Theming Codex CLI and Gemini CLI with MOLTamp

MOLTamp started as a Claude Code wrapper. That's the origin story — I wanted Claude Code to stop looking like every other terminal window on my screen, and I built a skinnable shell around it.

But here's the thing: MOLTamp doesn't know or care what's running inside it. It wraps a PTY. Any program that runs in a terminal runs in MOLTamp. That includes OpenAI's Codex CLI, Google's Gemini CLI, Aider, Goose, opencode — all of them.

Same skins. Same widgets. Same visualizers. Same experience.

The Default Experience Problem

Let's be honest about what these tools look like out of the box.

Claude Code ships as white text in your system terminal. No color theming, no panels, no visual state indicators. Anthropic is focused on making the AI better, not the UI prettier. Fair.

Codex CLI is the same story. OpenAI released it as a terminal tool — launch it, type a prompt, watch it work. It's effective. It's also visually indistinguishable from any other CLI tool on your machine.

Gemini CLI from Google follows the pattern. Functional, fast, zero personality. The terminal is treated as a commodity — a pipe for text in and text out.

Every one of these tools is doing incredible work under the hood. Multi-file edits, tool use, web search, code execution. The capabilities are staggering. But the surface — the thing you actually look at for hours — is an afterthought.

How MOLTamp Wraps Any Agent

MOLTamp is an Electron app that creates a skinnable terminal window. When you launch it, you choose which agent to run — or you run a plain shell. The architecture looks like this:

MOLTamp creates a PTY (pseudo-terminal)
Your chosen agent (Claude Code, Codex CLI, etc.) runs inside that PTY
MOLTamp's React UI renders the terminal output using xterm.js
Skins, widgets, effects, and visualizers layer on top

The agent doesn't know it's inside MOLTamp. It behaves exactly as it would in iTerm, Terminal.app, or Alacritty. MOLTamp just makes the container beautiful.

Setting Up Codex CLI in MOLTamp

If you already have Codex CLI installed (npm install -g @openai/codex), here's the setup:

Open MOLTamp
Go to Settings → Shell
Set the shell command to your default shell (bash, zsh — Codex CLI will be available in your PATH)
Open a new terminal tab
Type codex to launch Codex CLI inside the MOLTamp cockpit

That's it. Codex CLI now runs inside whatever skin you've applied. The Blade Runner skin wraps Codex CLI in amber CRT glow. Phosphor gives it retro green terminal energy. Kosmos puts it in a deep-space viewport.

The same steps work for gemini (Gemini CLI), aider, goose, or any other terminal-based AI tool.

Setting Up Gemini CLI in MOLTamp

Google's Gemini CLI installs via npm (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/gemini-cli — check Google's docs for the current package name). Once installed:

Open MOLTamp
Launch a terminal session
Run gemini in the terminal
Your Gemini CLI session inherits the full MOLTamp skin

Gemini CLI's output — model responses, tool calls, file edits — all render through MOLTamp's themed terminal. The colors, fonts, and glows from your active skin apply to everything.

What Changes Visually

When you run any AI agent inside MOLTamp, here's what you get that you don't get in a stock terminal:

Themed Terminal Chrome

The window frame, title bar, borders, and background all follow your skin. Instead of the OS-native window chrome (gray on macOS, blue on Windows), you get skin-matched styling. Blade Runner gives you a dark amber border with subtle scan lines. LCARS gives you Star Trek TNG panels. Neon Horizon gives you synthwave gradients.

Widget Panels

MOLTamp supports side panels with widgets:

Pomodoro — Focus timer that sits beside your terminal
System monitor — CPU, memory, disk usage at a glance
Starfield — Ambient animated background
Rain Window — Relaxation aesthetic
Snake, Tetris, Pong — Break-time games (yes, really)

These panels work regardless of which agent is running. They're part of the MOLTamp shell, not the agent.

Audio Visualizers

Plug in your music and MOLTamp renders audio-reactive visualizers alongside your terminal. Spectrum analyzers, waveforms, beat-reactive effects. They respond to whatever's playing through your system audio.

This works the same whether Claude Code, Codex CLI, or Gemini CLI is running. The visualizer is a MOLTamp feature, not an agent feature.

Effects Layer

Each skin can define visual effects — CRT scan lines, glow intensity, particle systems, vignette, noise. These are controlled by intensity sliders in settings (0 = off, 2 = max). They apply to the terminal surface regardless of what's running inside.

Multi-Agent Workflow

Here's a workflow I actually use: I keep multiple MOLTamp tabs open. One runs Claude Code for a complex refactor. Another runs Codex CLI for quick one-shot tasks. A third is a plain shell for git operations.

All three tabs share the same skin. The visual consistency means my brain doesn't context-switch when I move between them. They all feel like the same workspace.

Performance

A fair question: does wrapping Codex CLI or Gemini CLI in Electron add latency?

In practice, no. MOLTamp's terminal rendering is xterm.js — the same renderer VS Code uses for its integrated terminal. The PTY overhead is negligible. I've benchmarked response rendering across stock terminals and MOLTamp, and the difference is under 2ms per frame. You will not notice it.

The widget panels and visualizer run in separate rendering contexts, so they don't compete with terminal rendering. Even with a full audio visualizer running, terminal output stays smooth.

Why Not Just Use iTerm Themes?

You can theme iTerm. You can theme Alacritty. You can theme Kitty. Terminal emulators have supported color scheme customization for years.

But those themes only change the text colors. 16 ANSI colors plus a background. That's it. No window chrome, no panels, no widgets, no effects, no visualizers, no state-reactive styling.

MOLTamp themes are full-surface skins. Every pixel of the window is controlled by the skin — colors, borders, shadows, gradients, animations, glow effects, layout. It's the difference between changing your wallpaper and remodeling your house.

Try It

Download MOLTamp from moltamp.com
Apply a skin (try Blade Runner or Neon Horizon for maximum impact)
Launch Codex CLI or Gemini CLI inside the terminal
Browse the community gallery for more skins

Your AI agent deserves a cockpit, not a plain text box. And it doesn't matter which agent you're flying.