Honu 0.3

Bubbles are now soft jelly you can resize, and there is only one kind of bubble.

What's new

• Jelly bubbles. A bubble's outline is a ring of soft jelly: it wobbles as the bubble moves, flies out of the turtle, grows, and bumps into others, keeping its corners round. See docs/Jelly.md.
• One kind of bubble. Bubbles no longer shrink into icons; a bubble stays open until you give it to the octopus, and stays still until something moves it.
• Resize bubbles. Drag a bubble's rim to resize it, or double-click its title to zoom it; the size is saved. Microapps Claude writes now fit any size. See docs/Resizing.md.
• Notes title themselves. A note's first line with text is set larger as its title, in place of the bubble's title, and a taller strip at the top drags it.
• Web Page leaves the launcher for now, as Ask AI did; pages already open stay.
• Design docs. Each built-in microapp has a PRD in docs/microapps/, and a draft PRD plans reading your services through Claude connectors (docs/Connectors.md).

Fixes

• Typing Chinese with Zhuyin (or another input method) in a note no longer leaves only the keys typed.
• Honu no longer crashes when a wobbling bubble's content was squeezed almost flat.
• A store Honu cannot read is kept aside rather than written over, every one of them, not only the last.
• A microapp's page starts on a line of its own.

Known issues

• If Mission Control opens while Honu is the active app, its Space thumbnails show only the wallpaper (#5).
• Opening a web page may ask for the "Honu WebCrypto Master Key" in the keychain, again after every build (#6).
• Stores from before microapps had instances (before v0.1) are no longer upgraded.

Running it

There is no prebuilt app yet: build it from source. It needs macOS 26 or newer and a Swift 6.2 toolchain (the Command Line Tools are enough).

git clone https://github.com/ctchuang/honu.git
cd honu
git checkout v0.3
swift run

Making microapps needs Claude Code, signed in with your Claude account (run claude once in Terminal); Honu uses no API key.

Status: experimental prototype. Expect breaking changes.

Full changelog: v0.2...v0.3

Honu 0.2

Honu now lives on every desktop and stays out of the way of your other apps until you turn to it.

What's new

• On every desktop. Honu follows you to every desktop (Space). To keep it on just one, right-click the turtle and turn off Show on All Desktops; the choice is saved.
• Behind your apps until you use it. While another app is in use, Honu sits behind its windows, showing only where the desktop shows, and never takes that app's clicks or keys. Click a bubble or the turtle where it shows, or switch to Honu with the Dock or ⌘Tab, and it comes to the front; that first click acts at once, so you can drag a bubble or open the launcher straight away. Turning to another app sends Honu back.
• Mission Control works again. Mission Control and App Exposé lay out your other windows instead of a window the size of the screen, and the Space thumbnails show their windows while Honu is in the back.
• No full screen. Honu's window never goes full screen, even with Fn-F or ⌃⌘F.
• The UI's design is written down in docs/UI.md, and the README is shorter.

Known issue

If Mission Control opens while Honu is the active app (right after clicking a bubble or the turtle), its Space thumbnails show only the wallpaper. Click another app first and they are fine. See #5.

Running it

There is no prebuilt app yet: build it from source. It needs macOS 26 or newer and a Swift 6.2 toolchain (the Command Line Tools are enough).

git clone https://github.com/ctchuang/honu.git
cd honu
git checkout v0.2
swift run

Making microapps needs Claude Code, signed in with your Claude account (run claude once in Terminal); Honu uses no API key.

Status: experimental prototype. Expect breaking changes.

Full changelog: v0.1...v0.2

Honu 0.1

The first tagged version of Honu, an experiment in desktop GUI design on macOS: Liquid Glass bubbles float directly on the desktop, above other windows.

What's in it

• The turtle and its launcher. A pixel turtle in the bottom-left corner. Click it for a launcher of tiles: Note, Web Page (YouTube links play the video), every microapp Claude has made for you, and + for a new one. Every click opens a new bubble with data of its own. Right-click the turtle for Exit.
• Microapps Claude makes. Describe what you want, such as a pomodoro timer, and Claude writes a small web app that runs in the bubble. Ask for changes in the bar below it (Return or Go), and every open bubble of it updates. Errors the page reports are fixed on their own, and the last change can be undone.
• The octopus. Drag a bubble to the pixel octopus to delete it; drag a microapp's tile there, or right-click the tile and choose Uninstall, to uninstall it with all its bubbles. For a few seconds, click the octopus or press ⌘Z to get it back.
• Bubbles with physics. Throw them, let them drift, and watch them push each other apart. They breathe while busy, rise when done, and wobble when they need you.
• Everything is saved as you go, in ~/.honu/.

Running it

There is no prebuilt app yet: build it from source. It needs macOS 26 or newer and a Swift 6.2 toolchain (the Command Line Tools are enough).

git clone https://github.com/ctchuang/honu.git
cd honu
git checkout v0.1
swift run

Making microapps needs Claude Code, signed in with your Claude account (run claude once in Terminal); Honu uses no API key.

Status: experimental prototype. Expect breaking changes.