [4]: > The process runs as the unprivileged jai system user, not as you. Home directory is an empty private directory at $HOME/.jai/<name>.home. Granted directories (via -d or cwd) are exposed with id-mapped mounts — files look like they are owned by jai inside the jail. Because the process has a different UID, it cannot read files outside your home directory that are only accessible to your user — this is where confidentiality comes from. Bare mode [5]: > Home directory is an empty private directory, like strict mode. But the process runs as your user, not as jai. This means it cannot provide confidentiality — the process can still read any file accessible to your UID outside the home directory. I've always ran my stuff in casual so far just so my whole computer doesn't get rimraffed :P. but I'm thinking of switching to just strict mode, but haven't really vibe coded in a while so I haven't tried it yet. [1]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/ https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/ [2]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html [3]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#casual-mode https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#casual-mode [4]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#strict-mode https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#strict-mode [5]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#bare-mode https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#bare-mode
  - mkagenius 4mo ago
    [dead]
- FergusArgyll 4mo ago
  On Linux you have bubblewrap!
SyneRyder 4mo ago
I don't think the CLI offers daily routines under the Anthropic subscription anymore? There's also the cross conversation memory search, which uses a different conversation dataset (the Claude Web / Claude.AI conversations) than Claude Code does. I'm not even sure Claude Code does cross conversation search? The Desktop interface also presents Markdown as formatted text and presents artifacts (especially interactive ones) better than the CLI can. All that said - I actually use the CLI for nearly everything (even on Windows). Rather than use Claude Desktop for daily "routines" that are capped at 15 total cron-jobs and use extra usage credits, I think I'll continue building my own minimal harness and move my routines to models from other providers.
- tstrimple 4mo ago
  > There's also the cross conversation memory search, which uses a different conversation dataset (the Claude Web / Claude.AI conversations) than Claude Code does. I'm not even sure Claude Code does cross conversation search? This is one of the first things I “fixed” with skills and hooks. I index every conversation in SQLite and have a skill which knows what to do when I ask it to search the index. I had to avoid the word memory because it’s too tied up in other parts of the context. It even indexes across my different machines. I set this up because I have terrible context discipline. I’ll go off on a tangent in one context and start planning and sometimes implementing something based on that thread which really deserves its own context. Afterward I can create the new context and move relevant bits to it, but I’d lose that initial starting conversation which inherently has more data than the summary in the new context. I also use a few different related contexts. One where I’m building a game engine in zig and another talking about game ideas. There’s a lot of back and forth going on there which needs some shared context. I solve this with a combination of Claude.md references and that searchable session index. Everything I do with scheduled tasks are just wired up with systemd and simple scripts. No LLM in the critical execution path. Again a skill tells CC how I manage those scheduled things so I just have to say something like “run this every day at midnight” and CC has reliably taken care of the rest.
  - outofpaper 4mo ago
    Why not just allow it to grep ~/.claude
Recursing 4mo ago
1. Same experience as my non-Linux coworkers, so we can share learnings and processes 2. Scheduled tasks that run locally ( https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-recurring-tasks-in-claude-cowork https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-rec... ) importantly different from Claude Code routines 3. Multiple projects/isolated memories in the same folder 4. Better UI
- nozzlegear 4mo ago
  > Scheduled tasks that run locally ( https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-rec https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-rec... ) importantly different from Claude Code routines What do people do with these? I don't use Claude but when I did I couldn't think of anything useful to do with the routines. I'm probably not being imaginative enough.
  - Recursing 4mo ago
    Some good ideas here: https://posthog.com/blog/making-claude-cowork-actually-useful https://posthog.com/blog/making-claude-cowork-actually-usefu...
  - baq 4mo ago
    I’d like the thing to read my mail twice a day and tell me if I missed something important. Haven’t set it up because I’m horrified by the thought of it reading my mail. Doubly so if it decides to do anything other than telling me if I missed something important.
  - thewebguyd 4mo ago
    Cowork is pretty useful for non-technical folk for things you'd traditionally just write a quick little bash or python script for (which really, is what Cowork is doing behind the scenes anyway). I've gotten good results using it at work for keeping track of expense receipts. I dump them into an "Inbox" folder and Claude will OCR them, convert any images to PDF, rename, and move them into year/month/date folders and classify them (cost centers, based on a mapping and examples I gave it). This runs daily, checking the Inbox directory for new items. My next step is getting it to pull them from my email automatically for me as well, or from a specific alias so when I take a pic of a receipt on the go I can just email it and have Claude rename and organize it for me, then it all gets sent off to AP at the end of the month. Non technical knowledge workers have all kinds of little admin tasks like that which Cowork can do for them, where previously they lacked the skills or will to just learn some python and script it themselves.
dahkenangnon 4mo ago
The CLI is good for coding tasks but for other things non coding related, having the desktop app can be very useful
raverbashing 4mo ago
Or, what does the Desktop app does that the webpage doesn't do?
TiredOfLife 4mo ago
Pasting images
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
mobiuscog 4mo ago
I would like to see the inline images that Claude suddenly tries to show me, until I remind them that I can't see images in the CLI. Other than that, I am happy with the CLI.
giancarlostoro 4mo ago
For one thing, the Desktop app lets me control any remote sessions I have open via the Code functionality.

