Better Agent Terminal

A Tauri-powered terminal aggregator with multi-workspace support and built-in AI agent integration

Manage multiple project terminals in one window, with built-in Claude Code and Codex agent panels, file browser, git viewer, snippet manager, and remote access — all in a single Tauri app.

Version 3.0 is the Tauri-only release. The Electron runtime has been removed; the app now uses a Rust/Tauri host, a React renderer, and a small bundled Node sidecar only where JavaScript SDK/runtime support is still required.

Download Latest Release

Mobile Apps

Mobile apps require Better Agent Terminal v3.1.3 or later.

iOS TestFlight	Android
https://l.tonyq.org/bat-ios	https://l.tonyq.org/bat-android

Screenshots

Features

Workspace Management

• Multi-Workspace — Organize terminals by project folders; each workspace binds to a directory
• Drag & Drop — Reorder workspaces freely in the sidebar
• Groups — Categorize workspaces into named groups with a filter dropdown
• Profiles — Save and switch between multiple workspace configurations (local or remote)
• Detachable Windows — Pop out individual workspaces to separate windows; auto-reattach on restart
• Per-Workspace Env Vars — Configure custom environment variables per workspace
• Activity Indicators — Visual dots showing which workspaces have active terminal processes
• Double-click to rename, right-click context menu for all workspace actions

Terminal

• Split-panel layout — 70% main panel + 30% scrollable thumbnail bar showing all terminals
• Multiple terminals per workspace — Powered by xterm.js with full Unicode/CJK support
• Agent presets — Pre-configured terminal roles: Claude Code, Claude Code (worktree), Codex Agent, or plain terminal
• Git worktree isolation — Spawn Claude agents in an isolated worktree to prevent destructive changes to your main working tree
• Tab navigation — Switch between Terminal, Files, and Git views per workspace
• File browser — Search, navigate, and preview files with syntax highlighting (highlight.js)
• Git integration — Commit log, diff viewer, branch display, untracked file list, GitHub link detection
• GitHub panel — Browse PRs and issues directly from the Git tab
• Snippet manager — Save, organize, search, and paste code snippets (SQLite-backed with categories and favorites)
• Markdown preview — Preview .md files in a dedicated right sidebar panel with live file watching and right-click context menu
• Worker panel (Procfile) — Run multiple processes from a Procfile in a single tab with combined log view and per-process start/stop/restart controls, inspired by Overmind
• Per-terminal prompt history — Access previous commands per terminal session

Claude Code Agent

• Built-in Claude Code via SDK — Runs the agent directly inside the app; no separate terminal needed
• Message streaming with extended thinking blocks (collapsible)
• Permission modes — Multiple levels of tool execution control:
  • Default — Approve each tool call individually
  • Accept Edits — Auto-approve file edits, prompt for other tools
  • Plan mode — Agent proposes a plan file first; approve the plan to auto-execute
  • Bypass — Full auto-approval (use with caution)
• Subagent tracking — See spawned subagent tasks with progress indicators, elapsed time, and stall detection
• Session resume — Persist conversations and resume them across app restarts
• Session fork — Branch off from any point in a conversation with pending prompt auto-send
• Rest/Wake sessions — Pause and resume agent sessions from the context menu to save resources
• Effort level — Configure default effort level (high/medium/low) for new agent sessions
• Auto-compact — Automatically compact context when token count exceeds a configurable threshold

Statusline

A configurable status bar at the bottom of the agent panel, with 15 items across three zones (left / center / right):

Items can be reordered, colored, and toggled on/off via a drag-and-drop template editor in Settings.

Cache Cost Awareness

• Cache history — Per-turn cache read/write breakdown with cost calculations per model (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku)
• Cache TTL countdown — Optional floating badge in the top-right corner showing remaining time for 5-minute and 1-hour cache TTLs; updates every 30 seconds, only appears after 1 minute of idle
• Cache expiry warning — Pre-send confirmation dialog when >150k cached tokens have expired (>1 hour), preventing accidental full-price reprocessing

Account & Usage

• Multi-account switching — /switch to manage and switch between multiple Claude accounts
• Usage monitoring — Track API rate limits (5-hour and 7-day windows) via Anthropic OAuth or Chrome session key
• Context usage panel — Visualize token usage breakdown by category (code, conversation, tools, memory, MCP, etc.)

