Prerequisites

• macOS, Linux, or Windows — Windows support is experimental (details)
• Node.js ≥ 20 — nodejs.org
• Claude Code — docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code (default engine)
• Git — for git features (blame, diff, worktree, etc.)
• Chrome (optional) — for Browser Bubble; install the bundled extension from ~/.cockpit/chrome-extension

Install

npm install -g @surething/cockpit
cockpit                # start cockpit → http://localhost:3457
cockpit .              # open current dir as a project
cockpit ~/my-project   # open specified dir
cockpit -h             # help

Use cases

• Solo dev, multi-repo: "I have a refactor running in API, tests writing in Web, and a bug investigation in Pipeline — all at once, all visible."
• Day one in an unfamiliar repo: Open it in Code Map, click through caller/callee pins, walk the auth flow in five clicks instead of a 90-minute file-tree scavenger hunt.
• Two-person team: Senior reviews via LAN-shared review page, no GitHub PR round-trip needed for in-progress work.
• Team on a shared dev box: self-host one Cockpit where the code lives — every teammate opens a browser, takes a seat, and runs their own AI sessions in their own project / worktree.
• Reviewing AI-generated PRs: Switch the changed files into Code Map — changed functions are highlighted with their callers / callees still drawn around them, so blast-radius is one click away.
• Full-stack chore mode: /fx in one tab on a backend bug, /ex in another to plan the frontend refactor, /go to land it — three slash modes, three different agent postures.
• Cheap second opinion: Same prompt in two tabs — Claude in one, DeepSeek v4-pro in the other — compare answers before you trust either.
• AI-driven QA: Browser Bubble + scheduled task = "every night at 2 AM, run this UI smoke flow and post a summary".
• Privacy-sensitive code: runs on your laptop. Pair with an Ollama tab for fully air-gapped sessions. No telemetry, no relay.

Optional, per non-Claude engine

• Codex — log in once with codex login to populate ~/.codex
• DeepSeek — get an API key at api-docs.deepseek.com; paste it into the engine picker
• GLM (Zhipu / BigModel) — get an API key (<id>.<secret>) at bigmodel.cn/apikey/platform; paste it into the API Key field of the model picker in the chat header. The same key works on both hosts, so Region (open.bigmodel.cn / api.z.ai) is just routing — it defaults from your UI language and can be overridden in the picker.
• Kimi (Moonshot) — get a Kimi Code API key (sk-kimi-…) at kimi.com/code/console; paste it into the API Key field of the model picker in the chat header. (A platform.moonshot.cn Open Platform key is a different product and will not work.) The kimi CLI is no longer used.
• Ollama — install ollama.com and ollama pull <model>; Cockpit auto-starts the daemon

API keys are stored locally, each in its own file at ~/.cockpit/<engine>/credentials.json (e.g. ~/.cockpit/kimi/credentials.json, ~/.cockpit/glm/credentials.json) — never in settings.json. No cloud relay.

How it compares

An honest snapshot as of July 2026 — each tool wins somewhere. Spotted an error? PRs welcome.

Pick Claude Code Desktop if you live inside the Anthropic ecosystem and want first-party polish. Pick Opcode if you want a native desktop feel with checkpoints and cost analytics. Pick OpenCockpit if you want more than a chat window — an open-source, IDE-like cockpit that covers the whole dev loop (read code, drive your browser and databases, review, automate) with any engine you bring, even from your phone.