Better Code

Better Code is an early-alpha desktop and web interface for working with coding agents like Codex, Claude, and OpenCode from one focused workspace.

This project is a fork of T3 Code, which provides the foundation for the provider workflow, local server, and base coding-agent GUI. Better Code builds on that base with a more opinionated product direction, updated branding, and workflow-focused UI improvements.

Features

• Better Code branding across the desktop app, web tab, release assets, and GitHub releases.
• Claw theme — a warm cream/orange light theme with softer panels.
• Channel-specific app icons for stable, nightly, and dev builds.
• /compact and /new slash commands for Codex and Claude chats, with themed session-boundary separators instead of wiping the visible conversation.
• Queued and steering messages while an agent turn is running, including queueing prompts during compaction.
• Smooth thread switching with optimistic navigation, so sidebar clicks feel instant.
• Thread and project search from Ctrl+F, with scoped @ai, @user, and @tool filters, match navigation, and a quick return affordance after opening a result in another thread.
• Desktop notifications when a thread finishes thinking, with click-through to open the matching thread.
• Tray icon and minimize-on-close so the desktop app keeps running in the background.
• Auto-updates via GitHub Releases, with update indicators and manual update checks.

Bug Fixes

• Plan/task sidebar now correctly marks steps as canceled after stopping an agent run.
• Codex thread compaction waits for completion, rejects /compact during an active turn, surfaces timeout and failure errors, and resets context-window usage until fresh stats arrive.
• Removed the thread-switch overlay and stray orange accents from chat styling.
• Cleaned up canceled / interrupted plan icons.
• Updated browser-tab branding assets.
• Fixed frozen update download progress in the desktop app.
• Improved long-running and minimized desktop sessions so stalled websocket requests reconnect and completed turns stop showing as still working.
• Embedded the app icon in unsigned Windows builds.
• Rebranded Windows app identity and dev launcher icon.
• Cleaned dev and nightly icon masks.

Install The Alpha

Download the latest Better Code alpha build from the GitHub Releases page.

Warning

Better Code is still very early. Expect bugs, rough edges, and fast-moving releases.

Before using the app, install and authenticate at least one supported provider:

• Codex — install the Codex CLI and run codex login
• Claude — install Claude Code and run claude auth login
• OpenCode — install OpenCode and run opencode auth login

Development

Prepare the environment and install dependencies:

# Optional: only needed if you use mise for dev tool management.
mise install
bun install .

On Windows, use the repo-local toolchain helper before running project commands:

. .\scripts\use-local-tools.ps1

Common checks:

bun fmt
bun lint
bun typecheck
bun run test

Observability guide: docs/observability.md

Roadmap

See TODO.md.