UI & Interaction

• Image attachment — Drag-drop or use the attach button (up to 5 images per message)
• Clickable URLs — Markdown links and bare URLs open in the default browser
• Clickable file paths — Click any file path in agent output to preview it with syntax highlighting and search (Ctrl+F)
• Ctrl+P file picker — Fuzzy-search project files and attach them to the conversation context
• Skills & Agents panels — Browse available slash commands and agent configurations in the right sidebar
• Markdown preview search — In-pane Ctrl+F search inside markdown previews and file previews
• Long MCP tool output collapse — Auto-collapse oversized MCP tool results with a one-click expand
• Notifications — Dock badge, sound, and system notifications on agent completion (configurable)
• Update notifications — Automatic check for new releases on GitHub

Codex Agent

Optional alternate agent backend powered by @openai/codex-sdk. Pick Codex Agent (or Codex Agent (worktree)) from the agent preset list when creating a terminal.

• GPT-5.5 / 5.4 / 5.3-codex / o4-mini / o3 / GPT-4.1 — Switch models inline; ChatGPT login or OpenAI API key
• Sandbox modes — read-only, workspace-write, or danger-full-access
• Approval policies — untrusted, on-request, or never (auto)
• Worktree preset — Spawn Codex in an isolated git worktree, same as the Claude worktree flow
• Session resume — JSONL transcripts under ~/.codex/sessions/ are auto-indexed; resume hits a local cache so re-opening a thread is fast even with months of history
• Inline plan approval — Codex plan items render as approvable blocks in the panel

Semantic Code Navigation (cx)

Optional integration with cx — a tree-sitter-based CLI that gives agents file overviews, symbol search, definitions, and references without spinning up a language server. Useful for cutting context tokens on large codebases: agents can run cx overview (~20 tokens) before deciding which files to actually read.

When enabled in Settings → Agents → cx semantic navigation, BAT:

• Detects cx on PATH (or uses a custom binary path)
• Appends a short system-prompt section telling the agent to prefer cx overview / symbols / definition / references over full file reads
• Sets CX_CACHE_DIR to a per-app cache directory so repeated queries are fast

Install:

After installing, run cx lang add <language> for each language you want grammars for (e.g. rust, typescript, python), then toggle the option in BAT settings. The toggle is off by default — agents continue to work normally without cx installed.

Internationalization (i18n)

• English, Traditional Chinese (繁體中文), Simplified Chinese (简体中文)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Slash Commands

Auto-Continue

Some tasks are too long to finish in a single turn — the agent stops mid-plan, or pauses waiting for the user to say "keep going". /auto-continue (alias /ac) tells the host to re-send a prompt automatically when the turn ends, up to N times.

Syntax (typed into the agent input box):

/auto-continue                  # enable, max 3, prompt="繼續"
/auto-continue 5                # enable, max 5, prompt="繼續"
/auto-continue 繼續做完         # enable, max 3, custom prompt
/auto-continue 10 keep going    # enable, max 10, custom prompt
/ac 5                           # short alias
/auto-continue off              # disable (also: /ac stop)

Behavior

• State lives on the host (per-session), so remote clients and other views see the same counter.
• The counter resets to 0 every time you manually send a new message — your own input always restarts the budget.
• Triggers only when the previous turn ended with subtype=success; errors, abort, max-turns, or rate-limit halts stop auto-continue.
• Skipped if the session is streaming, aborted, or has queued messages.
• Each auto-sent turn shows <prompt> [auto N/max] in the message list so you can tell the agent didn't type that.
• /abort and manual session stop clear the auto-continue state.

Tips

• Use a concrete prompt like /auto-continue 5 請依照 plan 的 step 繼續，做完一步就停下 instead of just 繼續 — the agent behaves more predictably.
• Set a low max (3–5) the first time you try it on a new task, then raise it once you trust the loop.
• Turn it off with /ac off before a long lunch break — auto-continue will happily burn credits while you're away.

