patch-cc 0.1.0

Interactive patcher for the Claude Code native binary

patch-cc

An interactive patcher for the Claude Code native binary. Pick the tweaks you want — inline and live thinking, detailed tool calls, subagent model overrides, your own startup name — and apply them to your installed claude in one keystroke. Pure Python; no Node, no Bun.

Requirements

• Linux or macOS
• Python 3.11+
• uv — how patch-cc is run and installed below. Install it with curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh. Not using uv? pipx install patch-cc (or pip install patch-cc) works too; it is an ordinary PyPI package.
• macOS only: the Xcode command line tools, for codesign — a patched binary has to be re-signed or macOS refuses to run it.

uvx patch-cc                   # fullscreen menu, no install needed

The menu is a single centered panel: move with ↑ ↓, toggle with space, press s to save. Patches that carry a setting — subagent models, the startup name, the --version marker — open a centered modal on enter, and the row then shows what you chose. Everything choosable is a picker: the agent names and model aliases are discovered from your binary itself, so the menu can never offer something your build would reject. Typing exists only for the two genuinely free-text values.

A patched binary records what was applied inside itself, so the menu always comes up showing the real current state, and patch-cc status answers exactly.

Prefer it always available on your PATH? Install it:

uv tool install patch-cc
patch-cc                       # then just run it

What it can do

Group	Patch
Output & diffs	Detailed tool calls	Show full read/search calls, not collapsed summaries
	Colour new files as diffs	Created files render with + lines and green
Thinking	Always show thinking	Thinking blocks stay inline — no ctrl+o
Live thinking	Stream thinking live	See reasoning as it is generated, inline and in order
Subagents	Show subagent prompts	Prompt blocks visible during normal use
	Override subagent models	Pick the model per built-in agent (discovered from your binary)
Chrome	Disable spinner tips	No rotating tips on the spinner
	Custom startup name	Defaults to <your username>'s Code
	Mark --version	Appends (patched) — or any marker you choose

Usage

Everything the menu does is also a non-interactive subcommand (shown with uvx; drop it if you installed the tool):

uvx patch-cc apply                            # the default patch set
uvx patch-cc apply tool-calls live-thinking   # just these
uvx patch-cc apply --brand                    # + branding as <username>'s Code
uvx patch-cc apply --brand "Ada's Code"       # + branding, explicit name
uvx patch-cc apply --model Explore=haiku --model general-purpose=opus
uvx patch-cc apply --suffix "(mine)"          # custom --version marker
uvx patch-cc status                           # exactly what is applied
uvx patch-cc doctor                           # do all patches match this build?
uvx patch-cc list                             # patches + your binary's agents/models
uvx patch-cc restore                          # put the original back

--model and --brand imply their patches; agents and models are validated against what your installed binary actually ships.

After a Claude update

Claude auto-updates roughly daily and replaces the binary, which reverts the patch. Re-run patch-cc — the menu remembers your last selection — or re-apply your set explicitly:

uvx patch-cc apply --brand --model Explore=haiku

uvx patch-cc status tells you whether the current binary is patched, and the startup name / --version marker are visible tells too.

Why native-only, and why it stays small

Claude Code now ships only as a Bun single-file executable; the npm package is a wrapper that downloads it. patch-cc edits the JavaScript bundle embedded in the binary's .bun section in place. It also drops the module's 154 MB of stale precompiled bytecode — editing the source invalidates it anyway — so a patched binary is smaller than the original (≈113 MB vs 267 MB), not larger.

See docs/INTERNALS.md for the container format and docs/PLAYBOOK.md for repairing a patch after an update.

Credits

The patch set is a Python port of a-connoisseur/patch-claude-code, with the subagent-model override idea from aleks-apostle/claude-code-patches.

License

MIT