An editor for working with Claude Code

Dovo is VS Code with the Claude Code CLI built in. The conversation reads like a chat next to your files, every change Claude makes is highlighted where it happened, and the rest of the editor works the way you already know.

Free and open source. In daily use since 1.0.

Download for macOS

Windows, one-line install, or all downloads

v2.1.0 · MIT · Apple Silicon and Windows x64

Change highlights

See exactly what Claude changed

When Claude edits a file you have open, new lines light up green and removed lines appear in red right where they were, the way Claude shows a diff. The editor jumps to the first change; step through the rest with the arrows, or press Done.

Open any file and Dovo shows what changed since the last commit, so you can review Claude's work without hunting through a diff view.

Reader

The conversation, readable

While claude runs, the Reader turns its terminal into a chat: your messages as bubbles, tool steps folded, edits as cards, images as thumbnails. The Now line says what Claude is doing ("Editing app.ts · 14s"), and the plain terminal is one click away.

  • Copy any reply with one button, mark text and press ⌘C, or right-click to copy the whole conversation as Markdown.
  • Claude's / menus and questions show as cards above the input, never clipped.
  • A prompt rail with fuzzy search jumps to anything you asked earlier.
File finder · ⌘⇧F

Find files by name, hand them to Claude

⌘⇧F finds files and folders by name, fuzzy and instant, instead of searching inside them. Open one, or add it to Claude as an @-mention in one click. Dragging files or whole folders onto Claude works too, from anywhere in the tree.

While Claude is working

What Claude runs in the background is listed, and you can step in at any point.

Queue and send now

Messages you type while Claude works show up queued, exactly as Claude sees them. Ctrl ↵ sends one right away.

Press Esc and the Reader marks clearly where you interrupted. Larger Input gives long prompts room.

Background shells and agents

The Activity panel lists every command Claude runs in the background and every agent it starts, live.

Read a shell's output or stop it, and open an agent to read its own conversation.

True context meter

The header shows how much of Claude's context is used, read from the session itself and matching /context, 1M windows included.

Nothing is typed into Claude to get it.

A workspace shaped around Claude

Windows open full screen with a short splash while Claude gets ready: Dovo continues your last conversation, or starts a new one when there's nothing to resume. If Claude Code isn't installed, it says so and offers to install it.

Claude takes the window in Focus mode. Press ⌘B for the IDE layout with Claude in a resizable column on the right, and ⌃⌘J to hide it to a slim strip that still shows when it's working.

No Copilot sign-in buttons or setup prompts in the way.

The rest

Smaller things, each added because a Claude Code workflow needed it. All of it sits on top of the full VS Code editor.

Project dock

Open and starred projects at the top of the activity bar, each in its own window. A spinner while Claude works, a bell when it needs you.

Tabs that tidy themselves

At most eight tabs; files you haven't looked at for 20 minutes close by themselves, with a Reopen.

Image previews

Pasted images preview right in Claude's terminal and the Reader, as thumbnails that open full size.

Smart auto-launch

Opening a project starts Claude in it, resuming the last session. Your launch flags, model and permission mode live in the Dovo panel.

Drag as @-mention

Drop files or folders on Claude, even several from different places, and they arrive as @-mentions.

Undo Claude's edits

Roll back what Claude did to a file, per file, without touching the rest.

PDF page picker

Pick the pages of a PDF to hand to Claude instead of the whole document.

Markdown that reads well

Markdown opens rendered, with proper type, so Claude's plans and notes read like documents.

Right-click servers

Start and stop the dev servers in your project from the explorer's context menu.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Click an Office file to open it in its app; right-click to convert it to TXT, JSON or PDF.

One-click commit

A status-bar button stages everything, commits with your message and optionally pushes.

Theme Studio

Accent, surface, font and size for light and dark separately; ⇧⌘L swaps between them.

Install and update

Each installer fetches the latest release, puts Dovo where your system expects apps, and opens it. Run it again to update. On first launch a short welcome sets up the theme and Claude Code.

macOS Apple Silicon

$curl -fsSL https://jmkq0056.github.io/dovo/install.sh | bash

Installs into /Applications (an older copy goes to the Trash), clears the quarantine flag so macOS opens it without the right-click dance, and offers to install Claude Code.

Windows x64 · PowerShell

>irm https://jmkq0056.github.io/dovo/install.ps1 | iex

Installs for your user with no admin rights and no wizard; adds Start menu and desktop shortcuts, Explorer's right-click menu and dovo on your PATH; offers to install Claude Code.

Prefer a download?

The download button at the top gets the same builds. On macOS, open the .dmg, drag Dovo to Applications, then right-click it and choose Open the first time (it's ad-hoc signed, not notarized). On Windows, run Dovo-Setup-x64.exe: it installs for your user, no admin rights needed. It isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may ask you to choose More info, then Run anyway. Windows 11 with Smart App Control on, or a work PC with an app-control policy, blocks unsigned apps entirely; there, Dovo can't install until it's signed. A portable Dovo-win-x64.zip is on every release too.