Quick Start

Option 1: Homebrew (macOS)

brew install --cask tonyq-org/tap/better-agent-terminal

Option 2: Chocolatey (Windows) (coming soon)

choco install better-agent-terminal

Package is currently pending review on Chocolatey.org.

Option 3: Download Release

Download from Releases for your platform:

The x86_64 AppImage keeps its historical name (BetterAgentTerminal-<version>.AppImage); the arm64 build is published as BetterAgentTerminal-<version>-arm64.AppImage. The install script picks the right one automatically.

Headless / remote server (e.g. ARM cloud hosts):

The same AppImage doubles as a headless remote server — handy for an arm64 cloud box you drive from a mobile/remote client:

# arm64 host
./BetterAgentTerminal-<version>-arm64.AppImage --bat-server --help

Since it is a WebKitGTK app, on a box with no display server, run it under a virtual display:

xvfb-run -a ./BetterAgentTerminal-<version>-arm64.AppImage --bat-server

macOS DMG installation:

1. Download the .dmg file from Releases
2. Double-click the .dmg to mount it
3. Drag Better Agent Terminal into the Applications folder
4. On first launch, macOS may block the app — go to System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway
5. The Claude Code binary is bundled — no separate install needed. (You can still npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code if you prefer to use a system-wide CLI; BAT will pick the global one when present.)

Option 4: Build from Source

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 18+
• Rust stable toolchain
• Platform build tools for Tauri 2: Xcode Command Line Tools on macOS, Microsoft C++ Build Tools/WebView2 on Windows, or the standard Tauri Linux WebKitGTK dependencies
• A Claude account (sign in via /login inside the app, or pre-authenticate the Claude Code CLI — the binary is bundled, no separate global install required)

git clone https://github.com/tony1223/better-agent-terminal.git
cd better-agent-terminal
corepack enable
pnpm install

Development mode:

pnpm run dev

Build for production:

pnpm run build

For an unsigned local installer/package check, use:

pnpm run tauri:build:debug

Option 5: Quick Install (Script)

Run the following command in your terminal (macOS, Linux, or Windows with Git Bash/MSYS2):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tony1223/better-agent-terminal/main/install.sh | bash

This script will detect your OS and install the application to the standard location.

macOS Build Notes

Native dependencies (node-pty, better-sqlite3) require Xcode Command Line Tools:

xcode-select --install

Then:

corepack enable
pnpm install
pnpm run dev      # Development
pnpm run build    # Build signed/release package when signing env is configured
pnpm run tauri:build:debug  # Local unsigned package

Architecture

better-agent-terminal/
├── renderer/                          # React renderer running inside the Tauri webview
│   └── src/
│       ├── App.tsx                    # Root component, layout, profile orchestration
│       ├── components/                # Workspace, terminal, agent, file, git, settings UI
│       ├── stores/                    # Renderer state stores
│       ├── locales/                   # EN / zh-TW / zh-CN translations
│       ├── types/                     # Shared renderer/domain TypeScript types
│       ├── host-api.ts                # Tauri host adapter used by renderer code
│       └── styles/                    # Component-specific styles
├── src-tauri/                         # Tauri host runtime (Rust)
│   ├── src/                           # Commands, PTY, profiles, remote server, sidecar bridge
│   ├── capabilities/                  # Tauri IPC capability declarations
│   ├── windows/                       # Windows installer hooks
│   └── tauri.conf.json                # Tauri app and bundle configuration
├── node-sidecar/                      # Bundled Node sidecar for SDK/runtime pieces not yet native Rust
├── assets/                            # App icons and screenshots
├── scripts/
│   └── build-version.js               # Version string generator
└── package.json

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 18 + TypeScript + i18next (EN / zh-TW / zh-CN)
• Terminal: xterm.js + node-pty
• Framework: Tauri 2, with Rust as the host/runtime layer
• AI: @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk + bundled @anthropic-ai/claude-code binary (Claude); @openai/codex-sdk (Codex Agent)
• Build: Vite + Tauri
• Storage: better-sqlite3 (snippets, session data)
• Remote: Rust WebSocket server/client + QR code connection flow
• Syntax Highlighting: highlight.js

Remote Access & Mobile Connect

BAT includes a built-in WebSocket server that allows other BAT instances or mobile devices to connect and control it remotely. This feature is currently experimental.