davydm 4mo ago

Mainly: true sandbox separation. I don't want the model having full access to my machine. With a dump format that Claude understands, I'm able to pass only the files I want Claude to see, and he can't break any of them. I don't care about setting up access lists and so on. I don't trust that the cli product will be properly sanboxed and it's quite clear their software offerings are largely aigen code, and I catch bugs from Claude every day. I also get useful stuff, so it's worth it, but definitely not worth it, imo, to grant it any access to my machine.

mathstuf 4mo ago
There are a number of utilities for this. I use jai: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/ https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/ but also have seen nono: https://github.com/always-further/nono https://github.com/always-further/nono smolvm: https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm zerobox https://github.com/afshinm/zerobox https://github.com/afshinm/zerobox and matchlock https://github.com/jingkaihe/matchlock https://github.com/jingkaihe/matchlock They all have pros and cons. Pick the one that suits you best. Then you're also agent harness flexible (I use opencode).
- johnsonjo 4mo ago
  As a jai and linux user, myself, looking at nono's os-sandbox (from here [1]) it seems nice too. Thanks for the recommend I was looking for something that might be nice on Mac and nono seems good to recommend to coworkers and the like. [1]: https://nono.sh/os-sandbox https://nono.sh/os-sandbox
- sophrosyne42 4mo ago
  I would like a solution that was itself not largely written by an AI
  - johnsonjo 4mo ago
    Jai is not written by ai, but only its website is. It's written by a Stanford Computer-Science professor with decades of C++ and Unix/linux experience. > [1]: Was jai written by an AI coding agent? No. While this web site was obviously made by an LLM (ChatGPT read the man page, asked some follow-up questions, and produced a prompt from which claude code built a vitepress site), jai itself was hand implemented by a Stanford computer science professor with decades of C++ and Unix/linux experience. As an experiment, the author did previously try vibe-coding a container, but the results were disastrous and repeatedly put his machine in a state that required a reboot (e.g., recursively changing the attributes of all mounts in the wrong mount namespace). The author does use coding agents to look for bugs, get feedback, and develop tests. However, rest assured that a single human understands every line of C++ in jai. [1] https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/faq.html https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/faq.html
_aavaa_ 4mo ago
If you don’t trust the CLI version to be properly sandbox d, why would the desktop one be?
WhyNotHugo 4mo ago
The cli works on regular sandboxes just fine (podman, docker, bwrap, etc). Sandboxing a GUI is typically more operational overhead than sandboxing a cli (mounting compositor sockets, GPU access, etc).
notsirius 4mo ago
does claude desktop actually solve this issue? I’m on mac and use docker sbx to solve this https://docs.docker.com/ai/sandboxes/get-started/ https://docs.docker.com/ai/sandboxes/get-started/
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
jeena 4mo ago
I made myself a very simple one from the start when I realized it can access everything on my computer https://git.jeena.net/jeena/agent-container https://git.jeena.net/jeena/agent-container my goal was that it would work transparently and the paths and user, etc. would be just the same as on the host but inside of a docker container.
johnsonjo 4mo ago
I've been using jai [1] for sandboxing on linux (although I use opencode and local models and not claude code) and I'm pretty satisfied with it. It comes in three different modes [2]: casual mode, strict mode, and bare mode. Here's some descriptions of each mode: Casual mode [3]: > Your home directory is mounted as a copy-on-write overlay. The jailed process sees your real files, but writes go to $HOME/.jai/default.changes instead of modifying originals, except in the directory where you ran jai. Your current working directory grants full read/write access to code in the jail (unless suppressed with -D). So files deleted there are really gone. /tmp and /var/tmp are private. The rest of the filesystem is read-only. Strict mode [4]: > The process runs as the unprivileged jai system user, not as you. Home directory is an empty private directory at $HOME/.jai/<name>.home. Granted directories (via -d or cwd) are exposed with id-mapped mounts — files look like they are owned by jai inside the jail. Because the process has a different UID, it cannot read files outside your home directory that are only accessible to your user — this is where confidentiality comes from. Bare mode [5]: > Home directory is an empty private directory, like strict mode. But the process runs as your user, not as jai. This means it cannot provide confidentiality — the process can still read any file accessible to your UID outside the home directory. I've always ran my stuff in casual so far just so my whole computer doesn't get rimraffed :P. but I'm thinking of switching to just strict mode, but haven't really vibe coded in a while so I haven't tried it yet. [1]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/ https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/ [2]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html [3]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#casual-mode https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#casual-mode [4]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#strict-mode https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#strict-mode [5]: https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#bare-mode https://jai.scs.stanford.edu/modes.html#bare-mode
- mkagenius 4mo ago
  [dead]
FergusArgyll 4mo ago
On Linux you have bubblewrap!

