Apple II Terminal

Description

The Apple II shipped with a 5¼-inch drive and a serial port, and both still work. This is a bootable 140K DOS 3.3 disk that uses them: put it in drive 1, turn the machine on, and the Apple II comes up as a terminal for a coding agent running on a modern computer in the next room. The disk is written on both sides: side 1 is for Claude Code, and turned over, side 2 is for Codex.

The disk is a terminal and nothing more. No model runs on the Apple II — it sends the line you typed as 7-bit ASCII and draws the reply it gets back. The work happens on the modern computer, where a single Python script (bridge/bridge.py) sits between the serial link and the claude or codex CLI already installed and logged in there. The Apple II never talks to Anthropic or OpenAI directly.

Two clients ship on each side and the boot code picks between them by reading the machine’s ROM: a 65816 Super Hi-Res client for the IIgs, with a scrolling transcript, and a plain 6502 text client for everything else. On the IIgs the Claude Code side’s Connect option plays the dial-up sequence on the way in — dial tone, the touch-tones that spell C-L-A-U-D-E, ring, answer tone.

The software is free. Both disk images are published on GitHub Releases (Claude Code, Codex) and anyone with a way to write a .dsk can make their own. What is sold here is the physical object: a real disk, written and booted on real hardware before it goes in the envelope, with its printed label.

Both sides

An Apple II’s drive reads one side of a disk, so a two-sided disk is turned over to reach the other: label up for Claude Code, Codex’s label up for Codex. Each side has its own write-enable notch with a write-protect tab already over it, and each is booted and checked on a real Apple II before it ships.

What’s on the disk

• Side 1: CLAUDE.dsk. Side 2: CODEX.dsk. Each a bootable 140K DOS 3.3 image, 143,360 bytes, built on a modified Apple DOS 3.3 System Master
• The IIgs client, 65816, Super Hi-Res (COBJ / CODEX)
• The 6502 client, 40- or 80-column text (COBJ8 / CODEX8)
• The boot menu that reads the ROM, picks the client, and dials the modem

Requirements

Everything below is supplied by the buyer. The disk is the only thing in the envelope.

• An Apple II with a 5¼-inch drive on slot 6. Tested on real hardware: the IIgs and the IIc. The 80-column IIe has been run in emulation only; the 40-column IIe, the IIc Plus and the II/II+ are expected to work and have not been tested anywhere. The compatibility table is kept honest about which is which.
• A serial port. The IIc and IIgs have one built in; a IIe or a II+ needs a Super Serial Card in slot 2.
• A way to reach the modern computer: a Hayes-compatible modem — a WiFi modem such as the WiModem 232 is what the project is developed against — or a serial cable straight to the host. The clients talk 9600 8N1; most WiFi modems leave the factory at 300 or 1200 baud and have to be set once. Modem setup covers the ones that have been tried.
• A modern computer with Python 3.10 or newer, running bridge/bridge.py.
• Claude Code or the Codex CLI, whichever side is being booted, installed and logged in on that computer under the buyer’s own account. The disk includes no account, no credit, and no key.

The bridge speaks plaintext over the local network and hands an accepted caller a great deal of control over the host. It belongs on a trusted home network and must never be exposed to the internet.

Buying the disk from Wells Workshop supports continued development.

The project’s own code is MIT, © 2026 Wells Riley. The disk image also carries third-party material that the MIT grant does not cover, including Apple’s DOS 3.3.

This is an independent, unofficial project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic or OpenAI, and neither supports it. “Claude” and “Claude Code” are Anthropic’s trademarks; “Codex” and the OpenAI mark are OpenAI’s.

Note: while 3D renders are meticulously rendered to give you a realistic sense of what each product looks like, they're not 100% perfect. Some variation or inconsistencies may exist that have little to no impact on aesthetics or functionality, unless otherwise noted. If you have questions or concerns, please ask before purchasing. Thank you!