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francois

Mission control for your Claude Code fleet — installed without an installer.

npm i -g francois --allowed-scripts=francois

--allowed-scripts=francois lets npm run this package's postinstall, which is what installs the app — without it npm installs only the launcher.

Then launch it from the Start Menu, Launchpad or your applications menu like any other app — or type francois in a terminal, whichever you prefer.

This package ships no binaries. Its postinstall downloads the platform build from the matching GitHub release, verifies it against a sha256 digest baked in at publish time, and registers it with your desktop.

What gets installed where

Windows	a Start Menu shortcut, plus an entry in Settings → Installed apps
macOS	the app bundle in ~/Applications — Spotlight, Launchpad and the Dock all find it
Linux	a .desktop launcher and icon under ~/.local/share

All per-user: no administrator rights, no elevation prompt. Run francois uninstall to remove them again — current npm (v7+) doesn't run the preuninstall hook a plain npm uninstall -g francois would need, so that alone leaves the app behind in ~/Applications (or the Start Menu / .desktop entry). francois shortcut --remove unregisters just the desktop entry, without touching the npm package.

Why install this way

Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper key off the Mark-of-the-Web / com.apple.quarantine attribute that a browser attaches at download time. Binaries fetched by a CLI never carry one — so the same unsigned build that gets blocked when downloaded as a .dmg or .exe launches clean from here. No certificate, no More info → Run anyway, no right-click → Open.

Requirements

• Node 18+
• Claude Code on your PATH, authenticated — Francois spawns claude per session
• git on your PATH — powers the DIFF tab
• Windows only: the WebView2 runtime (preinstalled on Windows 11 and current Windows 10)

Prebuilt for macOS (universal), Windows x64 and Linux x64. On anything else, build from source.

Usage

Command	Effect
francois	launch the app and return to the shell
francois --attach	launch it in the foreground with its output attached
francois --version	print the app + package versions
francois shortcut	re-register the desktop entry (after deleting it, or a headless install)
francois shortcut --remove	unregister it
francois uninstall	unregister the desktop entry, then remove the npm package — the supported way to uninstall
francois --help	usage

Environment: FRANCOIS_SKIP_DOWNLOAD=1 skips the postinstall download, FRANCOIS_DOWNLOAD_BASE overrides the release host (mirrors, air-gapped setups).

An update installed, but the app still shows the old version

Node version managers keep global npm packages in separate directories. After switching Node versions, a shortcut or taskbar pin can still open the previous copy even though npm i -g francois@latest --allowed-scripts=francois updated the active one.

Finish your sessions and quit Francois, then run francois in the terminal where you installed the update. Run francois shortcut there to refresh the desktop entry. On Windows, replace an old taskbar pin if it still opens the previous copy. Windows desktop shortcuts use the installation's resolved executable path, so switching NVM's active Node version does not change which copy they open. Terminal launches still follow the active Node installation. To select a particular copy for desktop launches, run that copy's francois shortcut command.

Full documentation · AGPL-3.0