About
More and more terminal work runs at the same time: coding agents on different
tasks, a dev server, tests. Close the window and the work stops. Restart the
computer and you set it all up again by hand. And an agent can wait an hour
for your answer, in a tab you don't see.
With hive, your sessions keep running when you close the app, and they come
back after a restart. You see every agent in one place, and the ones waiting
for you come first. Everything you can do in the app, a script or an agent
can do through the same API.
- Keeps your sessions. Close the app, stop the server, or reboot. Layouts,
scrollback and working directories come back.
- Knows your agents. Claude Code reports what it is doing and when it
needs you. After a restart, each agent continues its conversation.
- Has an API for everything. The app, the
hive CLI, your scripts and
your agents all use one self-describing API.
- Feels like a normal terminal. It draws terminals with Ghostty's
terminal engine. Scrolling and selection are native, with no copy mode.
- Reaches your other machines. Run hive on a Linux box or another Mac,
and its sessions sit next to yours. It connects over Tailscale.
- Works from your phone. hive for Android shows the same sessions on your
phone, and you can answer an agent from a notification.
- Talks only to your machines. There is no account and no telemetry.
Install
Download from Releases:
| File | For |
|---|
hive-VERSION-macos-arm64.tar.gz | The server and the CLI, on macOS with Apple Silicon |
hive-VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz | The server and the CLI, on Linux x86_64 with glibc 2.28 or later |
Hive-VERSION-macos-arm64.zip | Hive.app, for macOS 14 or later |
hive-VERSION-android.apk | hive for Android 10 or later |
SHA256SUMS | Checksums of the files |
Hive.app isn't signed with an Apple Developer ID yet, so macOS asks you to
approve its first launch. Installation
shows how, how to check a download, and how to build from source.
Let your agent set it up
Paste this into Claude Code, Codex, or any coding agent:
Fetch and follow the instructions at
https://manueltarouca.github.io/hive/agent-setup/prompt.md
to set me up with hive.
The agent installs hive and its skills, connects Claude Code, and can move
your tmux sessions over one window at a time. In Claude Code you can add the
skills as a plugin yourself:
claude plugin marketplace add manueltarouca/hive
claude plugin install hive@hive
Then /hive:hive drives hive, /hive:hive-setup sets it up, and
/hive:hive-from-tmux moves tmux sessions over. Update them with
claude plugin update hive@hive.
Quick start
hive new work --cwd ~/src/app # a session; starts the server if needed
hive -s work split --split below -- htop # a pane under the current one
hive -s work run --label tests --wait -- go test ./... # exits with the tests' status
hive -b tests capture --tail 5 # the last lines it printed
hive ls # every session
Inside a hive terminal, commands act on that terminal's own session and pane,
so you rarely need -s or -b.
Restarts
A stopped server, a crash or a reboot ends the programs, but not the
sessions. The next hive command brings back every session with its layout
and labels. Each pane gets its screen and scrollback, a ── restored ── line,
then a shell in its last directory, or its agent, resumed in that shell.
Other programs are not run again.
Agents
hive agent install claude # add hive's hooks to Claude Code
hive agents # every agent, the ones waiting for you first
STATE HARNESS SESSION BLOCK DIR SINCE MESSAGE
blocked claude api-gateway …a29f3 ~/src/api now Claude needs your permission to use Bash
working claude hive-demo agent ~/src/hive 2m ago
hive agent uninstall claude removes the hooks again. After a restart, each
agent pane resumes its conversation: claude --resume, codex resume,
opencode -s, gemini --resume or grok --resume.
More about agents.
Scripting
The CLI wraps a JSON API, on a Unix socket and on your tailnet, and the server
describes it:
hive api list # every method
hive api describe session.new_split # its arguments, as JSON Schema
hive events -s work --json # a live stream of what happens
Command names, method names and exit codes are stable: they break only in a
new major version. See the CLI
and the server API.
Other machines and your phone
A hive server on another machine works like the one on your Mac. Start it
with a listener on your tailnet, then add it:
hive server start --tailscale --tailscale-hostname box # on the other machine
hive hosts add box https://box.example.ts.net # here; your tailnet's name
hive -S box ls # any command, on that machine
Hive.app shows every host's sessions in one list. On Android, add your hosts
by scanning the code from Hive → Share Hosts with Phone.
Remote hosts and
hive on your phone have
the details.
How it works
One Go program, hive, is both the server and the CLI. The server owns every
terminal: a PTY plus a headless copy of Ghostty's terminal engine
(libghostty-vt). It saves layouts
and terminal snapshots to disk. The Mac app (Swift, AppKit, Metal) and the
Android app mirror each terminal through an ordered byte stream and draw it
themselves. ARCHITECTURE.md has the details.
Build from source
You need Go 1.27 and Zig 0.16 exactly (Ghostty's build refuses other
versions). The Mac app needs Xcode 27 to build.
brew install go [email protected]
git clone https://github.com/manueltarouca/hive && cd hive
make vt # once: builds Ghostty's terminal library
make build # ./bin/hive
apps/macos/script/bundle.sh && open apps/macos/build/Hive.app
Installation covers
Linux and the Android app.
Status
hive is young. The server, the CLI, the Mac app, remote hosts and the Android
app work, and Claude Code has the deepest integration. Planned next: scripts
and key bindings that run inside hive.
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md. Report security problems privately,
as SECURITY.md says.
Thanks
hive stands on Ghostty's terminal engine and
Tailscale, and uses
JetBrains Mono,
Inter and Noto.
License
MIT
