Claude Code Dashboard - Self-Hosted

I built this "dashboard" because I wanted to run multiple Claude Code sessions as if I was in my own terminal on my own machine. Though Anthropic has come out with some cool tools to bridge this gap, the one thing that it still lacks is the ability to use slash commands within Claude Code.

This fixes that.

This repo contains a few files that "emulate" terminals directly in the browser. This means Claude Code doesn't even know that its being accessed over the web. This allows you to use Claude Code from anywhere as if you were sitting at your machine. Not only that, but you can spawn as many Claude Code sessions as you would like in existing directories, or create new directories and start fresh! And maybe best of all -- this uses your existing Claude Code subscription! You do not have to use an API key (which runs higher costs) or create anything special, just run Claude.

Installation & Setup

Running locally (no Docker)

Prerequisites: Node.js and Claude Code (claude CLI) must be installed and available in your PATH.

1. Clone the repo and install dependencies:

   git clone <repo-url>
   cd claude-code-dashboard
   npm install

2. Configure your environment:

   cp .env.example .env

   Then edit .env — see Environment Variables below.

3. Start the server:

   node server.js
   # or: npm start

4. Open your browser at http://localhost:8080

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Running with Docker

Docker is the recommended way to run the dashboard. It sandboxes Claude Code so that --dangerously-skip-permissions cannot affect your host OS directly.

1. Configure your environment:

   cp .env.example .env

   Edit .env and set HOST_BASE_DIR to the folder on your machine containing your projects, and fill in AUTH_USERS and SESSION_SECRET.

2. Build and start:

   docker compose up --build

3. Open your browser at http://localhost:8080

Your projects directory is mounted into the container at /workspace. Your existing Claude Code credentials (~/.claude) are also mounted so the container can authenticate without any extra setup.

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Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the values. All variables are described below.

Variable	Required	Description
BASE_DIR	Yes	The directory the server lists and creates projects in. When running locally, set this to your projects folder (e.g. /Users/yourname/dev). When running with Docker, set this to /workspace.
HOST_BASE_DIR	Docker only	The path on your host machine to mount into the container as /workspace. Example: /Users/yourname/dev.
REQUIRE_AUTH	No	Set to false to disable the login page entirely. Defaults to true. Useful on a trusted private network where you don't need per-user login.
AUTH_USERS	If auth enabled	Comma-separated username:password pairs for login. Example: alice:mypassword,bob:anotherpassword.
SESSION_SECRET	If auth enabled	A random string used to sign session cookies. Change this before deploying — any long random value works.
CLAUDE_BIN	No	Override the path to the claude binary. Auto-detected from your login shell if not set. Useful in custom environments where claude is not on $PATH.

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A Few Notes

• A login page protects all routes. Users are defined via AUTH_USERS in .env — add as many username:password pairs as needed.
• Each new session runs claude --dangerously-skip-permissions immediately at spawn time. If you prefer to run Claude with permissions, remove --dangerously-skip-permissions from the args array in server.js.
• This does not provide direct terminal access — it only spawns Claude Code within a selected directory. You cannot run arbitrary shell commands.

Security

Do NOT self-host this without a security layer in front. This will provide access to whatever directory you set as BASE_DIR. I use a Cloudflare Tunnel with Zero Trust Access, which is straightforward to set up.

Enjoy! pb-crackers