hob vs Claude Code desktop
Claude Code desktop is the Code tab in Anthropic's Claude app. It runs Claude Code sessions with a terminal, a browser preview, diff review, and scheduled tasks, on the same engine as the CLI.
hob is for people who do not want their workspace tied to one agent. It runs the same Claude Code next to Codex, OpenCode, and Grok Build, with one history, one review flow, and one set of automations across all of them.
At a glance
| Topic | hob | Claude Code desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Agents | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Grok Build. | Claude Code. |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, and Linux (x64); headless on your own server. | macOS and Windows. Linux is in beta for Ubuntu 22.04+ and Debian 12+. |
| Accounts | Your own subscriptions and API keys for each provider. | A paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise). The desktop app does not accept a Console API key. |
| Agents working together | Agents open panes and previews, start a delegate, message another agent pane, and file issues. A Codex agent can review a Claude Code agent's change. | Parallel sessions and side chats; Claude can message your other sessions. |
| Record of the work | Commits and issues link to the turn that produced them. The whole workspace saves continuously. Search past conversations from History, and agents search the same history themselves. | A session sidebar grouped by project, with optional archiving when a PR closes. |
| Automation | Automations combine commands and agent steps, with a record of each run. Schedules run while the hob Host is running, including headless on a server. | Local scheduled tasks run while the app is open and the computer is awake. Cloud Routines are a research preview. |
| Price | Pro $50/mo, Pro+ $75/mo with remote access and headless, billed annually. First month free. | Included in paid Claude plans, from $20/mo. |
Why pay for hob?
Most tools in this category are free, or come with a model subscription. Here is what a hob subscription buys.
Always use the best. No tooling changes.
Agent tools change every month. A new model takes the lead, a harness ships a feature, a new practice spreads. hob brings the best of the whole agent stack into one app, so each improvement reaches you where you already work.
hob builds the workspace once, for all your agents. Agents fork, queue, and schedule the same way in Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode. Your agents open live previews, point you at the element they changed, take your markup on an image, PDF, or web page, and ask each other for reviews. Every commit made through hob links to the conversation behind it, recorded on your machine, not in your repository. One setting gives every agent the same personality.
Every harness wants to keep you inside its own ecosystem. hob keeps each one optional. Use whichever agent is best this month, and keep your workspace, history, and automations exactly as they are.
You never leave hob
Code, web pages, PDFs, images, documents, and spreadsheets (beta) open in hob beside the work. Mark up any of them for an agent. Agents annotate them for you just as easily.
Agents that know hob
Every agent starts with hob's instructions. From its first turn, it opens panes, previews, and diffs, points you at a detail, and coordinates with other agents.
The subscriptions you already pay for
hob runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Grok Build on your own accounts. You pay hob for the workspace, never for tokens.
No reason to sell you tokens
hob does not resell inference, so it earns nothing when you spend more. Every change we ship aims to make your work faster and easier.
Change models, keep the workspace
Switch model or account from the pane. For another provider, or a local model through OpenCode, open a new agent beside it; it can read the recorded task. Your workspace, history, and automations stay the same.
Your data stays yours
Conversations and history live in a local database on your machine. hob's servers never hold your code or your sessions.
Support from the people who build it
You work with the hob team directly. You are a name to us, not an issue number, and your feedback reaches the people who decide what ships next.
Fitted to your team
For teams, we help adapt hob to how you work, from onboarding to the workflows and automations your projects need.
Orchestration or collaboration
Most tools in this category orchestrate agents. They start sessions, isolate them, and show you their state. hob does that too. Its larger aim is collaboration: people and agents operate the same workspace.
In hob, an agent opens the preview, diff, or file beside its conversation. It reads and operates a live web page while you watch, annotates an image or PDF at the detail you need to judge, and asks you a question in place. It starts a second agent for a bounded task, such as a review, messages another agent pane, and files the issue it found. When it commits through hob, the commit links to the turn that produced it, so the reasoning is one click away months later.
It works in the other direction too. Mark up an image, PDF, web page, or spreadsheet to show an agent exactly what you mean, and send the markup with your request.
You choose how involved you are. Stay hands-on and review every step. Or go hands-off: give a task to a team of agents, let them divide and review the work, and run the repeatable parts as a scheduled automation. hob keeps the record either way.
One workspace across agents
The best agent for a task changes. With Claude Code desktop, a second opinion from Codex means a second app with its own history. In hob, a Codex or OpenCode pane opens beside the Claude Code pane in the same workspace, with the same issues, diffs, and terminals.
Each pane keeps its own backend, account, and model. To continue a task with another agent, start a new pane. It can read the recorded task context and inspect the current files.
Linux and servers
Anthropic's Linux build is a beta for Debian and Ubuntu, and other distributions are directed to the CLI. hob's Linux build is a single x64 binary. It also runs headless on a VM, so your agents keep working after you close your laptop, and you continue from a browser or your phone.
Choose hob if
- You use Codex, OpenCode, or Grok Build as well as Claude Code.
- You want agents to review each other's work across providers.
- You work on a Linux distribution other than Debian or Ubuntu, or on a headless server.
- You want commits and issues linked to the conversations that produced them.
Questions
- Does hob replace Claude Code?
- No. hob runs the Claude Code CLI you already use, with your own Claude account. hob provides the workspace around it: panes, worktrees, review, history, and automations.
- Can I run Claude Code and Codex in the same app?
- Yes. In hob, Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Grok Build panes open side by side in one workspace, each with its own account and model.
- Is there a Claude Code GUI for Linux?
- Anthropic's desktop app supports Linux as a beta on Ubuntu 22.04+ and Debian 12+. hob runs Claude Code on Linux x64 and can run headless on a server, with access from a browser or phone.
Try hob with the agents you already use. Your first month is free.