hoff-harness
A second cursor for your coding agent. It glides to things on your Mac, explains
them in a speech bubble, walks you through tasks step by step, or does them while
you watch. And you can point back: hold ⌃⌥, circle something, and ask
"what is this?". Your agent gets exactly what you marked.
hoff.rorosaga.com: see it in action.
macOS only. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, the Claude desktop app (MCP), Codex,
Antigravity, OpenCode, Pi, Hermes and other agents that can run shell commands.
Install
Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any agent that runs commands:
Install hoff-harness (https://github.com/rorosaga/hoff-harness), a second cursor for coding agents on macOS. If you are Claude Code: run `claude plugin marketplace add rorosaga/hoff-harness` and `claude plugin install hoff-harness@hoff-harness`; the script is then `~/.claude/plugins/cache/hoff-harness/hoff-harness/*/skills/hoff-harness/scripts/hoff-harness`. If you are another agent (Cursor, Codex, Antigravity...): run `git clone https://github.com/rorosaga/hoff-harness ~/code/hoff-harness`, `mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills` and `ln -sfn ~/code/hoff-harness/skills/hoff-harness ~/.agents/skills/hoff-harness` (if you load skills from another folder, link it there too), then read its SKILL.md; the script is `~/code/hoff-harness/skills/hoff-harness/scripts/hoff-harness`. Make sure `uv` is installed. Run the script with `doctor`, explain any missing macOS permission and ask before requesting it. In Claude Code, offer the clip counter for my status line with `statusline install`. If browser-harness is installed, run it with `browser` to connect Chrome. Finally point at something in Finder: run it with `point --app Finder --find "Go" --role MenuBarItem --activate --say "Hi, I'm your guide cursor."`. If you can't run commands (the Claude app's chat, for example), tell me to paste this into Claude Code or the Claude app's Code tab instead.
Other agents and manual setup: install.md.
What it can do
| You say | What happens |
|---|
| Show me | "Where's the export button in Figma?" | The cursor glides to it, rings it, and a bubble explains it. |
| Walk me through | "Walk me through adding a GitHub Action." | One step at a time; each step waits for your click on the right thing. |
| Do it for me | "Turn on dark mode, and show me as you go." | The bubble says what it's about to do, the cursor points, then it clicks or types while you watch. |
| Explain my screen | "What are all these Xcode panels?" | A short cursor tour of the parts, with the full answer in chat. |
| Point back | Hold ⌃⌥, circle an error: "why is this failing?" | Your agent gets the app, the window, the text and elements under your mark, and a crop. |
| Many clips | Mark three things: "compare these." | Each mark is numbered; Claude Code's status line shows 📎 3 screen clips ready. |
| Web pages | Circle part of a page: "summarize this", "fill this in for me" | In Chrome it works with the page itself: exact elements, links, text. It clicks and types through Chrome without taking your mouse. |
Keys
| Keys | What they do |
|---|
| hold ⌃⌥ and click | Point at something. A pulse shows where. |
| hold ⌃⌥ and drag | Circle, underline or arrow something. |
| ⌃⌥ esc | Clear your marks and put the cursor away. During "do it for me", it also tells the agent to stop. |
Send your message and the marks go with it. Marks fade from the screen after a
few seconds, but stay attached for 15 minutes. To change the keys, ask your
agent ("use cmd+shift for marking"); they live in
~/.config/hoff-harness/config.json.
Works with
| Agent | Point, guide, do | Marks attach to your message | Tested |
|---|
| Claude Code (terminal, IDEs) | ✓ | ✓ automatically (plugin hooks) | ✓ |
| Codex | ✓ finds the skill in ~/.agents/skills | the agent runs hoff-harness context | ✓ installed itself from the prompt above |
| Cursor | ✓ finds the skill in ~/.agents/skills or ~/.claude/skills | the agent runs hoff-harness context | ✓ (allow it to run outside its sandbox) |
| Claude desktop app, Code tab | ✓ it is Claude Code | ✓ | finds and runs the skill; needs Accessibility and Screen Recording for Claude |
| Claude desktop app, chat | ✓ through hoff-harness mcp (install.md) | the marks tool | connects; needs Accessibility and Screen Recording for uv |
| Antigravity, OpenCode, Pi, Hermes | ✓ through SKILL.md | the agent runs hoff-harness context | not yet |
| ChatGPT | only remote MCP servers | | not possible yet |
Requirements
- macOS 14 or later. It uses the macOS accessibility API and AppKit
windows, so it doesn't run on Linux or Windows.
- uv. The first run installs PyObjC into uv's
cache, which takes a few seconds.
- Accessibility and Screen Recording permission for the app your agent
runs in: your terminal, Cursor, or the Claude app for its Code tab (System
Settings > Privacy & Security).
hoff-harness doctor checks both,
hoff-harness permissions opens the right pages, and Claude Code tells you
at the start of a session when one is missing. Restart the app after.
- Optional: browser-harness
for web pages in Chrome and other Chromium browsers.
How it works
agent's shell overlay (starts with your agent session)
│ │
hoff-harness point ... ── local socket ──▶ glass cursor, bubble, rings, your marks
│ │ click-through windows above everything
macOS accessibility tree, screenshots │
browser-harness for Chrome pages hold ⌃⌥: it takes the mouse and saves
each mark with what is under it
Claude Code hooks: start the overlay with a session, attach marks to your next message
- It never takes focus. Clicks pass through it, except while you hold ⌃⌥.
- Your real pointer moves only for a click on something that has no
accessibility action, and it goes straight back.
- Everything stays on your Mac. Marks and screenshots live in
~/Library/Caches/hoff-harness, are only sent to your agent with your message,
and are deleted after a day.
Why "hoff"
hoff is short for hands-off. The idea mainly came from Hoff, a hackathon
project Ricky and I
built together and demoed at YC at the Browser Use hackathon.
Credits
Details and licences: THIRD_PARTY.md. Contributing:
CONTRIBUTING.md.
MIT
