Code while you grind. Run your AI coding agent — Claude Code or Cursor — in an always-on-top overlay over any game.
backgrind.com · Live demo · Download

Backgrind is a desktop overlay (macOS & Windows) that floats your AI coding agent — a real terminal, file tree, and code preview — over any borderless-fullscreen app, games included. The agent grinds through your repo in the background; the window flashes and chimes only when it needs a decision. No more babysitting a terminal, no more alt-tabbing every ninety seconds.

• 🎮 Always-on-top overlay over borderless-fullscreen games — summon and hide with a hotkey.
• 👻 Click-through "glance" mode — the window fades and your mouse/keys pass to the game.
• 🧠 Bring your own CLI — wraps the real Claude Code / Cursor login you already have.
• 📱 Live mode (Plus) — drive your agents from any browser/phone, end-to-end encrypted.
• ⚡ Hosted Grindy models (Pro) — grindy-1 and grindy-1-pro, no API key needed.
• 🗂 Workspaces & parallel agents — several tasks grinding at once, tabbed.
• 🔔 Ambient notifications — a flash + chime when an agent needs a yes/no or finishes.
• 🎙 Push-to-talk voice input — on-device Whisper, nothing leaves your machine.
• 🔒 .grindignore — paths listed there (your .env, keys) never leave the machine.

These always point at the latest release:

• 🍎 macOS — Apple Silicon: Download .dmg
• 🍎 macOS — Intel: Download .dmg
• 🪟 Windows (x64): Download .exe

All builds + release notes: Releases. The Free tier is a full demo — connect your own Claude Code or Cursor CLI and try it over a real game.

No — and the how matters. Backgrind is a plain always-on-top window composited by the OS, the same mechanism as picture-in-picture video. It never reads game memory, never injects code into the game process, and never automates input — the behaviors anti-cheat actually looks for. The game just runs underneath an ordinary window. Long version: Will a coding overlay get me banned?

The one requirement: the game must run in borderless fullscreen (not exclusive). Identical picture, ten seconds in the video settings — explainer: Borderless vs exclusive fullscreen.

Local-first by design. In bring-your-own-CLI mode your agent talks directly to your provider — prompts, code, and history never touch Backgrind's servers; the overlay is a thin client that renders and forwards. Only the hosted Grindy models (Pro) send prompts to our backend, and .grindignore still applies. Details: Privacy Policy.

• How to run Claude Code while playing a game
• Live demo — whack a grindloc while the agent works
• Questions: hello@backgrind.com

See LICENSE. Backgrind is a closed-source product; this repository hosts the downloads and this page.