SyneRyder 4mo ago

I don't think the CLI offers daily routines under the Anthropic subscription anymore? There's also the cross conversation memory search, which uses a different conversation dataset (the Claude Web / Claude.AI conversations) than Claude Code does. I'm not even sure Claude Code does cross conversation search? The Desktop interface also presents Markdown as formatted text and presents artifacts (especially interactive ones) better than the CLI can. All that said - I actually use the CLI for nearly everything (even on Windows). Rather than use Claude Desktop for daily "routines" that are capped at 15 total cron-jobs and use extra usage credits, I think I'll continue building my own minimal harness and move my routines to models from other providers.

tstrimple 4mo ago
> There's also the cross conversation memory search, which uses a different conversation dataset (the Claude Web / Claude.AI conversations) than Claude Code does. I'm not even sure Claude Code does cross conversation search? This is one of the first things I “fixed” with skills and hooks. I index every conversation in SQLite and have a skill which knows what to do when I ask it to search the index. I had to avoid the word memory because it’s too tied up in other parts of the context. It even indexes across my different machines. I set this up because I have terrible context discipline. I’ll go off on a tangent in one context and start planning and sometimes implementing something based on that thread which really deserves its own context. Afterward I can create the new context and move relevant bits to it, but I’d lose that initial starting conversation which inherently has more data than the summary in the new context. I also use a few different related contexts. One where I’m building a game engine in zig and another talking about game ideas. There’s a lot of back and forth going on there which needs some shared context. I solve this with a combination of Claude.md references and that searchable session index. Everything I do with scheduled tasks are just wired up with systemd and simple scripts. No LLM in the critical execution path. Again a skill tells CC how I manage those scheduled things so I just have to say something like “run this every day at midnight” and CC has reliably taken care of the rest.
- outofpaper 4mo ago
  Why not just allow it to grep ~/.claude

Recursing 4mo ago

1. Same experience as my non-Linux coworkers, so we can share learnings and processes 2. Scheduled tasks that run locally ( https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-recurring-tasks-in-claude-cowork https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-rec... ) importantly different from Claude Code routines 3. Multiple projects/isolated memories in the same folder 4. Better UI

nozzlegear 4mo ago
> Scheduled tasks that run locally ( https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-rec https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-rec... ) importantly different from Claude Code routines What do people do with these? I don't use Claude but when I did I couldn't think of anything useful to do with the routines. I'm probably not being imaginative enough.
- Recursing 4mo ago
  Some good ideas here: https://posthog.com/blog/making-claude-cowork-actually-useful https://posthog.com/blog/making-claude-cowork-actually-usefu...
- baq 4mo ago
  I’d like the thing to read my mail twice a day and tell me if I missed something important. Haven’t set it up because I’m horrified by the thought of it reading my mail. Doubly so if it decides to do anything other than telling me if I missed something important.
- thewebguyd 4mo ago
  Cowork is pretty useful for non-technical folk for things you'd traditionally just write a quick little bash or python script for (which really, is what Cowork is doing behind the scenes anyway). I've gotten good results using it at work for keeping track of expense receipts. I dump them into an "Inbox" folder and Claude will OCR them, convert any images to PDF, rename, and move them into year/month/date folders and classify them (cost centers, based on a mapping and examples I gave it). This runs daily, checking the Inbox directory for new items. My next step is getting it to pull them from my email automatically for me as well, or from a specific alias so when I take a pic of a receipt on the go I can just email it and have Claude rename and organize it for me, then it all gets sent off to AP at the end of the month. Non technical knowledge workers have all kinds of little admin tasks like that which Cowork can do for them, where previously they lacked the skills or will to just learn some python and script it themselves.

dahkenangnon 4mo ago

The CLI is good for coding tasks but for other things non coding related, having the desktop app can be very useful

raverbashing 4mo ago

Or, what does the Desktop app does that the webpage doesn't do?

TiredOfLife 4mo ago

Pasting images

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

mobiuscog 4mo ago

I would like to see the inline images that Claude suddenly tries to show me, until I remind them that I can't see images in the CLI. Other than that, I am happy with the CLI.

giancarlostoro 4mo ago

For one thing, the Desktop app lets me control any remote sessions I have open via the Code functionality.