Clanker Grid
A developer workspace for the terminal-native era.
Clanker Grid is a single-window desktop app that brings your terminals, AI coding agents, git tools, and a browser together in one focused workspace. It's built for developers who live in the terminal and want their tools to live there too.
What it does
- Terminal grid — multiple terminal panes in flexible split layouts, with proper copy/paste.
- AI harnesses — launch Claude, Codex, OpenCode, Pi, OMP, Antigravity, or Hermes straight into a pane. Search and resume supported harness conversations locally or on an SSH host.
- Optional Hermes Assistants — connect your named Hermes profiles through
hermes serve, keep each one's persistent Bot Chat open, and pair it with its own embedded Browser. Ordinary Hermes launching is unchanged and needs none of this.
- Harness usage — check subscription usage and remaining quota for Codex, Claude, OMP, Hermes, and Antigravity in the active local or SSH workspace. The Usage popover refreshes while open; choose which providers appear in Harness Defaults.
- New Agent — launch a terminal or agent in main, an existing Git worktree, or a new worktree inside one project. Worktrees persist independently; Source Control handles manual cleanup.
- Local dev servers — run a detected
dev script per checkout from the sidebar, preview it in Browser, and inspect/copy failure diagnostics without adding a terminal pane.
- Git, built in — Source Control pages for Changes, History, Overview, Branches, Worktrees, Stashes, Remotes and Merge, with checkout-aware staging, commits and AI-assisted messages.
- VCS at a glance — PR status, CI checks, and quick links from GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.
- Embedded browser — keep docs, dashboards, or your local app open right next to your code.
- Editor & file tree — CodeMirror-backed editing with syntax highlighting, Markdown preview, and a familiar explorer.
- Multi-workspace and pages — navigate projects with Sidebar or Tabs, arrange live panes across workspace pages, minimize/restore them, and keep multiple independent Browsers.
- SSH workspaces — open a remote Linux/POSIX directory with the built-in SSH directory chooser; terminals, Git, and installed AI harnesses run on that host, while Explorer and the editor monitor its remote files. Manage remote worktrees, track agent attention, resume supported conversations, and preview workspace-owned web services in the embedded Browser with automatic discovery and desktop loopback forwarding. Manual forwarding remains available as a fallback.
- Credentials handled — SSH key generation and encrypted PAT storage built in.
Supported platforms
- Linux (x64) — primary development and required CI platform; AppImage build, tested on current desktop distributions. This is the actively produced release artifact for the current release.
- Windows 10 1809+ / Windows 11 (x64) — best-effort supported, without a native Windows CI or release gate. Compatibility code, tests and packaging remain; Windows artifacts may lag Linux releases. When produced, Windows builds are unsigned; SmartScreen will display a warning on first launch — choose More info → Run anyway to continue.
macOS, ARM64, and WSL are not produced in this release. WSL users should run the Linux AppImage.
SSH workspaces connect from the desktop app to remote Linux/POSIX hosts. Automatic web preview forwarding requires no Clanker daemon or helper on the host. Remote Windows hosts remain unsupported; see SSH Workspaces.
Install
Pre-built artifacts are attached to each GitHub release:
Clanker Grid-X.Y.Z.AppImage — Linux. chmod +x and run.Clanker Grid Setup X.Y.Z.exe — Windows installer (NSIS), when a Windows artifact is produced. Adds Start Menu and uninstaller entries.Clanker Grid X.Y.Z.exe — Windows portable, when a Windows artifact is produced. Run without installing.
See docs/getting-started.md for first-launch walkthrough and docs/windows.md for Windows-specific notes (long paths, line endings, UNC workspaces, SSH lookup).
Quick start (development)
git clone https://github.com/Bynzski/clanker.git
cd clanker
npm install
npm run dev
Requires Node.js 22.12+ and npm 10+.
Windows contributors: install Git for Windows. Husky pre-commit hooks execute through the sh that ships with Git for Windows. Native modules (node-pty) are rebuilt against the Electron ABI on first npm install.
To build a distributable for the current platform:
npm run build
npm run build:dist
On Linux this produces an AppImage in release/. On Windows it produces an NSIS installer and a portable executable in release/. There is no cross-compilation — each platform must be built on its own host. See RELEASING.md for the release flow, including Linux-only releases.
Documentation
The documentation index separates current user guides, developer references, smoke tests, and deferred designs. The guides describe current main; they are not limited to the last binary release. CHANGELOG.md groups post-release changes under Unreleased until the next release is cut.
- Getting Started — installation and first launch
- Workspaces — opening, switching, and managing workspaces (sidebar or tabs)
- SSH Workspaces — remote setup, directory browsing, and V1 limits
- Terminals & Harnesses — terminal panes and AI integrations
- Harness Usage — quota windows, refresh behavior, and provider visibility
- Local Dev Servers — checkout-scoped Run, Install, Browser, and failure diagnostics
- Git Integration — built-in git tools and worktree management
- VCS Providers — GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket
- Browser Tabs & History — tabs, navigation, and DevTools
- Browser Annotation — element selection for AI agents
- File Explorer — tree navigation and file operations
- Configuration — settings and credentials
- Keyboard Shortcuts — quick navigation
For development setup, see CONTRIBUTING.md. For codebase architecture and agent guidance, see AGENTS.md.
License
MIT
