I'm literally working on this particular problem. Locally-run server; browser-based interface instead of TUI/CLI; connects to all the major model APIs; many, many quality of life and feature improvements over other tools that hook into your browser.
Drop me a line (see profile) if you're interested in beta testing it when it's out.
I find that 2.5 Pro has a higher ceiling of understanding, while Claude writes more maintainable code with better comments. If we want to combine them... well, it should be easier to fix 2.5 than Claude. That said, neither is there yet.
Currently Claude Code is a big value-add for Claude. Google has nothing equivalent; aider requires far more manual work.
But with my app: you can install the host anywhere and connect to it securely (via SSH forwarding or private VPN or what have you) so that workflow definitely still works!
OpenAi has a version called Codex that has support. It's lacking in a few features like MCP right now and the TUI isn't there yet, but interestingly they are building a Rust version (it's all open source) that seems to include MCP support and looks significantly higher quality. I'd bet within the next few weeks there will be a high quality claude code alternative.
