GitHub – dvdsgl/claude-canvas: Give Claude Code an external monitor

Ever wished your AI could have its own little monitor, not just a chat window? Meet a neat proof of concept that does exactly that. It’s called claude-canvas, a tiny TUI toolkit that gives Claude Code an external display, so you can spawn interactive terminal interfaces for emails, calendars, flight bookings, and more.

A bit of background, because this is oddly comforting: TUI, or text user interface, is the old-school cousin of graphical interfaces, built for terminals. Developers have used TUIs for decades because they’re fast, keyboard-friendly, and surprisingly elegant. What dvdsgl has done is hook that idea into Claude Code, essentially giving an LLM-powered environment its own little screen to interact with structured interfaces. It’s rough around the edges, and that’s okay.

Installation is straightforward if you’re experimenting, you add the repository as a marketplace in Claude Code, then install the canvas plugin. It’s licensed MIT, and explicitly listed as a proof of concept and unsupported, so treat it like a playground. I poked around myself, and you can feel the potential immediately, even if you hit small glitches or need to reload a page now and then.

Practical scenarios pop into my head fast. Imagine asking Claude to triage your inbox and it opens a compact TUI list where you can press keys to archive, reply, or snooze. Or a small booking interface that shows flights in a neat table, letting you filter without leaving the conversation. It’s simple, but those small interactions change how you work with models.

If you want to explore the code or try it yourself, see the repository here: https://github.com/dvdsgl/claude-canvas. Expect quirks, enjoy the experiment, and keep an eye out for richer integrations as people iterate. The future feels quietly exciting.