oriel Guides Updated

Let Claude Code test your Windows app

Add oriel to Claude Code, then ask Claude to build your app, start it and check it. oriel lists each window's controls as text, presses, fills and selects them through UI Automation, and replies with what changed, so Claude sees whether the button did what the code says. Presses and fills don't move your mouse, so you can keep working.

1. Add oriel to Claude Code

Download oriel.exe, run .\oriel.exe install in PowerShell in the download folder, then:

claude mcp add --scope user oriel -- "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\oriel\oriel.exe" mcp

All the steps, and other clients: Set up.

2. Ask Claude to run the test

Name the build command, the exe and what to check. For example, for a WinForms or WPF app:

Build the app with dotnet build. Start the built OrderForm.exe, by its full path under bin\Debug\net8.0-windows, with oriel's launch tool, type Ada Lovelace in the Name field, press Save and tell me what the status bar says. Then clear the name, press Save again and tell me whether the form refuses it.

Claude Code builds with its own shell. oriel only works through windows: launch replies with the new window's tree, so Claude sees the form's fields at once, and each set and invoke replies with what changed (+ new, ~ changed, - gone). A dialog that opens comes back with its tree.

A real reply, from Character Map:

> set id=kqm3 value="hello"
set "Characters to copy :"
~ [kqm3] Edit "Characters to copy :" value="hello"
~ [kqm5] Button "Copy"
(set took 9 ms)

3. Make the app easy to read

  • oriel sees what a screen reader sees. Give each control a name: a label next to a field, or AccessibleName in WinForms and AutomationProperties.Name in WPF.
  • Buttons, fields, lists, check boxes, tabs and menus get element actions. Custom-drawn controls with no accessibility support need screenshot, click and drag, which move the mouse.
  • Run the app as yourself, not as administrator: oriel can't reach an elevated window unless oriel runs elevated too.

4. Keep Claude to your app

To keep Claude in the apps a test needs, add an allow-list to %LOCALAPPDATA%\oriel\config.json, then restart oriel:

{"allow": ["OrderForm", "notepad"]}

Password fields, sign-in, UAC prompts, password managers and open terminals stay off limits either way. SECURITY.md has every rule.

5. Keep working while it tests

invoke, set, select and scroll don't move the mouse or take the focus, so you can keep typing elsewhere. keys, click and drag bring the window to the front and wait for a pause in your typing; they are refused while you keep going.

Try oriel

Free and open source, one exe under 200 KB, no admin rights. Tested with Claude Code on Windows 11.

Download for Windows Set-up steps

Not code-signed yet, so Windows will warn. Why, and how to check the file

Sources