nightcrow

Agent-adjacent terminal workbench — git diff viewer, commit log, and multi-pane terminal multiplexer in one window. Tuned for sitting next to LLM CLIs (Claude Code, Codex, aider) or any process that touches your working tree, but nightcrow itself has no AI ontology — it watches files and PTYs, not agents.

nightcrow runs as a session: one process holds the repositories and the terminals, and you reach it from a terminal (nightcrow attach) or a browser. Closing a client leaves the session running.

Runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows — one Rust binary, the same TUI and the same browser view on all three.

 ~/projects/myapp   main   ↑2 ↓0
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Files           │ @@ -36,7 +36,12 @@                 │
│  M src/app.rs   │  fn collect_hunks(                  │
│ M  src/diff.rs  │ -    mut on_file: impl FnMut(...),  │
│▶MM src/main.rs  │ +    on_file: impl FnMut(...)       │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [1] claude  [2] aider  [3] bash                      │
│ $ cargo test                                         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
 j/k: scroll | /: search | v: view file | <prefix> q: detach

Install

The built viewer bundle is committed, so this needs no Node toolchain:

cargo install --git https://github.com/code0xff/nightcrow --locked

Requires Rust 1.85+ (edition 2024) on macOS, Linux, or Windows. Other install routes are in Getting started.

Quick start

# The one-command way in: background the session and attach the TUI to it.
# If a session is already running, it attaches to that one instead of
# starting a second. It reopens the repositories from last time.
nightcrow -d attach

The pieces on their own, when you want them separately:

# Just the session, backgrounded — returns your shell.
nightcrow -d

# From another terminal: bring up the TUI on that session.
nightcrow attach

# Foreground, for a service manager or to watch the startup output.
nightcrow

# Ask a running session to shut down.
nightcrow stop

-d gives the session its own process group, so closing the terminal you started it from does not stop it; what it would have printed goes to ~/.nightcrow/daemon.out. Under a service manager, start it without -d — backgrounding is what the manager does itself.

The session prints the address of its browser view (http://127.0.0.1:8091/ by default) and the socket an attaching terminal uses. Both show the same repositories — open one with <prefix> o in the TUI or the folder picker in the browser, and it appears in the other.

The leader (prefix) key is Ctrl+F by default. Press it, then one key: <prefix> o opens a repo, <prefix> t a terminal pane, <prefix> l the commit log, <prefix> b the file tree, <prefix> f fullscreen, <prefix> q detaches. Every other key — including Ctrl chords — passes straight through to the focused terminal, so the CLI running there receives them unchanged.

Key	Action
<prefix> t	New terminal pane
<prefix> w	Close pane
<prefix> l	Toggle commit log
<prefix> b	Toggle file tree
<prefix> f	Toggle fullscreen
<prefix> s	Swap pane prompt
<prefix> z	Claim pane sizing
<prefix> c	Cancel recovery
<prefix> o	Open project
<prefix> x	Close project
<prefix> p	Cycle theme
<prefix> u	Reload config
<prefix> r	Redraw
<prefix> q	Detach (the session keeps running)
<prefix> 1	Focus file list
<prefix> 2	Focus diff viewer
<prefix> 3…<prefix> 9	Switch to pane 0–6
<prefix> 0	Switch to pane 7

What it does

• Up to 10 repositories at once, each a project tab with its own git views, snapshot worker, and terminal panes. → Projects
• Three views over each repo — changed files with a syntax-highlighted diff, a tig-like commit log, and a read-only file tree you can browse and search. → Views
• A split-grid terminal panel where every visible pane renders at once, with scrollback, OSC title capture, and mouse routing. → Keyboard and mouse
• A browser surface serving the same git data and the same terminals, with a phone layout and an on-screen key bar. → Web viewer
• Recent-activity highlighting — files touched in the last few seconds are accented, so you see what an agent just changed. → Session state
• Session persistence — tabs, selection, scroll, and view mode come back on the next launch. Nothing is written inside your repositories.
• Plugins for behaviour that must know a specific CLI; the bundled nightcrow-recovery waits out a provider's usage limit and re-opens the session. → Plugins

Configure it in ~/.nightcrow/config.toml (nightcrow init writes a commented starter) — see Configuration.

Security. The web viewer serves repository contents and interactive terminals, so an authenticated session is equivalent to shell access. It binds to loopback and speaks plain HTTP with no built-in TLS. For remote access, tunnel it over SSH or put it behind a TLS reverse proxy.

Documentation

Full docs are in docs/ — usage guides per surface, the architecture, and the design-decision history.

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.