I Can't Write Code. But I Shipped a Native Android Terminal IDE with Claude Code + Codex Running Natively — No Termux Required.

Source: Dev.to

Overview

Since my last post, everything changed. The WebView terminal is gone and Termux is no longer required. Below is what shipped.

Architecture

Plan A (previous)

• WebView terminal via ttyd
• Required Termux
• TCP socket between terminal and app
• Crashed every time I switched apps

Plan B (current)

• Native PTY via JNI forkpty – same process, zero IPC, zero TCP
• No Termux needed
• Bundled tools inside the APK as .so files: bash, Node.js, Python 3, git, curl, ripgrep, jq, tmux, vim, sqlite3
• Executed via /system/bin/linker64 to bypass SELinux execve restrictions on the app_data_file context
• As far as I know, this is the only React Native app that does this

Runtime

Both AI models run natively through Shelly’s managed runtime:

• Claude Code 2.1.121 (Opus 4.7, 1 M context) ✅
• Codex v0.124.0‑termux (GPT‑5.5) ✅
• Gemini CLI 0.39.1 ✅

The runtime hot‑swaps updates without needing an APK rebuild.

Features

• Four live panes simultaneously

  • Top‑left: Claude Code terminal
  • Top‑right: Codex (GPT‑5.5)
  • Bottom‑left: Cerebras AI pane with READING TERMINAL
  • Bottom‑right: Browser pane with YouTube

• Native terminal with inline command blocks

• Multi‑pane layout (up to 4 live panes)

• Cross‑pane intelligence – AI reads terminal output automatically

• Multi‑agent routing: Claude, Gemini, Cerebras, Groq, Perplexity, Codex, local LLM via llama.cpp

• File editing with per‑hunk InlineDiff accept/reject

• @team multi‑model consensus

• SSH profiles

• CRT mode (scanlines + phosphor green + vignette)

Setup & Limitations

• Claude Code first‑run OAuth requires credential transplant
• Ports monitor blocked by Android 10+ SELinux (bug #99)
• Test coverage is thin

Repository & Releases

• GitHub:
• APK: GitHub Releases page (linked from the repository)

License

GPLv3

Rough edges exist—that’s why the project is open source.