Show HN: Let your AI agents paint big arrows, boxes and text on your screen(github.com)
412 points by franze 4 days ago | 188 comments
tl;dr: bigarrow is a MIT-licensed macOS CLI tool (with Claude Code/Codex skill integration) that lets AI agents draw transparent arrows, boxes, and labeled signs over any window to point users at UI elements—useful for permission prompts, 2FA, OAuth consent, or guided tutorials where the agent can't or shouldn't click itself. Clicks pass through, focus stays put, arrows auto-expire, and no Screen Recording/Accessibility permissions are needed for basic drawing. Written in Swift as a single binary with no daemon or telemetry, targeting elements by label, coordinates, window, or Peekaboo ID.
HN Discussion:
  • ↓AI complexity is overkill for simple tasks already solved by labels and basic UI
  • ↓Security concern: tool could be abused to hide/manipulate permission prompts
  • ↑Great potential for accessibility and helping non-technical users like aging parents
  • ↑Appreciates the craftsmanship and visual approach to agent UX
  • ↓Mocks the tool with absurd feature requests, treating it as frivolous