Claude Code
Your own claude CLI, wrapped — same login, same history, same hooks.
For vibe coders & pro devs · macOS & Windows
Grind with
your agents.
Backgrind puts your AI coding agent — Claude Code, Cursor, or our hosted model — in an always-on-top window that floats over whatever you're doing. Fire off a task, go build (or play), and it only flashes and chimes when it actually needs you.
A thin frontend over the CLI you already use — your login, your history, nothing new to trust. It floats over your editor, a browser, or a fullscreen game.
Live demo · grab it and grind
It floats over everything.
Flip the scene — open some apps, watch a video, or grind a game. The window stays put. Drag it, stretch it, recolor it, fade it through. This is the real interface.
WORLD OFGRINDCRAFT
Grindshire
N
7:03 You died — releasing spirit…
1 Grindslayer
1 Elder Grindloc
📝 🎵 🖼️ 📁 ⌘
▶ GrindTube 🏠🔥🔔G
I shipped a feature mid-raid (and the boss still died)
Backgrind
Click-through
Build grindy-1
grindy needs your approval Run the test suite before committing? Tap to open →
Accent
Opacity
Ways to drive it
Bring your own agent.
Or use ours.
No lock-in. Switch backends per workspace whenever you like.
Cursor
Your own cursor-agent CLI, right in the overlay.
Grindy
Our hosted model, nothing to install — a full coding agent powered by OpenCode.
Codex Coming soon
Your own Codex CLI, wrapped the same way.
No agent? Use ours
Meet Grindy — the agent with nothing to set up.
No CLI to install. No API keys to paste. No config files to babysit. Sign in, open a folder, and start describing — Grindy is a full coding agent that lives right inside the overlay.
- Nothing to install. No Homebrew, no npm, no PATH surgery — it's already in the app.
- No separate AI account. No keys to generate, no second bill to wire up.
- Pay only for what you use. Metered to the cent, top up whenever — no per-task subscription to think about.
- Up to a 1M-token context window. Grindy keeps a huge slice of your codebase in working memory, so it stays on track through long, sprawling tasks.
- Build or Plan, per task. Flip to Plan when you want it to think first, Build when you just want it shipped.
What it does
Built to never break your flow.
Always on top of anything
Floats over your editor, a browser, docs — or a borderless-fullscreen game. One hotkey to summon it, one to make it vanish.
Click-through glance mode
Tap a key and the window goes transparent — your clicks and keystrokes pass straight through to whatever is underneath. Hover to bring it back.
It only nags when it matters
The window flashes and chimes when your agent needs a yes/no, hits a question, or finishes. Otherwise it stays out of your way.
A real mini-IDE
A file tree, syntax-highlighted previews, rendered Markdown, and file:line links you can click straight to the spot.
Several agents at once
Run a few agents side by side, each pinned to its own folder — multi-root, like VS Code — each on whatever backend you pick.
Your secrets stay home
A .grindignore file marks what never leaves your machine — your .env, your keys, the things you don’t want on a wire.
Live mode · free to try · included with Plus
Command your agents from anywhere.
Step away from your desk and your agents keep grinding. Live mode mirrors your Backgrind desktop to your phone or iPad — watch the terminal stream in real time, send commands, and answer “needs you” prompts, even when you're nowhere near your machine. Pairing starts on your desktop and the link is end-to-end encrypted, so your code never sits readable on our relay.
Drive, don't just watch. Type to your agents, switch sessions, and
approve actions from your pocket — not a read-only mirror.
End-to-end encrypted. A per-pairing key (scan a QR or paste it) means the
relay only ever sees ciphertext — your code stays yours.
No new login. Pairing is desktop-initiated with a one-time code — no web
account to set up, nothing extra to trust.
Vibe code mode
Vibe coding isn't a beginner thing.
Describe what you want instead of reading every line — vibe mode hides the source and runs hands-off. That's a way of working, not a skill tier: a first-timer and a staff engineer both vibe code. Backgrind just dials how much it explains versus how much it quietly handles.
Results, not source. File tree, search, and code preview hidden — you describe what you want, the agent ships it.
Hands-off by default. New sessions auto-accept edits so it just works — only your dotfiles (.env) stay protected.
Full dev view, one toggle. Flip vibe mode off any time for the file tree, real diffs, and the raw terminal.
Ships their first real thing.
Describe it in plain words and watch it appear. Grindy explains what it's doing, keeps the intimidating parts out of sight, and never runs a risky command without asking first.
Offloads the boring 80%.
Hand off the boilerplate, the glue, the migrations — the stuff you can already do but would rather not. The interesting 20% gets your attention while the agent grinds the rest.
Delegation, not training wheels.
Run three agents across three repos at once, skim the diffs, ship. Drop to the full developer view — file tree, raw diffs, real terminal — the second you want the controls back.
One setting — your coding level — tunes how much it explains. Everything else is the same app.
Trust & privacy
Your code stays yours.
Runs on your machine
The overlay is a thin client — it renders your CLI and forwards input. It never stores or transmits your conversation history.
Your agent never hits our server
In bring-your-own-CLI mode, agent content stays between you and your provider. We are not in the loop, so there is nothing for us to see.
No memory reading, no injection
A plain always-on-top window — the same category as Discord or OBS. No game memory reading, no input automation, no anti-cheat hooks.
Secrets stay off the wire
A .grindignore file marks what never leaves the machine — your .env, your keys — even when you use the hosted Grindy model.
