Launching today
Backgrind
Run your AI agents over any app, even games.
147 followers
Run your AI agents over any app, even games.
147 followers
Your AI agent shouldn't chain you to a terminal. Backgrind floats it in an always-on-top window over any app — even a fullscreen game — and pings you only when it actually needs a decision. Bring your own (Claude Code, Cursor) or use Grindy, the built-in agent with zero setup. Multi-agent tabs, voice, Build/Plan, click-through, local-first — your login, your history.
Backgrind
Hey PH! 👋
The problem I kept hitting: I'd hand a task to my AI coding agent… then just sit there watching a terminal. Babysitting. The agent's grinding away and I could've been shipping the next thing — or playing a game.
So I built Backgrind: an always-on-top overlay that runs your agent (Claude Code, Cursor, or Grindy, my built-in one with zero setup) over any app — even a fullscreen game. It only pings you when it actually needs a decision. Fire it, walk away, come back when it taps your shoulder.
It started as a scrappy "let me see the terminal over my game" hack and grew into a real thing: multi-agent tabs, voice, Build/Plan, click-through, local-first (your login, your history — nothing new to trust). macOS & Windows.
So now I'm grinding with my agents. 🚀
The always-on-top overlay concept is clever but I keep running into the same mental model question - if the agent is doing work I trust, why do I need it floating over my screen at all? The value prop seems to be "run agent + do something else" but the overlay creates its own attention tax. The games angle makes for a good demo but I'm not sure that's where the real workflow is. Most of the people I know running AI coding agents want to context-switch to something productive, not a game, while it runs - and for that a simple tray notification would work fine. The multi-agent tabs are more interesting than the headline use case. What does the breakdown of actual usage look like between the "play a game while it runs" vs genuine parallel work scenarios?
Backgrind
@galdayan Yeah, fair honestly. If you fully trust a run and it never needs you, a notification is totally fine.
The thing is the window isn't meant to just sit there in your face. It stays hidden (and click-through) until the agent actually needs you for something, a yes/no or some quick decision, and then you just deal with it right there instead of digging back into a terminal. So go do whatever, another repo, emails, whatever. The game thing was half a joke tbh, my ADHD way of saying you can literally do anything while it runs, even play something. It only bugs you when it matters.
And yeah, the parallel stuff you mentioned is really the point. Once you've got a few agents going, a notification can't tell you which one needs you or what it wants. That's what the window's actually for.
On the breakdown, I've just launched so I don't have solid numbers yet. My gut says mostly parallel work with games as the fun hook, but that's a guess.