Codara Studio

Codara Studio is a desktop app for working with AI coding agents. It puts your terminals, your agent CLIs (Claude Code, Codex, Grok and Pi), a built-in browser the agents can drive, and an orchestrating agent called Cora in one window, so you can hand off work, watch it happen, and step in when an agent needs you.

It is for developers who already use terminal coding agents and want one place to run several of them side by side, across projects and accounts.

• Download: studio.codarasolutions.com (macOS and Windows). macOS builds are signed and notarized. Windows builds are not signed yet, so SmartScreen warns on first run; SECURITY.md shows how to verify an installer. On Linux, build it yourself (see Build from source).
• Updates: releases are cut nightly whenever something new has been merged, and a running app hears about a new release within seconds.
• License: MIT.

What you get

• Terminals and workspaces. Tabs and split panes, grouped into one workspace per project folder, local or over SSH. Shell integration for zsh, bash and PowerShell lets Codara tell when a command or an agent turn starts and ends. Your shell startup files are never edited.
• Agent CLIs in panes. The + menu opens a Claude Code, Codex, Grok or Pi pane in one click. Codara notices when Claude Code, Codex, Grok or Pi finishes a turn or needs you, even in a background workspace.
• Cora, the orchestrator. Describe the work in a Cora chat. Cora plans it, hands pieces to Claude, Codex, Grok or Pi workers in their own panes, checks the results, and asks you only when it must. Every chat has a kanban board and a whiteboard that you and Cora both edit.
• A browser agents can use. A real Chromium tab that Claude Code, Codex, Grok and Cora drive through Codara's MCP tools: navigate, click, type, take screenshots, read the console and network.
• Automations. Reusable graphs of agent workers and plain steps (shell, script, HTTP, file, notification) that run on a schedule, on a git or folder event, or on demand, with budgets and loop limits.
• Several accounts per CLI. Keep more than one Claude, ChatGPT or Grok sign-in and switch which one is Active. For Claude Code and Codex a switch works like /login as another account, so your settings, history and MCP sign-ins stay put.
• Everything else you need nearby. A code editor, file search, git and GitHub pull requests, usage and cost meters, desktop notifications, a cora CLI to drive Cora from any terminal, and optional pairing with the Codara phone app to follow and answer from anywhere.

Quick start

1. Install the app and open it. A first-run guide checks your tools (Git, Python 3, Node.js, Claude Code, Codex), connects an account, and helps you pick a project folder. See Getting started.
2. Open a terminal with Cmd+T (Ctrl+T on Windows and Linux) and run claude, codex, grok or pi as usual, or pick one from the + menu.
3. Click Cora in the tab bar and describe what you want done.
4. Ask any agent to check its work in the browser: the Codara Studio MCP server is given to the Claude Code, Codex and Grok sessions Codara starts.

To connect to your agents, Codara passes its MCP server and hooks on the command line of each session it starts, and never edits your own Claude Code or Codex config unless you turn on Codara tools in other apps. The server can be switched off for each CLI in the Capability Center (the Tools button in the Cora composer). Every file Codara touches outside its own ~/.codarastudio folder is listed in docs/on-your-machine.md.

Cora runs on the Pi coding agent (@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent, 0.85.1 or newer). Install it with npm install -g @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent or with Install Pi in Settings, Agents, and update it yourself whenever you like; until you do, Cora runs on a Pi build bundled with the app. The same pi works in any terminal.

Accounts in brief

Each account is one sign-in (Claude, ChatGPT or Grok) that both Cora and the matching terminal tool use. One account per CLI is the Active one.

• Claude Code and Codex run every account in your own ~/.claude and ~/.codex. Switching the Active account works like /login as another account: MCP sign-ins, settings, history and project trust stay, and terminals outside Codara see the new account too. It also works the other way: a /login or codex login in any terminal as an account Codara knows makes it the Active one within a minute.
• Grok keeps a private home per managed account.
• Pi panes use your own ~/.pi and its own sign-ins.
• Codara is the one refresher of a Claude login: while Studio runs, it renews the Active login before Claude Code would, and Cora asks Codara instead of refreshing its own copy.

Manage accounts in Settings, Agents, or with cora auth. The full story is in docs/accounts.md.

Documentation

Page	Read it when you want to
Getting started	Install the app and get through the first-run guide.
Accounts	Add accounts, switch the Active one, and understand sign-in and refresh.
Shortcuts and settings	Look up a key binding or find which Settings tab holds an option.
The cora CLI	Drive Cora and inspect runs from a terminal.
MCP tools	See which Codara tools an agent gets and what each one does.
Worktree setup	Make every new worktree start with its .env files, dependencies and terminals.
Whiteboards and review	Understand Cora's project maps and what "Cora reviewed" means.
Remote access	Pair a phone and understand what a paired device can do.
What Codara writes on your machine	Audit or undo every file and setting Codara touches.
Glossary

docs/harness-lab/ and docs/benchmarks/ hold measurement records from experiments on Cora's harness. They are evidence, not guides.

Build from source

You need Node 22 or newer (see .nvmrc), a C++ toolchain for the native modules (node-pty, sodium-native), and Python 3.8 or newer for the Claude Code hook script.

npm install              # also rebuilds native modules for Electron
npm run dev              # hot-reloading development build
npm run typecheck        # node, web and e2e projects
npm test                 # the unit suites (scripts/test-*.{cjs,mjs})
npm test -- hook         # only suites whose name matches a regex
npm run test:e2e         # Playwright against a fresh build
npm run package:linux    # an AppImage for Linux (package:mac, package:win too)

Before opening a pull request, read CONTRIBUTING.md. AI agents working in this repository follow AGENTS.md. New to the code? Start with the codebase tour.

Releases

The Release GitHub Actions workflow runs every night at 02:17 UTC. It tests, builds and signs everything merged since the last vX.Y.Z tag, tags the built commit, then publishes the installers and update feeds. A night with nothing new is skipped. docs/releasing.md covers version bumps, recovery of a failed publication, and the manual fallback.

License

Codara Studio is open source under the MIT License, copyright Codara Solutions. Use it, modify it, redistribute it and build on it, commercially or otherwise; keep the copyright and permission notice with copies of the software. Report security problems as described in SECURITY.md.