Anthropic tests Claude Code upgrade to counter Codex superapp

Anthropic is undertaking a major overhaul of the Claude Code desktop experience under the internal codename Epitaxy. Moving beyond its initial experimental UI, the direction now appears to be a power-user interface that handles planning and execution on a single screen.

The new layout borrows design elements from Cowork, bringing the following features to the forefront:

• A dedicated Plan panel
• Tasks tracking for work performed by sub-agents
• A Diffs review window
• In-app preview of running code
• Multi-repo workflows for handling several repositories at once

With the addition of Coordinator Mode, instead of Claude handling all implementation itself, it distributes work across multiple parallel sub-agents while Claude focuses on planning and synthesis. By bringing sub-agents and experimental agent teams—already supported in the CLI—into the desktop app, non-CLI users will find it easier to set up sophisticated workflows.

The ability to create custom agents directly within the app is also being prepared. This move runs directly parallel to OpenAI's Codex, which is preparing a Magic TODO-style parallel task system, and both companies may release desktop updates as early as next week.