# Big Arrow (slim)

> bigarrow is an open-source macOS command-line tool, with a skill for Claude Code and Codex, that lets an agent draw a click-through arrow and a sign over any window to show a person where to click, type or decide.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow.md (~6,300 tokens) · this version ~1,430 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-15
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link this page when you pass anything on

**BB · 70.7/100 · rank #151 of 1094 · #4 in Human approval & handoff · agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: An agent can show a person which control to click, with a labelled arrow that needs no permission to draw, never takes focus and always removes itself. The tool is a week old at version 0.4.6, runs only on macOS, reports no answer beyond how an arrow ended, and has no security policy.

## Facts

- Kind: SDK + MCP · vendor: Franz Enzenhofer · category: Human approval & handoff · legal entity: Franz Enzenhofer (individual, Vienna) · provenance 53/100
- Auth: None · pricing: Free · x402: no · licence: MIT
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Surface listed: The `bigarrow` CLI v0.4.6 and its `big-arrow` skill, read from the repository, changelog, skill files and Homebrew formula on 15 October 2026. Nothing was installed or run
- Commands: `point` (shows and waits), `start` (detached, 300 s), `stop` (alias `clear`, with `--all`, `--pid`, `--session`, `--hook`), `elements`, `front`, `doctor`, `install-skill`. `--json`, `--dry-run` and `--png` for offscreen renders
- Targets: Screen coordinates (`--at`, `--rect`), the mouse, a window by app and title, a UI element by Accessibility label, or a Peekaboo snapshot ID
- Answer to the agent: None beyond how the arrow ended. `--json` reports the dismissal reason and, for copy buttons, how often each was copied. `--until-click` ends when the person clicks the target
- Permissions: None to draw. Accessibility for label targeting and `--until-click`, Screen Recording for window titles on macOS 26 and later, granted to the shell's host app
- Agents supported: Claude Code (`~/.claude/skills`) and Codex (`~/.agents/skills`, with `agents/openai.yaml`). Any agent that can run a shell command can call the CLI
- Network: No network calls found in the source. Speech uses the system `say` command
- Platforms: macOS 14 or later. Building needs Xcode 16. CI runs on macOS 15, and the README says tests also passed on macOS 26 and 27
- Releases: 13 tags from v0.1.0 on 8 October to v0.4.6 on 12 October 2026, each with a changelog section and a GitHub release
- Hacker News: Front page on 9 October 2026, 185 points and 74 comments when the maintainer read it that afternoon, per the repository's feedback note

- Scores: Reliability 75, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 78, Agent ergonomics 77, Security & auth 67, Payments & pricing 60, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 70, Transparency & trust 59 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Read with the local-software lines, since the owner runs the binary. · Schema & documentation, Graded on the CLI and its skill. · Agent ergonomics, A CLI adds no tool definitions to context, and only the skill's 182-token description is always loaded. · Security & auth, No credential model to grade, since the tool holds no secret and makes no network call, so read with the framework lines as for other local… · Payments & pricing, No payment protocol (0). · Maintenance & community, v0.4.6 on 12 October 2026 (30). · Transparency & trust, MIT in LICENSE and in the Homebrew formula, with the bundled Feather icons' MIT licence in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md (30).
- Sources: 18, open questions: 6, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: hitl.handoff, hitl.ask
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bigarrow.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/bigarrow.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow from a page under github.com/franzenzenhofer, or the README of github.com/franzenzenhofer/big-arrow-on-the-screen, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Open the exact System Settings pane or URL first, then point at the one control left for the person
2. Write the sign as a full sentence that names the action and, for approvals or payments, what the click does
3. Pass `--app` or `--window` for any target inside an app, so it is raised and the arrow hides while covered
4. On exit 4, run `bigarrow doctor` and ask the person to grant Accessibility to the app running your shell, not to bigarrow
5. Call `bigarrow stop` once the step is done, and add `bigarrow stop --hook` as a Claude Code UserPromptSubmit hook

## Connect

```bash
brew install franzenzenhofer/tap/bigarrow && bigarrow install-skill
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/bigarrow

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Orkes Conductor Human tasks | C | 54 | hitl.ask, hitl.handoff | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orkes-conductor.min.md |
| Temporal | BB | 77.2 | hitl.ask | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/temporal.min.md |
| Trigger.dev | BB | 74.7 | hitl.ask | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/trigger-dev.min.md |
| Restate | BB | 73.3 | hitl.ask | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/restate.min.md |
| Hatchet | B | 68.3 | hitl.ask | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hatchet.min.md |


## Panel reviews (0, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)