How It Works

1. The Host enables the WebSocket server in Settings → Remote Access (default port: 9876)
2. On startup, the server generates a Connection Token (32-character hex string) used to authenticate connections
3. The Client connects by entering the host IP, port, and token via a Remote Profile
4. Once connected, the client can operate all terminals, Claude Agent sessions, workspaces, and other features on the host

Connection Methods

Method 1: Remote Profile (BAT-to-BAT)

On the client BAT instance:

1. Open Settings → Profiles
2. Create a new profile and set the type to Remote
3. Enter the host IP, port (9876), and token
4. Load the profile to connect to the remote host

Method 2: QR Code (Mobile Devices)

On the host BAT instance:

1. Open Settings → Remote Access → Generate QR Code
2. If the server is not yet running, it will start automatically
3. Scan the QR code with a mobile device to retrieve the connection info
4. The QR code contains the WebSocket URL and token (in JSON format)

Recommended: Use Tailscale for Cross-Network Connections

If the host and client are not on the same local network (e.g., connecting from home to an office machine), we recommend using Tailscale to establish a secure peer-to-peer VPN:

• Free plan supports up to 100 devices
• No port forwarding or additional server setup required
• Each device gets a stable 100.x.x.x IP address
• BAT automatically detects Tailscale IPs and uses them preferentially

Installation:

After installation, sign in with the same account on all devices and they will be able to communicate. BAT's QR code will automatically use the Tailscale IP.

Security Notice

Warning: Enabling the Remote Server opens a WebSocket connection. Any device with the token can fully control BAT on the host machine, including executing terminal commands, accessing the file system, and controlling Claude Agent sessions.

• Do not start the server on untrusted networks
• Do not share the token with untrusted parties
• Shut down the server when not in use
• Strongly recommended to use Tailscale to avoid direct exposure to the public internet

Headless Mode (bat-server)

bat-server starts the same Tauri/Rust Remote Server without opening the GUI. It is useful for always-on hosts, SSH sessions, and container-style deployments where another BAT instance connects remotely.

pnpm run start:server -- --port=9876 --bind=localhost

Options:

Environment variables mirror the flags: BAT_DATA_DIR, BAT_TAURI_DATA_DIR, BAT_PORT, BAT_BIND, BAT_TOKEN, and BAT_DEBUG.

On startup, the server prints the wss:// URL, token, certificate fingerprint, data directory, and a one-shot connect URL that can be pasted into a Remote Profile.

Configuration

Workspaces, settings, and session data are saved to:

Debug Logging

Set the BAT_DEBUG=1 environment variable to enable disk-based debug logging. Logs are written to debug.log in the configuration directory.

Release

Version Format

Follows semantic versioning: vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH (e.g., v2.2.27)

Pre-release versions use the -pre.N suffix (e.g., v2.2.28-pre.1). Tags containing -pre are automatically marked as pre-release on GitHub and do not update the Homebrew tap.

Automated Release (GitHub Actions)

Push a tag to trigger builds for all platforms:

git tag v2.2.28
git push origin v2.2.28

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Author

TonyQ - @tony1223

Contributors

• lmanchu - @lmanchu - macOS/Linux support, workspace roles
• bluewings1211 - @bluewings1211 - Shift+Enter newline, preserve workspace state, resizable panels
• Henry Hu - @ninedter - Key API discovery and valuable architectural feedback
• craze429 - @craze429 - Windows/Linux credential reading, permission fix, git parsing fix, async dialog
• Owen - @Owen0857 - Windows zombie process fix, terminal resize black screen fix, debug log cleanup
• MikeThai - @mikethai - macOS .dmg spawn ENOENT fix
• Luke Chang - @lukeme117 - Snippet sidebar and UI improvements

Acknowledgments

• Overmind — Inspired our Worker panel and Procfile-based multi-process management integration
• cx — Semantic code navigation CLI integrated as an optional context-saver for agents

Star History