// the take
Noi is a desktop shell (Tauri-based, given the configs/noi.conf.json setup) that wraps ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and other AI web chats into one multi-window app with shared local storage. It's for developers juggling several AI chat tabs who want window/session management and prompt reuse without a browser tab circus.
Local-first storage means history, prompts, and settings never leave the device, which matters for anyone wary of a vendor's own client syncing data elsewhere. Session isolation per window lets you run separate contexts (e.g. different accounts or projects) against the same provider without cookie bleed. The `noi` CLI hook to drive the app from Claude Code, Codex, or Gemini CLI is a genuinely useful integration point most chat-wrapper apps don't bother with. Download counts and a 700+ fork count suggest real adoption, not a weekend toy.
At its core this is a browser shell pointed at each provider's web UI, not an API integration — any DOM change on ChatGPT's or Claude's site can silently break a window, and you're bound by each provider's web ToS on automated/embedded access. The repo has a single CI workflow (deploy.yml) and no visible test suite, so there's nothing catching regressions before a release ships. It's a one-maintainer project (funded via Buy Me a Coffee) with no listed co-maintainers, which is a real bus-factor risk for something sitting between you and your AI accounts. The README's feature list is marketing copy ('workflow refresh', 'vibes') with no architecture notes on how session isolation, the extension system, or the CLI protocol actually work, so evaluating security boundaries between sessions requires reading source, not docs.
We read the README, the directory tree and a key source file in October 2026. Nobody pays to be listed. How we judge →