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akavel
clawtype
Rust2025–2026
akavel / clawtype

clawtype

A custom wearable chorded keyboard & mouse.

Hardware & Embedded
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
3Distinct people
8Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
69GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

A custom wearable chorded keyboard & mouse.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by month8 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2025-04-04 16:10:30 UTC to 2026-04-22 18:55:12 UTC.

02462025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 7 mentions; 3 submissions, 4 commentsApr 20252025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 commentsOct 20252025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsApr 2026

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
Apr 20252025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC734
May 20252025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 20252025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20252025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20252025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20252025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20252025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Nov 20252025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Dec 20252025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20262026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Feb 20262026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20262026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20262026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

8 sources
akavel·Apr 22, 2026
There's a really nice, very low-power, 84x48 B&W LCD screen still widely available for electronics use, a clone of a Nokia 5110 screen - see e.g.: - https://github.com/akavel/clawtype#clawtype - mandatory "Bad Apple" vid (not mine): https://youtu.be/v6HidvezKBI (for the "splash screen" linked above I used font u8g2_font_3x5im_te: https://docs.rs/u8g2-fonts/latest/u8g2_fonts/fonts/struct.u8... and a multilingual u8g2_font_tiny5_t_all: https://docs.rs/u8g2-fonts/latest/u8g2_fonts/fonts/struct.u8...)
In 5x5 Pixel font for tiny screens
Hojojo·Apr 6, 2025
It's too late now, but you have to hit enter twice to insert line breaks. - the code in the repo (https://github.com/akavel/clawtype) is under AGPL-v3, so you're totally fine to iterate on this part, as long as you keep the license and it terms - which means you should be able to sell it all fine, just also providing users the iterated code, so they can further iterate on their own; - the 3d-printed parts & structure design (https://www.printables.com/model/1231156-clawtype) is CC BY-NC-SA, so you can iterate on that part as long as you keep those terms - let me know (https://merveilles.town/@akavel/) if you want to negotiate the terms with the designer, or just reach out to him by yourself; - in the US, some aspects of the design are covered by A PATENT by the original inventor & designer John W. McKown, as explained on the original Chor
Read the rest
dite page: https://web.archive.org/web/20220201061603/http://chordite.c... with an exception for personal use - the patent is http://www.google.com/patents/US6429854 - though IIUC the google page seems to claim it's expired, whatever this means in the legal system, and google claim IANAL on the page too. - or do you mean some other aspect?
In Show HN: Clawtype v2.1 – a one-hand chorded USB keyboard and mouse [video]
akavel·Apr 5, 2025
No more physical support for the hand than what's seen in the vid. You can check more info in the github repo (https://github.com/akavel/clawtype) and on printables (https://www.printables.com/model/1231156-clawtype). The strap and the plate under the wrist seem enough that I'm not looking to improve on that at the moment; but I still need to test this version on some longer usage sessions. Interestingly, the original inventor and patent owner (https://web.archive.org/web/20220201061603/http://chordite.c...) has a design that doesn't even use a strap, but I didn't explore this direction yet (and honestly not yet even sure how to crack it). I know of another designer who's trying to iterate in that space: http://blog.russnelson.com/chordite As to resistance, there's a balance to be adjusted between having the buttons too easy or to hard. T
Read the rest
his seems in main part to need to be adjusted by their positioning though. If too easy, you'll press combinations/chords accidentally too often. If too hard, it gets tiresome and annoying. Maybe there's some better placement possible, haven't found it yet. The switches currently used are Alps; they have dimensions which make them a good fit for this particular design; Cherry MX are a tiny bit too big and would require some rethinking. As to 2 hands, the whole point for me is to have my main (right) hand available for other use, like drinking water, or otherwise supporting myself in the physical environment around. So I'm not currently interested in two-handed. As to the number of keys - the four fingers seem busy enough; on the other hand, if you could fit smaller switches around (as in the DataHand design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DataHand - see also 3d-printed clones on the internet - _edit:_ e.g. the https://svalboard.com, as mentioned by someone else, and lalboard https://hackaday.io/project/178232-lalboard-ergonomic-keyboa... as respectfully linked from therein), maybe you could try working with that. The obvious extra possibility is the thumb as you mention - it does feel like something could be added there, though it also sometimes helps a bit in holding the device. The original Chordite designer managed to somehow do it without a strap, but his reasons to not use the thumb are somewhat confusing to me.
In Show HN: Clawtype v2.1 – a one-hand chorded USB keyboard and mouse [video]
akavel·Apr 5, 2025
I don't have a program at the moment. The layout I currently use is in the codebase, starts here: https://github.com/akavel/clawtype/blob/96980f68427eb1089112... Personally, I just edited this layout description into a more compact form and printed it on a sheet of A4 paper as a cheatsheet. I do intend to make this aspect more scriptable, but didn't get to it yet. For learning, I personally just try to slowly code simple hobby things in vim, with the cheatsheet in the other hand... I tried to make the layout relatively intuitive wherever I could. I also patiently went through all the possible combinations of presses, and tried to group them into categories of easy<->medium<->hard<->impossible, then tried to put esp. the more frequently used keys on the easier combinations/chords.
In Show HN: Clawtype v2.1 – a one-hand chorded USB keyboard and mouse [video]
akavel·Apr 5, 2025
Which part specifically are you asking about? To summarize as of now: - the code in the repo (https://github.com/akavel/clawtype) is under AGPL-v3, so you're totally fine to iterate on this part, as long as you keep the license and it terms - which means you should be able to sell it all fine, just also providing users the iterated code, so they can further iterate on their own; - the 3d-printed parts & structure design (https://www.printables.com/model/1231156-clawtype) is CC BY-NC-SA, so you can iterate on that part as long as you keep those terms - let me know (https://merveilles.town/@akavel/) if you want to negotiate the terms with the designer, or just reach out to him by yourself; - in the US, some aspects of the design are covered by A PATENT by the original inventor & designer John W. McKown, as explained on the original Chordite
Read the rest
page: https://web.archive.org/web/20220201061603/http://chordite.c... with an exception for personal use - the patent is http://www.google.com/patents/US6429854 - though IIUC the google page seems to claim it's expired, whatever this means in the legal system, and google claim IANAL on the page too. - or do you mean some other aspect?
In Show HN: Clawtype v2.1 – a one-hand chorded USB keyboard and mouse [video]
akavel·Apr 4, 2025Submission

Show HN: Clawtype v2.1 – a one-hand chorded USB keyboard and mouse [video]

Written in Rust (embassy), running on a SparkFun ProMicro RP2040 board, with an MPU6050 gyroscope. Based on the Chordite idea from John W. McKown (https://web.archive.org/web/20220201061603/http://chordite.c...). Intended for use with XR glasses I recently bought. Currently my typing speed is still rather slow, but my skill is graduably improving and at a noticeable pace, and I can and do some vim coding in my hobby time. I plan to try and do a wireless (BLE) version next, hopefully running off a single AA NiMH battery. The code is at: https://github.com/akavel/clawtype
106 points · Open discussion

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