CodeYam Editor for Claude

Build beautifully designed and highly maintainable apps — web, mobile, desktop, backend, and more — just by describing them to Claude. CodeYam is a live-preview editor that builds your app against its real captured states ("scenarios"), whatever your stack: React/Next/Vite, native iOS and Android, React Native, Tauri/Electron, CLIs, and backend services.

This repository ships CodeYam to Claude in two forms:

• A Claude Code plugin — the /codeyam skill plus CodeYam's MCP tools, in one install.
• A Claude Desktop extension — the codeyam-editor.mcpb bundle, attached to each release.

Once installed, tell Claude:

open codeyam

…and CodeYam opens in your browser, ready to build.

Version: 0.1.7  •  Platforms: macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel), Windows, Linux

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Claude Code plugin

/plugin install codeyam-editor --marketplace codeyam-ai/codeyam-editor-mcpb

On older Claude Code versions, add the marketplace first:

/plugin marketplace add codeyam-ai/codeyam-editor-mcpb
/plugin install codeyam-editor@codeyam

Then type /codeyam (or just ask Claude to "open codeyam").

What the plugin runs, installs, and connects to

The plugin is two readable files, and it does nothing it doesn't describe here:

• skills/codeyam/SKILL.md — the /codeyam skill. It tells Claude to check for the codeyam-editor CLI (command -v codeyam-editor), install it if it's missing, run codeyam-editor start in your current directory, and report the local UI URL (http://localhost:14199 by default).
• bin/codeyam-mcp — a POSIX sh script that Claude Code runs as the plugin's MCP server. If codeyam-editor is already on your PATH it runs codeyam-editor mcp and nothing else. If it is missing, it first runs the official installer.

Installation (only when the CLI is missing). Both entry points install with curl -fsSL https://codeyam.com/install.sh | sh. That script checks your OS, architecture, Node.js (20+) and glibc version, then runs npm install -g @codeyam-editor/codeyam-editor from the public npm registry and adds npm's global bin directory to PATH in your shell profile files (for example ~/.zshrc / ~/.zprofile or ~/.bashrc / ~/.bash_profile). It never calls sudo, and it exits with an error and a suggested fix if a prerequisite is missing. You can install the CLI yourself beforehand (npm install -g @codeyam-editor/codeyam-editor) and the plugin will skip this step entirely.

Network and data. The plugin's own files contact only codeyam.com (the installer script) and the npm registry (the package), and only when the CLI is missing. The editor itself runs locally: it serves its UI on localhost, reads and writes the project you point it at, and stores its state in a .codeyam/ folder inside that project. The plugin asks for no credentials and reads none from your environment.

MCP tools. codeyam (open the editor), list_projects, list_scenarios, show_scenario, scenario_gallery, design_gallery, quickstart_demo, create_plan, list_plans, and get_plan. The listing, viewing, and gallery tools are read-only; create_plan writes a plan file into a project's .codeyam/plans/ queue; codeyam starts the local editor process.

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Claude Desktop extension (.mcpb)

Download

⬇ Download codeyam-editor.mcpb (122 MB)

The bundle is self-contained — it ships a complete CodeYam editor for each platform, so there is nothing else to install and no network access needed to start.

Verify the download (optional)

macOS / Linux

shasum -a 256 codeyam-editor.mcpb

Windows (PowerShell)

Get-FileHash .\codeyam-editor.mcpb -Algorithm SHA256

Expected SHA-256 for v0.1.7:

645eec700adbc63cff0c1b52f8e3f84217f78524dad7afd9740becc85e45888a

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Requirements

• Claude Desktop — download it here if you don't have it yet. Extensions require a reasonably recent version; if you don't see an Extensions section in Settings, update Claude Desktop first.
• A modern browser — CodeYam's editor UI opens in your default browser.
• That's it. No Node.js, no npm, no terminal, no separate CodeYam install.

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Install on macOS

1. Download codeyam-editor.mcpb using the link above.
2. Double-click the file. Claude Desktop opens and shows an install prompt. (Alternatively: open Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions, then drag codeyam-editor.mcpb onto the window.)
3. Confirm the install. Claude Desktop registers the CodeYam MCP server for you — no JSON editing, no terminal.
4. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop so it picks up the new extension.
5. Start a new chat and type open codeyam.

Claude will call CodeYam's codeyam tool, start the editor, and hand you back a URL. Open it and you're building.

macOS notes

• The bundled macOS binary is a universal build signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate (Nod Labs, Inc.), so it runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

• Claude Desktop extracts the extension outside of Gatekeeper's quarantine, so you should not see a "cannot be opened" or "unidentified developer" warning. If you ever do, clear the quarantine flag on the extracted extension and restart Claude Desktop:

  xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Claude\ Extensions/local.mcpb.codeyam.codeyam-editor

• Installed files land in:

  ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/Claude Extensions/local.mcpb.codeyam.codeyam-editor/
  

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Install on Windows

1. Download codeyam-editor.mcpb using the link above.
2. Double-click the file. Claude Desktop opens and shows an install prompt. (Alternatively: open Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions, then drag codeyam-editor.mcpb onto the window.)
3. Confirm the install.
4. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop (make sure it isn't still running in the system tray — right-click the tray icon and quit).
5. Start a new chat and type open codeyam.

