He climbs your windows
Every so often he hops onto your window's title bar, rides it when you drag it, and gets flung off when you shake it.
🦀 Lives on your desktop
He lives behind your windows.
On the wallpaper layer, still there after Win+D. He scuttles while Claude works, raises a claw when it needs you, climbs your windows, guards your focus and naps when it's quiet.
He shows you what's happening
Glance at him. You'll know.
He scuttles while Claude works, raises a claw when it needs you, celebrates when it's done and naps when it's quiet. His eyes follow your cursor.
Getting around
He doesn't sit still.
He climbs your screen
He scuttles up the side of the screen, has a look round, and climbs back down, leaps off or walks across the top.
Flick him
He tumbles across the screen, bonks off the edges and lands on the taskbar.
Pet him
Rub the mouse back and forth over him and you two grow a little closer.
Pals on the floor
Up to five little crabs of his own, in his colours and outfit. They dig, wave and curl up when he naps.
Kind to your battery
He stops animating when you aren't looking, and everything stops while your screen is locked.
Around you
He notices your day.
Headphones when music plays, a little keyboard when you type, a helmet while you focus, a sou'wester when it rains in your town, and a "shh" sign on calls.
A voice of his own
He has things to say. Never Claude's.
A few words of his own
"fingers crossed" at a test run, "all green!" when it passes, "shipped it" after a push, "this file again?" on the third visit.
A temperament
Chipper, fussy, cocky or sleepy, picked once and kept. It colours his lines and his idle habits.
New voices
A Pirate Crab, a Grumpy Crab, Español, or any voice from a community pack.
On a call he hushes
Windows' own record of who's using the mic tells him. He never listens himself.
Sounds, if you want them
A synthesized chirp, footsteps and ta-das, or rolling surf. All off by default.
How much he talks
Quiet is a single mark in the bubble. Just about work only speaks up when it matters.
Your usage limits
He knows when you'll hit the wall.
"At this pace you'll hit your 5-hour limit around 3:40 PM. It resets at 4:15 PM." Hold a message for after the reset and it goes by itself.
Limit reached?
He naps with a countdown, then taps you the moment it resets, even if your PC was asleep.
Run it when my limit resets
Queue heavy tasks and they start when the window resets, overnight too, with the PC kept awake.
A live usage meter
Click it to see which tabs, routines and projects used it up.
Mischief (off unless you turn it on)
Cheeky, if you dare.
Pinch the cursor
He snaps your cursor in his claw and tugs it a few pixels. Pull away and he lets go.
Shove a window
A few dozen pixels, never off the screen, and only once you've stopped using the mouse.
Sandy footprints
Follow him along the floor, and fade as the tide comes in.
Notes
"drink some water", "have you saved?", "nice cursor. mine now".
He never misbehaves
While you hold a mouse button, are on a call, focusing, gaming, presenting or while a task is running.
Cheeky or Gremlin
Cheeky gets up to something every 20 to 40 minutes. Gremlin goes every few minutes.
Work mode
A quiet crab, in one click.
Your tools lead the bar, he only speaks up about the work, and the pals, pranks, climbing and confetti take the day off. His needs rest and his progress keeps counting. Work mode lays its settings over yours, so turning it off gives you back exactly what you had.
- Your tools first on the bar
- Just about work
- No pals, pranks or climbing
- Celebrations are a small beat
- XP and trophies keep counting
- Your settings untouched
Getting around the panel
Keyboard first, everywhere.
Ctrl+K jumps anywhere
Any screen, setting, permission mode, past conversation or skill.
Ctrl+1–8
For the bar along the bottom. Esc goes back up one level.
Find and zoom
Ctrl+F finds text; Ctrl+= and Ctrl+- size the text from 80% to 150%.
Drop files on him
Hand files to a task, or paste a screenshot straight into the box.
Notifications that look like him
The crab in the corner and the panel's deep-sea colours.
Report a problem
Opens a GitHub issue with his version and log lines already filled in, home folder shortened.
Next
💞 Good company
Get Shellby. It's free.
Free for Windows 10 and 11. Bring your Claude Pro or Max plan, or just keep him for company.