Agent Code

Open-source Electron-based AI-native IDE built around the real Claude Code and Codex CLIs.

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Agent Code is an open-source Electron IDE for driving the real Claude Code and Codex CLIs from a workspace built for multi-agent development.

Why it exists

Claude Code and Codex are strong runtimes: real permission flows, tool loops, compaction, resume behavior, and provider-specific decisions. Wrappers usually throw that away — they call a thin API, reuse fragile token paths, or rebuild a tiny chat surface. That may look clean, but it loses most of what makes the real products useful.

At the same time, Anthropic is closing OAuth to non-official clients. OpenCode and similar projects have already been blocked. The official Claude Code app works, but it is not built for deep customization or serious parallelization — running many agents means managing panes, prompts, transcripts, worktrees, and provider limits manually in a terminal.

Agent Code takes a third route: keep the native runtimes, own the workspace around them.

How it works

Agent Code launches the user's already-installed claude and codex CLIs through two standalone open-source packages: claude-code-headless and codex-headless.

They wrap each CLI in a PTY and expose the runtime as an API — JSONL transcripts, provider conditions, permission and trust prompts, semantic streaming, and screen state for anything the CLI only shows in the terminal. Agent Code consumes that API to rebuild the agent surface in React without replacing the underlying agent loop. Same auth. Same tools. Same session behavior.

Because Agent Code also owns transcript translation (agent-transcript-parser), a running session can move mid-task from Claude Code to Codex or back.

What you can do with it

• Tiled workspace — many agent and terminal sessions in a real pane layout.

• Fleet management — manage detached agents outside the fixed grid. Bulk actions cover the multi-project cases: closing agents that have been inactive across every project, pinning them for quick access, or reattaching them to the grid.

  

• Provider switching — move any session between Claude and Codex, individually or in bulk, without losing state.

• Custom rendering — React feed built from committed transcripts, semantic streams, tool calls, and provider conditions. The raw terminal stays available.

• Persistent terminals — tmux-backed shells that survive UI reloads.

• Built-in MCP + agent control — orchestration lets a parent create and coordinate real Agent Code children. The independently configurable Agent Management MCP can inventory every grid, Dispatch, and buried agent in the caller's project, expose transcript/activity evidence, read bounded outputs, and send follow-ups. Destructive close is restricted to an explicit current user request and refuses self-close or multi-session cascades.

  

• Prompt and transcript tools — search, rewind, duplicate, resume-command copy, prompt templates. Reader Mode gives a paginated, distraction-free view of long sessions for reviewing what an agent actually did.

  

• Voice dictation — via agent-voice-dictation.

• Shared agent conventions — save personal development and Git practices once and expose the same native Agent Skill to Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode, with collision-safe installation and explicit deployment health.

• Diagnostics — durable local evidence for provider exits, transcript drift, rendering issues, and near-OOM events.

Getting started

Requires Node 22.12+ (CI builds on 24 — see .nvmrc), plus claude and codex on PATH. The headless runtimes live as git submodules, so clone with them included:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/Juliusolsson05/agent-code.git
cd agent-code
npm install
npm run dev

If you already cloned without --recurse-submodules, initialize them once:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Submodules are load-bearing: the dev build compiles the five package submodules (claude-code-headless, codex-headless, opencode-headless, agent-transcript-parser, agent-voice-dictation) straight from their src/ via Vite aliases, so npm run dev will not start without them checked out. All submodule repos are public; no special access is needed (CI's SUBMODULE_PAT/SUBMODULE_SSH_KEY plumbing predates them being public and is kept for private forks).

To build distributable macOS DMG and ZIP artifacts for Apple Silicon and Intel:

npm run dist:mac

dist:mac fetches and verifies the pinned runtime tools before building, then checks out unsigned development artifacts when no Developer ID identity is configured. Public releases use .github/workflows/release.yml, which requires a Developer ID Application certificate and Apple notarization credentials and verifies both thin app bundles before upload. For day-to-day development, use npm run dev.

Companion packages

• claude-code-headless — headless Claude Code control layer
• codex-headless — headless Codex control layer
• agent-transcript-parser — Claude/Codex transcript conversion and rewind
• agent-voice-dictation — dictation primitives for agent composer UIs

Status

Active beta. The upstream CLIs move quickly; so does this project.

License

MIT