Maude vs Claude Code on the web
Cloud sessions run on Anthropic's infrastructure and keep going with everything of yours switched off. Maude runs on infrastructure you own. The deciding question is usually where your code lives.
Claude Code on the web is Anthropic's cloud option. You pick a repository and branch, describe a task, and it runs on Anthropic-managed infrastructure — so the work continues after you lock your phone and with your laptop shut. It is reachable from the Code tab in the Claude app or from a browser, and it is included with a Claude subscription.
It is genuinely good, and for a large class of work it is the correct choice. This page is about the cases it does not cover.
The GitHub requirement
Cloud sessions are built around a GitHub repository: you select a repo and branch to start, and Claude can watch a pull request and fix CI failures or review comments as they arrive. That is a genuinely nice workflow — if your code is on GitHub.
It is a hard stop if it isn't. Self-hosted GitLab, Gitea, Forgejo, a bare repo on a company box, an SVN import nobody has migrated, or a directory that simply is not under version control — none of that fits the model. Maude does not care: it runs the Claude Code CLI on your machine's filesystem, so whatever is on disk is what it works with.
The environment your code needs
The second split is what has to exist around the code for the task to mean anything. A cloud session gets an environment Anthropic provisions. That is fine for a self-contained repository, and quite a lot less fine when the task is "work out why the nightly job is failing" and the answer needs the actual database, the actual Redis instance, the internal package registry, the VPN, or a service that only resolves inside your network.
On your own server, all of that is simply present, because it is the machine where those things already live. Claude Code gets the same view of the world your deployment does.
Side by side
| Claude Code on the web | Maude | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Included with your Claude plan | $2.99/week or $59.99/year, plus your server |
| Where code runs | Anthropic-managed cloud | A Linux host you own |
| Repository must be on GitHub | Yes | No |
| Runs with everything of yours off | Yes | Yes, the server is always on |
| Reaches your private network / database | No | Yes, it is on that network |
| Your toolchain and system packages | Provisioned environment | Whatever you installed |
| Bypass permissions | Not selectable from the app | Full permissions |
| Watch a PR and fix CI | Built in | Not built in |
| Infrastructure to maintain | None | Yours to patch and secure |
Verified against Anthropic's published documentation in July 2026.
Where the code goes
With cloud sessions, your repository is checked out onto infrastructure Anthropic runs. For most people, under an existing Claude subscription and Anthropic's terms, that is an entirely reasonable place for it to be — it is the same company already processing the code in the model.
It is not always someone's call to make, though. Plenty of teams operate under contracts, client agreements or regulatory constraints that say source may not be checked out onto third-party infrastructure, whoever that third party is. Maude's answer is structural: the code never leaves your server, and it does not pass through ours either — the app is a client that opens an SSH connection from your phone straight to your host.
Use cloud sessions when your repo is on GitHub, the task is self-contained, and you would rather not run a server. Zero maintenance, no cost on top of your plan, and the PR-watching workflow is genuinely useful.
Use Maude when the code is not on GitHub, when the task needs your actual environment, when source may not be checked out onto third-party infrastructure, or when you want an agent working at full permissions without stopping to ask.
Using both
These are complements more often than substitutes, and both run off the same Claude subscription. A reasonable split: cloud sessions for tidy repo-shaped work on GitHub projects, and a server for anything that needs the real environment or has to run unattended at full tilt. Nothing stops you from keeping both in rotation.
