The NodeGX editor

The NodeGX editor is a free app for Mac, Windows and Linux. It shows every node and every wire of your app. You can change all of it. It is the unrestricted version, with a learning curve. The lessons inside it take you through the canvas step by step.

This is the way that works with Claude today. Download it, click one button to connect Claude, and build.

What you need

• The NodeGX editor, from nodegx.io/start#download. The current version is 0.4.3.
• The Claude desktop app with a paid plan, using its Code tab. Or the claude command in a terminal. Both work the same way.

Install Claude and NodeGX has every step, including what to do when Claude cannot see NodeGX.

What you see

The start screen. Projects, Templates, Learning and Community tabs. Learning holds built-in lessons that teach the editor itself. Templates holds ready-made apps you can open and change.

The canvas. Your app as boxes joined by lines. A box is a node: a piece of text, a button, a step of logic, a piece of data. A line is a wire: it carries a value or a signal from one node to the next. A page is a set of nodes. A component is a piece you build once and use in many places.

Design and Preview. A switch at the top moves between the canvas and the running app. Click anything in the app and change it.

The backend manager. If your app saves records or has log-ins, the editor runs a backend on your computer. The backend manager is one page in your browser where you see the tables, the rows and who can see what.

Export. The editor can export your app as React code, for a developer to take further. See Putting your app online for when that matters.

The editor and Claude together

On the start screen, click Connect Claude Code. It registers NodeGX with Claude once, for every folder on your computer. Then start a new conversation in the Code tab of the Claude app, and Claude can list, open, create and build your projects.

Claude opens your project in the editor when a part is ready. The editor must already be running for that. Every change Claude makes is checked before it is saved, and you can see it on the canvas straight away.

When you change something in the editor yourself, tell Claude before it carries on. Changing things yourself has the exact message.

When to use this way

• You want to see everything, and change everything.
• You are building today, before the Claude add-on and Studio are out.
• Studio shows you a part it does not edit. You want to change it.

If the canvas is more than you want, you have two other options. Wait for Studio, or ask Claude to build you an editor that shows only what you change. See An editor built for you.

Versions and signing

NodeGX is in public alpha. It builds real apps. It still has rough edges. The changelog at nodegx.io/changelog lists what changed in each release and what is known to be broken. The Mac build is signed and notarised. The Windows build is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen warns on first run: More info, then Run anyway. Linux builds are unsigned, as is normal for Linux.

Quick reference

• Free download, Mac, Windows and Linux. Works with Claude today.
• Every node and every wire. Lessons built in.
• Connect Claude Code once, then a new conversation in the Code tab.
• Keep the editor open while Claude builds.