What is Claude Overlay?

Claude Overlay is a frameless, always-on-top chat window that floats over everything you do on Windows. Summon it with a hotkey, ask about whatever's on screen, and Claude captures and reads your monitors before answering. It runs the full Claude Code agent on your own subscription — no API key — so it can edit files and run commands, not just chat. Open source under MIT license, available for Windows 10 and 11.

Who it's for

• Developers and power users who want to ask questions about their screen without alt-tabbing away from their work
• Content creators and document editors who need an AI agent that can see and edit the file they're looking at — no file path required
• Multitaskers running several projects who want named, collapsible overlays they can keep open side-by-side for different tasks

Key features

Screen-aware AI that sees your monitors

Claude Overlay auto-captures every monitor on each message and labels primary vs. secondary. Just ask "what's wrong here?" and it looks at your real screen — no copy-pasting error messages or describing what you're staring at.

Full Claude Code agent, not just a chatbot

It runs the complete Claude Code agent (Opus 4.8) under the hood, so it can edit files, run commands, and even reach into the app on your screen — fix wording on an open slide, build a model in an open Excel sheet, or tighten a paragraph in your draft.

Always-on-top orb with task completion indicator

The overlay collapses to a tiny draggable orb when not in use, with a real Windows taskbar button to click it back. A checkmark drops on the orb when a reply finishes while tucked away, so you know a task is done without expanding it.