Tidewatch is a desktop app for macOS and Linux that runs AI coding agents in one window per git repo. Every tab is its own git worktree, a separate checkout on its own branch, so several agents can work on the same repo without touching each other's files. You watch them, read what they did, comment on their diffs and decide what ships.
Features
The terminal is on the left and the history of that worktree on the right. Click a commit for its files, a file for its diff in the terminal's place.
A new tab makes a worktree and starts Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Copilot CLI in it. Profiles set the agent, model and permission level. Agent tabs block git push.
An agent tab shows the agent's answer as readable text on top of the live terminal. One shortcut flips to the raw terminal.
Leave a note on a line of the diff, then send the notes to the agent as one message.
Chain stages, each with its own agent profile. Ship a feature, Fix a bug and Review a PR come built in, and there is an editor for your own. Gates can send the work back a stage.
When the work is ready, Tidewatch shows the commits and the pull request text. When you approve, it pushes and opens the pull request with gh.
Overview lists every tab with its state: working, needs you, done or failed. Focus mode hides the history so the terminal gets the whole window.
Quitting saves your tabs. The next launch brings them back and resumes the agents where the CLI can. After a crash the resume command is typed and waits for your Enter.
On first launch Tidewatch asks before it marks its worktree folder as trusted in the agent CLIs' own config files. It changes nothing without a yes, and Settings can undo it.
One file, ~/.config/tidewatch/house-style.md, tells every agent how to write its answers. Edit it freely: Tidewatch never overwrites it.
Overview shows each tab and what it is doing, with the tabs that need you on top. A badge on the button counts them, so you can look away until one does.
The Reader turns the agent's session into text you can skim: what it said, which tools it ran, and a question when it needs permission. Flip to the raw terminal any time.
A new tab starts with a choice: an agent, a workflow or a plain shell. Pick a profile and its permission level, from read only up to a YOLO level that asks first, and the tab opens at once. You say what to do in the tab, not in the dialog.
Write the steps once: work, review, refactor. Each stage has its own agent, model and permissions, and a gate that Tidewatch checks before the next stage starts.
The command palette lists every command, the other open tabs, each agent profile and each workflow. A drop-down window on a hotkey keeps Tidewatch one keystroke away.
Built from
Tidewatch is made by Hoboware from the parts of Kelp and stdusk that it needs.
Install
macOS gets a universal app through the Homebrew cask. Linux gets a tarball and an AppImage from the GitHub Release.
On macOS, with Homebrew. On Linux, download the AppImage or tarball from the latest release.
$ brew install hobo-ware/tap/tidewatchPass the git repo you want a window for.
$ tidewatch ~/code/my-repoInstall at least one agent CLI: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Copilot CLI. Tidewatch finds the ones on your PATH. Delivery needs gh.
$ claude --versionBuilds are not yet signed with an Apple Developer ID: the Homebrew cask clears the download flag, so the app opens without a warning. To build from source instead: cargo run -p tidewatch -- <repo>. Details are in the README.