The arrow on the screen

What it is and why it matters

Sometimes Claude Code needs you to click something: a Mac permission, a window asking for confirmation, a setting to switch on. And it writes it in the terminal: “click Allow”. Except you're not looking at the terminal. And when you get there, you still have to find that button among ten windows.

big-arrow-on-the-screen solves exactly this. The command is called bigarrow: a small Mac program that draws a big arrow with a sign on top of every window, like “Click Allow”. It comes with a skill, a file of instructions Claude Code reads when it needs it: it teaches Claude when to point and how. Clicks go through the arrow, your keyboard stays where you were typing, and the arrow goes away on its own.

It's a third-party open-source project, MIT licensed: it's not made by Anthropic. It's free, the code is on GitHub (github.com/franzenzenhofer/big-arrow-on-the-screen) and it only works on a Mac. It's for anyone who spends the day with Claude Code and gets lost among windows and settings. And for anyone helping someone less confident with a computer.

1. Install it with Homebrew

Homebrew is the most widely used package manager on the Mac: it installs programs from the terminal with one command. If you don't have it, you'll find it at brew.sh. Then type this in the terminal:

brew install franzenzenhofer/tap/bigarrow

Homebrew builds it on your Mac, so you need Xcode installed and macOS 14 or later. To check that everything went well, type bigarrow --version: it should answer with the installed version.

2. Teach it to Claude Code

The program alone isn't enough: Claude has to know it exists and when to use it. This command copies the skill into Claude Code's personal skills, in the ~/.claude/skills folder, so it works in all your projects (it also installs the one for Codex):

bigarrow install-skill

Open a new Claude Code session. From then on Claude uses it by itself when it needs you to click, or you call it yourself by typing /big-arrow. Drawing the arrow needs no Mac permission, so you can try it right away:

Use bigarrow to draw an arrow pointing at the centre of my screen, with the sign “It works”. Then remove it.

3. The Accessibility permission, only for pointing by name

The arrow can point in two ways. By coordinates, meaning an exact spot on the screen: no permission. Or by name: Claude asks the Mac where the “Allow” button is in that app and points right at it. That's the most precise way, and it needs the Accessibility permission.

The detail that trips everyone up: the permission doesn't go to bigarrow, but to the app you run Claude Code from. If you use it in Terminal, it goes to Terminal; if you use it in iTerm2, Ghostty, VS Code or the Claude app, it goes to that one.

1. Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Accessibility. In the latest versions of macOS the item may have another name: if the permission is missing, bigarrow's error tells you the app and the right settings pane.
2. Switch on the toggle for the app you run Claude Code from. If it isn't in the list, add it with the + button.
3. In the terminal, type bigarrow doctor. It shows you the permissions and the connected displays, and tells you which app needs the permission.

4. The prompts to make Claude point instead of writing

The skill already tells Claude to point instead of writing. But I also put it in black and white in CLAUDE.md, the rules file Claude reads every session, so it doesn't forget:

When you need me to click something, don't write “click…”: open the right screen yourself and point at the button with bigarrow, with a sign that says what to do and what happens after the click.

And when you're the one who can't find something on the Mac, or in an app:

I can't find where to turn on [the setting]. Open the right screen yourself and point with bigarrow at what to click, one step at a time. I'll do the clicking.

If you need to paste something, a code or a command, the value can sit on the sign as a copy button: one click and it's on your clipboard.

I need to paste [the value] into [app]. Point at the right field with bigarrow and put the value on the sign as a copy button.

5. Make the arrow disappear when you reply

Every arrow ends on its own: after a time limit (by default 8 seconds for a quick arrow, 5 minutes for one that stays as long as needed), when Claude removes it with bigarrow stop, or when the Claude session that drew it closes. If you click the sign or the shaft, it goes away.

On top of that there's a hook, a command Claude Code runs by itself at a precise moment. This one runs every time you send Claude a message and removes that session's arrows: you replied, so the arrow isn't needed anymore. It goes in the ~/.claude/settings.json file:

{
  "hooks": {
    "UserPromptSubmit": [
      { "hooks": [ { "type": "command", "command": "bigarrow stop --hook" } ] }
    ]
  }
}

If that file already has other settings or other hooks, don't replace it: only this part needs adding. I let Claude do it:

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json a UserPromptSubmit hook that runs bigarrow stop --hook. Don't touch the settings and hooks already there, and show me the file before saving it.

6. What it doesn't do, and its limits

• It never clicks, types or captures the screen. It only points: you do the clicking.
• It doesn't steal your keyboard: you can keep typing while the arrow is on the screen.
• It only works on a Mac, with macOS 14 or later.
• Inside Chrome web pages, pointing by name only works if Chrome was started with the --force-renderer-accessibility option (or with VoiceOver on). Otherwise Claude points at page coordinates. Chrome's toolbar and apps built with Electron work.
• It isn't a safeguard. If a click approves, pays for or deletes something, the skill asks Claude to write that on the sign: always read it before you click.

Common mistakes

• Giving the Accessibility permission to bigarrow instead of the app you run Claude Code from. The Mac checks it on the app that launches the command.
• Installing the program and forgetting bigarrow install-skill. Without the skill, Claude doesn't know the arrow exists.
• Pasting the hook over a settings.json that already holds other things, and losing the settings you had.
• Clicking where the arrow points without reading the sign. If the sign doesn't say what happens after the click, ask Claude.

Checklist

• bigarrow --version answers in the terminal
• I ran bigarrow install-skill and opened a new session
• The test arrow showed up on the screen
• The app I run Claude Code from has the Accessibility permission
• bigarrow doctor reports no missing permissions
• The hook with bigarrow stop --hook is in ~/.claude/settings.json
• CLAUDE.md has the line asking Claude to point instead of writing

Frequently asked questions