clawde

CLaude code Wrapper (Duck Extensions)

This program transparently wraps the claude code terminal interface, but modifies stdin to give me some UX improvements.

Install and getting started

• install: go install github.com/mattduck/clawde@latest

• run: clawde. Arguments are directly passed through to claude, which must be on your $PATH. Usage is the same as claude, but with the features mentioned below.

Features

Adjusted enter key behaviour for better multi-line support

When the -- INSERT -- mode indicator is detected, enter will automatically be translated to backslash + enter. You can press Ctrl-J to actually send enter, which will submit the prompt. This swaps the claude code prompt submit behaviour, where the only way to insert a newline is to type backslash. For me this makes it more intuitive to manage multi-line text without accidentally submitting it.

Aider-style AI keywords in code comments

Aider has an optional feature that will watch files for changes, and, if it detects a code comment ending in AI? or AI!, will automatically submit that comment to the chat in "ask" mode or "edit" mode as appropriate. This is a quick IDE-agnostic way to message the LLM without having to switch to the terminal and describe where the code is.

clawde does something similar: when a file is saved, it looks for AI-marker comments and submits a prompt to claude code via stdin, with a snippet of the comment and instructions on where claude code should find the whole thing.

There are three styles of comments:

• AI? and AI! comments are picked up by the file-watcher on save, and immediately submit prompts to either answer a question, or make a code edit. These can appear at the beginning or end of a code comment.

• AI: comments are contextual: if a ? or ! comment is submitted, then any AI: comments in the repo will be included as additional context. The AI: marker must appear at the start of the comment.

Examples:

  def parse_config(file_path):
      # Refactor to use context manager and handle missing files AI!
      f = open(file_path)
      data = json.load(f)
      f.close()
      return data

  function fetchData(url) {
      // Add proper error handling and retry logic AI!
      return fetch(url).then(r => r.json());
  }

  function processUser(user) {
      // How can I make this async without breaking the API AI?
      const result = database.query(`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${user.id}`);
      return result;
  }

Additionally, you can use Ctrl+/ to manually find all AI: comments and copy them into the prompt, but NOT submit them. This allows you to quickly reference locations without having to tell claude where to find each item.

If you're in a git repo, gitignore rules are followed -- ignored files won't be processed for comments.

Additional key bindings

• C-g will send ESC.
• C-p and C-n map to up/down.

Configuration

The following environment variables can be used to configure clawde's behavior:

• CLAWDE_OUTPUT_THROTTLING: Experiment to reduce terminal flicker, not sure it works. This just limits screen redraws to happen at a lower frame rate (default: true)
• CLAWDE_INPUT_THROTTLING: A separate, faster rate for when you're typing. (default: true)
• CLAWDE_HELD_ENTER_DETECTION: Feature I tried but didn't like: hold enter key to actually submit (default: false)
• CLAWDE_FORCE_ANSI: The builtin "ansi" theme actually uses true colour, which looks bad in my terminal. This forces ANSI color support by setting COLORTERM=ansi and TERM=xterm for the wrapped program (default: false)
• CLAWDE_LOG_FILE: Specifies a file path for logging output (default: disabled)
• CLAWDE_LOG_LEVEL: Sets the logging level (info, debug, error, etc.) (default: info)

All boolean values accept "true", "1", "yes", or "on" (case-insensitive) as true.

Notes

• Obviously wrapping the shell is brittle and the features would be better built in direct. This was mostly an experiment in using claude to generate a tool from scratch.

• Only tested on macOS using iterm2, YMMV on other platforms.

• Features subject to change to whatever I find useful.