For Claude Code on macOS
stew, short for steward, is a small floating panel for Claude Code. It asks you for permission, asks you a question or tells you something. It never takes keyboard focus from what you are typing.
brew trust --cask koode/
brew install --cask koode/The Mac tool is free and open source. Needs macOS 14 or later and Claude Code. Or use the install script.
Demo
Three Claude Code sessions are waiting for you. Answer with ⌘ plus a key, or click. The notes window keeps focus the whole time, like your real work would.
Walk away skips to the last 3 seconds, so you can see what Claude is told when nobody answers. On Windows or Linux, Ctrl works as ⌘. If your browser keeps a key for itself, click the key instead.
How it works
stew joins Claude Code in three places. Each one is optional.
Claude Code's own questions show in stew when nobody is at the terminal: background jobs and remote sessions. A session you are typing in keeps asking in the terminal.
Your answer goes back to Claude as if you had typed it there.
The stew skill tells Claude to reach you when you are probably not watching: long tasks, failures and decisions that block progress.
Edit the skill to change when sessions use it.
Press ⌘G on a blocked call to skip the question next time. Pick this command, a prefix such as npm run deploy *, or auto mode's category for it.
•••• and become * in a saved rule.stew approvals lists every standing approval, with Revoke.Each request gets 1 minute by default. The clock starts when the request reaches the front, and pauses while you write a note.
If you don't answer, Claude is told you may be away, so it can go another way or ask again later. ⌘E adds 2 minutes, as often as you like.
Turn it on, and every approval gets a small burst of confetti. It does nothing else.
Keys
Nothing answers on plain keys, Space or Return, so a panel can show up while you type.
Safety and privacy
Claude runs them with its own tools, so Claude Code's permissions, sandbox and transcript still apply.
An approval lets one identical call through, in the session that asked, within 15 minutes.
The risk check uses claude -p on your claude.ai login. It removes API keys from its environment, so it never bills an API account.
The socket, your approvals and the log are local files. The socket is readable only by you.
stew accepts answers only from its own panel. A caller cannot answer its own request.
Tokens in a command show as •••• until you reveal them, and become * in any saved rule.
Beyond Claude Code
stew is a command line tool, so any agent or script can ask you: other coding agents such as Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Cursor's agent or Aider, a shell script, a Makefile or a long job. Every answer prints as one line of JSON, and the exit code says what you chose.
stew permit waits for your answer and exits with it, so a script can branch on the exit code.
stew permit --action "Deploy to production" \
--reason "All 212 tests passed." --command "make deploy"
case $? in
0) make deploy ;;
1) echo "Denied, not deploying" ;;
*) echo "No answer, not deploying" ;;
esacPut one line in the agent's instructions, and it asks you in stew instead of in its terminal:
When you need a value from me, run stew input "<your question>" and use the "text" field of the JSON it prints.The answer comes back as one line:
{"id":"…","status":"answered","text":"example.com"}The auto mode fallback, the hooks, the skill and late answers are Claude Code features. Other tools get the panel, the keys, the time limit and the JSON answer.
Install
The first command lets Homebrew load stew from Koode's tap; the second installs stew, starts it in the background and adds the Claude Code skill. stew keeps itself up to date, and Homebrew sees each new version too.
brew trust --cask koode/
brew install --cask koode/curl -fsSL https:/stew notify "stew works" --body "Close this with ⌘. or ⌘↩"stew hooks installstew settingsAway from your Mac? The iPhone app shows a waiting request as a notification you can answer. Requests and answers are end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) between your Mac and your phone. iPhone app (beta) on TestFlight
FAQ
No. stew only shows the request and passes your answer back. Claude runs the command with its own tools, under Claude Code's permissions.
After 1 minute, Claude is told you did not respond in time. For a blocked call it treats that as a denial and goes another way. For a question it picks a safe choice that does not need your answer.
Only ⌘ plus a stew key, and only while a panel is visible. Presses in the first 0.5 seconds are ignored. Your terminal gets its ⌘D or ⌘1 again as soon as the panel closes.
No. Without the hooks, Claude can still call stew through the skill: for permission, for a question or for a notification.
The stew Mac tool is free and open source under the MIT license. The optional risk check runs on your Claude subscription, not on an API key.
It is short for steward: it looks after what Claude Code asks while you keep working. And the pot is there so you can let him cook.
Yes, with the iPhone app (beta) on TestFlight. When a request stays open while you are away from your Mac, stew sends it to your phone as a notification: Approve, Deny or More time. The request and your answer are end-to-end encrypted between your Mac and your phone, so the relay that passes them on cannot read them. Pair a phone in stew settings, then iPhone.
No. stew is a macOS app and needs macOS 14 or later.