Windows notes

• SmartScreen warning. The bundled codeyam-editor.exe is Authenticode-signed, but with a certificate that isn't yet publicly trusted, so Windows may show "Windows protected your PC" or "Publisher: Unknown". If prompted, choose More info → Run anyway. (A publicly trusted EV certificate is on the roadmap; until then this warning is expected, not a sign of a bad download — verify the SHA-256 above if you want certainty.)

• If your organization blocks unsigned/unknown publishers via policy, you may need IT to allow it, or use the npm install path instead:

  npm install -g @codeyam-editor/codeyam-editor

  If a codeyam-editor binary is already on your PATH, the extension prefers that one — which also gives you automatic version upgrades.

• Installed files land in:

  %APPDATA%\Claude\Claude Extensions\local.mcpb.codeyam.codeyam-editor\
  

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Install on Linux

Same flow as above — double-click the .mcpb, or drag it into Claude Desktop's Settings → Extensions. The bundle carries an x86_64 glibc build. Installed files land under ~/.config/Claude/Claude Extensions/.

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What you can do once it's installed

Just talk to Claude. It has these CodeYam tools available:

Tool	What it does
codeyam	The main one. Opens CodeYam in your browser. Triggered by "open codeyam".
quickstart_demo	Guided first-success runbook for a brand-new user.
list_projects	Lists the CodeYam projects registered on this machine.
list_scenarios	Lists a project's captured scenarios — the real states of your app.
show_scenario	Shows one captured scenario as an inline screenshot.
scenario_gallery	Renders your whole app, across every captured state, as an HTML gallery.
design_gallery	Renders a project's design mockups as a gallery.
create_plan	Writes a researched plan into a project's CodeYam plan queue.
list_plans / get_plan	Browses and reads queued and completed plans.

Things to try in a Claude Desktop chat:

• "open codeyam" — launch the editor.
• "what codeyam projects do I have?"
• "show me the scenarios in my note-keeper project"
• "build me a gallery of every screen in my app"
• "plan a fix for the login redirect bug in my-app" — the plan lands in the project's queue, ready to run next time you open the editor.

The pattern: Claude Desktop is where you think and plan; the CodeYam editor is where you build and verify.

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How it behaves

• First launch needs no install and no network. The bundle already contains a full editor, so open codeyam works on a fresh, offline machine.

• A PATH install wins if you have one. If codeyam-editor is already installed (e.g. via npm install -g @codeyam-editor/codeyam-editor), the extension launches that binary instead — it's npm-managed and self-upgrading.

• Closing Claude Desktop does not stop the editor. The editor is spawned as its own detached process. Quitting Claude Desktop stops the MCP server but leaves your editor running, same as if you'd started it from a terminal. To stop it explicitly:

  codeyam-editor editor stop-server

  Or just ask Claude to stop the editor.

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Updating

The bundled editor isn't auto-updating (it isn't npm-managed). When a newer version is available, Claude will surface an update notice. To update:

1. Download the newest codeyam-editor.mcpb from Releases.
2. Install it the same way — it replaces the existing extension.
3. Restart Claude Desktop.

If you'd rather have automatic updates, install the npm package (npm install -g @codeyam-editor/codeyam-editor); the extension will then prefer that self-upgrading binary.

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Uninstall

Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions → find CodeYam Editor → remove it. Then restart Claude Desktop.

If an editor server is still running, stop it first with codeyam-editor editor stop-server.

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Troubleshooting

"open codeyam" does nothing / Claude says it has no such tool The extension isn't loaded. Check Settings → Extensions to confirm CodeYam Editor is listed and enabled, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop (on Windows, check the system tray).

The install prompt never appears when I double-click the file Open Claude Desktop first, go to Settings → Extensions, and drag the .mcpb onto the window instead.

The editor URL opens but the page won't load The editor server may still be starting. Give it a few seconds and reload. If it persists, ask Claude to check the editor status, or run codeyam-editor editor stop-server and try open codeyam again.

macOS says the binary can't be verified Clear the quarantine flag (see macOS notes) and restart Claude Desktop.

Windows SmartScreen blocks it Expected — see Windows notes. Verify the SHA-256, then choose More info → Run anyway, or install via npm.

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Links

• CodeYam — https://codeyam.com
• Distribution contract (how every CodeYam/Claude surface behaves) — docs/claude-distribution-contract.md

License

MIT