Claude Code UI (CloudCLI): a browser and mobile front end for Claude Code, Cursor CLI and Codex

What CloudCLI is and who reaches for it

CloudCLI, which the repository also calls Claude Code UI, puts a browser interface in front of three coding agents: Claude Code, Cursor CLI and Codex. The README describes it as a desktop and mobile UI that you can use locally or remotely to see your active projects and sessions from anywhere. That framing matters. The agents themselves stay command-line tools. CloudCLI adds the surfaces a terminal cannot give you on a phone: a chat view, a file tree with syntax highlighting and live editing, a Git panel for staging, committing and switching branches, a built-in shell, and a session list you can resume from.

The people who get the most out of it are developers who already run Claude Code or Codex on a workstation and want to check on those sessions, or steer them, from a laptop or a phone without opening an SSH client. If you only ever work in one terminal window at your desk, the project mostly adds a server process and an open port for features you will rarely touch.

How the Express server and the browser client split the work

The published package is a Node application. Its package.json points the main entry at dist-server/server/index.js and registers a cloudcli binary, and the development script runs a TypeScript server through tsx next to a Vite client. The .env.example file spells out the shape at runtime: SERVER_PORT=3001 is the Express API and WebSocket server, and VITE_PORT=5173 is the frontend port used during development. A single port, 3001, is what you open in a browser after a normal install.

State lives on disk. The same example file describes DATABASE_PATH as the authentication database where user credentials, API keys and tokens are stored, and it sets a context window size of 160000 tokens for Claude Code sessions. For the self-hosted npm setup the README says MCP configuration is synced with your ~/.claude directory, so the UI works from the same configuration your terminal sessions already use rather than keeping a second copy. There is also an Electron entry in the scripts, which is where the optional desktop companion comes from.

Installing Claude Code UI with npx or npm

The self-hosted path in the README needs Node.js 22 or newer. The quickest start runs the published package without installing it:

npx @cloudcli-ai/cloudcli

For regular use the README installs it globally and starts it with the cloudcli command:

npm install -g @cloudcli-ai/cloudcli
cloudcli

Then open http://localhost:3001. According to the README, all your existing sessions are discovered automatically, so a Claude Code history you already have should appear without an import step. The .env.example file lists a few housekeeping commands that ship with the CLI, including one that prints where configuration and data live:

cloudcli status

That is the first thing to run when the UI starts but shows no projects: it tells you which configuration file and which data locations the server is actually reading. The README points to the documentation for PM2, remote server setup and the full list of options, so anything beyond a local start means reading those pages.

Running agents in the experimental Docker sandbox

The second self-hosted option runs agents inside isolated sandboxes. The README calls it experimental, says it gives hypervisor-level isolation through a microVM, starts Claude Code by default and requires the sbx CLI from Docker. The command takes a project directory:

npx @cloudcli-ai/cloudcli@latest sandbox ~/my-project

The comparison table in the README lists Claude Code and Codex as the agents supported in the sandbox, without Cursor CLI, and says MCP configuration there is managed through the UI instead of being synced from ~/.claude. The trade is clear: you give up the shared configuration and one of the three agents in exchange for an agent that cannot touch the rest of your machine. For letting an agent run shell commands on a laptop that also holds personal files, that is a reasonable exchange; for a dedicated development box it is extra machinery.

Where CloudCLI falls short

Both self-hosted modes depend on the machine staying on, and the README table says so plainly. If the workstation sleeps, the mobile view has nothing to show. Team sharing is listed only for the hosted service, so the open source build is a single-person tool.

The network defaults deserve attention. The example environment file sets HOST=0.0.0.0, which binds the servers to every interface, and notes that 127.0.0.1 restricts them to the local machine. Combined with an authentication database that holds API keys and tokens, that default means anyone on the same network can reach the login page unless you change it. Mobile access in the self-hosted modes is described as any browser on your network; reaching it from outside that network is left to your own setup and the remote server documentation.

The feature list is also broad, from a plugin system to optional TaskMaster AI integration. Each of those is another moving part to update, and the README does not document how plugins are isolated from the server.

Self-hosting versus CloudCLI Cloud

The real alternative sits in the same repository's README: CloudCLI Cloud, the managed service built on this UI layer. It runs agents in a containerized cloud environment reachable from a browser, an IDE, a REST API or n8n, supports team sharing, and does not need your machine to stay on. The table lists its platform cost as starting at 7 euros per month, against free for both self-hosted modes.

The difference is where the agent runs. Self-hosting keeps the agent and your code on your hardware and costs nothing beyond the machine, which suits one developer with a workstation. The hosted service moves the agent off your machine, which is what you need if the laptop closes at night or several people share the environment. The desktop companion works with either and can switch between local and remote workspaces.

AGPL-3.0 and the release rhythm

The repository is licensed under AGPL-3.0. That licence is aimed at software used over a network: if you modify the server and let other people use your modified version, its terms on sharing source apply. Running it unmodified for yourself is a different situation from offering a changed copy to a team or customers, and anyone planning the second should read the licence text itself rather than a summary.

Releases come often. The two most recent tags are v1.37.2 on 2026-08-18 and v1.37.3 on 2026-09-08, with a separate CloudCLI Local Server Runtime release published alongside v1.37.2, and the last push was on 2026-09-10. For a global npm install that means checking the release notes before upgrading, because a UI that reads your agents' configuration and stores their tokens is the part of the setup you least want to break on a busy day.

Editorial conclusion

Pick CloudCLI if you already run Claude Code, Codex or Cursor CLI on a machine that stays on and you want to follow those sessions from a phone or a second computer. Start with npx @cloudcli-ai/cloudcli, run cloudcli status to see which configuration it reads, and set HOST=127.0.0.1 in its environment file before the port is reachable from anyone else's device.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: AGPL-3.0
2. Project website
3. README
4. Releases
5. siteboon/claudecodeui on GitHub