Builds & releases on GitHub
Signed releases · verify every version
Straight answers
The questions everyone asks.
Which agents does it work with?
Bring your own CLI — Claude Code or Cursor (same login, same history, same hooks) — or use Grindy, our hosted model with nothing to install. Switch backends per workspace whenever you like.
What is vibe code mode?
Describe what you want, don't read source. Vibe mode hides the file tree and code preview, runs new sessions hands-off (edits auto-accepted), and keeps only your dotfiles editable. Tell it your level — basic, medium, or pro — and the agent adjusts how much it explains. Turn it off any time for the full developer view.
Do I need a subscription?
No. The Free tier runs the full overlay with your own Claude Code or Cursor CLI — and you can try Live mode (drive your agents from any browser) during the demo. Plus keeps Live and adds saved projects, workspaces, and voice. Pro adds Grindy — our hosted grindy-1 and grindy-1-pro models (no API key needed), built on the OpenCode agent — plus unlimited parallel agents and cloud sync.
Is my code private?
In bring-your-own-CLI mode, agent content never touches our servers. With Grindy, prompts go to our hosted model — and a .grindignore file keeps secrets off the wire.
Do you collect or train on my code?
No. With your own CLI the agent runs entirely on your machine and its content never reaches us — there is nothing for us to collect. With the hosted Grindy model, prompts are sent only to answer them and are never used for training, and a .grindignore file keeps the files you choose (your .env, your keys) off the wire entirely.
Does it really run over a fullscreen game?
Yes — over any game in borderless / windowed-fullscreen mode (exclusive fullscreen hides every overlay at the OS level). It's a normal always-on-top window, the same category as the Discord or OBS overlay: no game memory reading, no input injection, no anti-cheat hooks. The game just runs underneath.
Which operating systems?
macOS and Windows.
How do I know it is not phoning home?
The overlay is a thin client: it renders your CLI and forwards your input — it does not store or transmit your conversation history. Signed builds are distributed as GitHub Releases, so you can always verify the exact version you are running.
Download
Get Backgrind for your machine.
Your OS macOS macOS 11 Big Sur or later
Apple Silicon & Intel Download for macOS Your OS Windows Windows 10 & 11 · 64-bit Download for Windows
Apple Silicon & Intel Download for macOS Your OS Windows Windows 10 & 11 · 64-bit Download for Windows
Linux .deb & AppImage Coming soon
Signed builds, distributed via GitHub Releases — verify every version you run.
Pricing
Start free. Upgrade when it pays for itself.
Launch offer — 50% off for new users
Save up to 20% paying yearly
Most popular
Free $0 Free trial
Plus $28 $14 /mo billed monthly $23 $11.67 /mo billed yearly · $140 · save 17%
Pro $118 $59 /mo billed monthly $94 $47.17 /mo billed yearly · $566 · save 20%
Always-on-top overlay
✓
✓
✓
Bring your own CLI — Claude Code, Cursor
✓
✓
✓
Glance mode · hotkeys · click-through
✓
✓
✓
.grindignore secrets guard
✓
✓
✓
Live mode — drive your agents from any browser
Trial
✓
✓
Saved projects & settings
Session-only
✓
✓
Parallel agents
1
3
Unlimited
Workspaces & multi-agent tabs
—
✓
✓
Voice input — on-device Whisper
—
✓
✓
Hosted Grindy models — no API key needed
—
—
grindy-1 · grindy-1-pro
Cloud sync across devices
—
—
✓
Priority support & early features
—
—
✓
Free $0 Free trial
- ✓ Always-on-top overlay
- ✓ Bring your own CLI — Claude Code, Cursor
- ✓ Glance mode · hotkeys · click-through
- ✓ .grindignore secrets guard
- ✓ Live mode — drive your agents from any browser — Trial
- ✓ Saved projects & settings — Session-only
- ✓ Parallel agents — 1
Plus $28 $14 /mo billed monthly $23 $11.67 /mo billed yearly · $140 · save 17%
- ✓ Always-on-top overlay
- ✓ Bring your own CLI — Claude Code, Cursor
- ✓ Glance mode · hotkeys · click-through
- ✓ .grindignore secrets guard
- ✓ Live mode — drive your agents from any browser
- ✓ Saved projects & settings
- ✓ Parallel agents — 3
- ✓ Workspaces & multi-agent tabs
- ✓ Voice input — on-device Whisper
Most popular
Pro $118 $59 /mo billed monthly $94 $47.17 /mo billed yearly · $566 · save 20%
- ✓ Always-on-top overlay
- ✓ Bring your own CLI — Claude Code, Cursor
- ✓ Glance mode · hotkeys · click-through
- ✓ .grindignore secrets guard
- ✓ Live mode — drive your agents from any browser
- ✓ Saved projects & settings
- ✓ Parallel agents — Unlimited
- ✓ Workspaces & multi-agent tabs
- ✓ Voice input — on-device Whisper
- ✓ Hosted Grindy models — no API key needed — grindy-1 · grindy-1-pro
- ✓ Cloud sync across devices
- ✓ Priority support & early features
Billed securely by Lemon Squeezy · cancel anytime.
Support
Need a hand? Just email us.
hello@backgrind.comWe read every message and usually reply within a day.
Let the agents grind.
Fire off a task and get back to your day — it taps you the moment it needs you.
Try for free