chalk

for Claude Code a whiteboard on your Mac, wired into the agent

Stop steering Claude Code with paragraphs.

The Claude Code session working in your repo puts its plan on a board beside your terminal. Cross out a step, circle one, drag the order, and it fixes the plan before it writes a line of code.

Get Chalk $24 Try the demo
  • Pay once, no subscription
  • 14-day full refund
  • macOS 13 or newer

On your phone? Buy now, and your install command waits in your email for your Mac.

claude code · ~/notes-app
chalk · notes-app
Claudewatching

No pen? Mark Offline banner:
  • Claude Code in any terminal
  • Apple silicon and Intel
  • Touch, pen, mouse or trackpad
  • Boards stay on your Mac

the difference

A paragraph, or three marks.

Plans in a terminal arrive as a wall of text, and changing one step means writing one back. On a board you just point.

Before A paragraph to change three things.
● Here's my plan for the notes app:

  1. Search. Full text search with FTS5,
     index titles and bodies, debounce
     input, highlight matches...
  2. Filters. Tag and date filters in
     the sidebar, with counts per tag...
  3. Saved views. Save a filter combo as
     a named view, pin it, reorder...
  4. Webhooks. POST on create, update and
     delete, retries, signing secrets...
  5. Sync. WebSocket sync, last writer
     wins, offline queue...

  Shall I start with step 1?

> actually skip the webhooks for now,
  and can you do sync before saved views?
  also for filters i meant tags only, and
  keep search simple. sorry, the second
  one, not the third...
After Three marks. Three seconds.

how it works

Like a coworker at the whiteboard.

One who never leaves the room. Chalk floats beside your terminal, and Claude watches it with you. Mark the board and it glances over, thinks, and writes its answer right next to your mark.

  1. 1

    Claude sketches the plan

    Cards and arrows on a board beside your terminal. The whole plan at a glance, not a scroll back through chat.

  2. 2

    You mark it up

    Cross out, circle, drag, scribble a question. Every mark means something, so you never have to explain.

  3. 3

    Claude answers on the board

    It sees each mark as you make it, writes back beside it and fixes the plan before any code. Then it ticks steps off as it builds.

  • Cross out

    skip it

  • Circle

    do this first

  • Drag

    new order

  • Write a ?

    answer here

And a big X over the board means stop. Claude pauses and asks what should change.

why it's worth it

Why it pays for itself.

Claude builds the right thing

Your marks don't arrive as a vague screenshot. Each one comes back to Claude as a precise instruction with its meaning attached, plus the plan in its current order. No misreading, no "did you mean".

For handwriting and sketches, Claude looks at a snapshot of the board.

Gestures (marks, with meaning):
  h2 CIRCLED c1 "Board model"
     => focus here
  h1 CROSSED OUT c5 "Pinch to zoom"
     => drop it
  h4 QUESTION "which transport?" by c3
     => answer on the board next to it

Plan in current board order:
  c1 -> c2 -> c4 "Native panel" -> c3

Less rework

Wrong turns get caught on the board, before they become ten minutes of code you have to throw away.

Feedback in seconds

A cross-out takes one second. The paragraph it replaces takes a minute, and still gets misread.

Drift you can see

Claude marks the step it's building and ticks off what's done, so you can follow along without reading the log.

  1. claudePlanned
  2. buildingIn progress
  3. doneFinished

Works how you work

Finger or pen on a touchscreen Mac, mouse or trackpad on any Mac. No modes and no send button. You mark, Claude answers.

install

Running in thirty seconds.

Right after checkout you get one command with your license built in. Paste it into Terminal and you're done.

$ curl -fsSL getchalk.dev/install | sh -s -- <your key>
✓ Chalk installed and activated
✓ Connected to Claude Code
  1. 1

    Copy your command

    It's on the page you land on after checkout, and in your email.

  2. 2

    Paste it into Terminal

    It installs Chalk, activates it and connects it to Claude Code.

  3. 3

    Say the word

    In Claude Code: “let's plan this on the board” or /board.

What it adds to Claude Code

  • One MCP server with the board tools, and a skill that tells Claude how to use them.
  • A /board command to open the board whenever you like.
  • A few small hooks that add one line of context while a board is open and let the board show what Claude is doing.
  • Permission for Chalk's own tools, so the board never stops on a prompt.
  • A local server on 127.0.0.1, locked to your machine. Boards live in ~/.chalk/projects, one set per project.

chalk uninstall-claude removes every piece and leaves your other settings alone.

pricing

Pay once. Keep it.

$24

one-time, for your Macs

No subscription and no account. You pay once, on top of nothing but the Claude plan you already have.

  • The Chalk board, as a native floating panel
  • The Claude Code integration: MCP tools, skill and /board
  • Every update for version 1
  • Touch, pen, mouse or trackpad
Get Chalk

Try it on real work for 14 days. If it doesn't earn its place beside your terminal, ask and you get a full refund. No forms, no questions. Refund policy

macOS 13 or newer · needs Claude Code · payments by Stripe

faq

Questions.

How is Chalk different from Claude Whiteboards?

Claude Whiteboards, as reported, is a shared board for teams in Claude's web, desktop and mobile apps that turns ideas into timelines, documents or slides. Chalk is built for Claude Code: a panel on your Mac that the Claude Code session in your terminal watches while it works in your repo. Your marks change the plan for the code it's about to write, it ticks steps off as it builds, and your boards never leave your Mac. Chalk is an independent app, not made by Anthropic.

Claude Code already has plan mode. Why pay for Chalk?

Plan mode gives you the plan as text, and changing it still means typing a paragraph back. Chalk puts the plan on a board where the cross-out, the circle or the drag is the change, and Claude reacts the moment you make it. Once it starts building, it ticks steps off on the same board, so you can follow along without reading the log.

Is there a free trial?

The demo at the top of this page lets you mark a plan and watch Claude answer before you pay. After that, the 14 days are your trial: use Chalk on real work, and if it doesn't earn its place, ask for a full refund. No forms, no questions. The refund policy has the details.

Is it a subscription?

No. You pay $24 once and keep Chalk, with every update for version 1. There's no account to make.

Does it use extra Claude usage?

A little, and only when you mark the board. Each reaction is a short read of the board and a reply, about like sending a message. While you're not marking, Claude just watches and spends nothing.

Does Chalk send my code anywhere?

No. Chalk runs on 127.0.0.1 and keeps boards on your Mac. Claude reads the board through a local MCP server, and what it reads goes to Claude the same way your prompts already do. Chalk has no servers of its own.

What do I need?

A Mac on macOS 13 or newer (Apple silicon or Intel) with Claude Code installed. That's it: Chalk brings everything else it needs, native floating panel included.

What does it change in Claude Code?

An MCP server, a skill, the /board command, a few small hooks and permission for Chalk's own tools. The full list is above, and chalk uninstall-claude takes it all out again.

Do I need a touchscreen?

No. Every gesture works with a mouse or trackpad. Touch just makes it feel like a real whiteboard.

I lost my license key.

Enter the email you paid with on the lost key page and we'll send it again.

Windows or Linux?

Not yet. Chalk is macOS only for now.

Point, don't type.

Get Chalk $24

Pay once. Use it on real work for 14 days, or get a full refund.