GitHub - erikqu/workbench-cli: A terminal workbench for running multiple coding agents side by side — tmux-backed, fast, remotely over SSH.

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A terminal workbench for running coding agents side by side—tmux-backed, fast, and free of Electron.

Each workspace gets persistent agent and shell panes, an explorer, live Git changes, and rich file previews in one full-screen TUI.

curl -fsSL https://ehq.so/install | bash

Built with Bun, React 19, and Silvery.

Highlights

• Run Cursor, Claude Code, Gemini, Codex, and OpenCode in separate persistent harness tabs.
• Keep agents and terminals alive across Workbench restarts through a private tmux server.
• Open several workspaces and switch directly with visible Option-number hints.
• Inspect Explorer files and live Git changes beside the active harness.
• Preview Markdown, Mermaid diagrams, images, PDFs, and video.
• Use the mouse for tabs, session cards, resizing, selection, and scrolling.
• Open the complete in-app shortcut guide from ? Help or Ctrl+?.

Terminal Support

Workbench is developed and tested in Ghostty. Other terminals may work, especially Kitty-compatible or Sixel-capable ones, but are experimental and may differ in rendering, mouse input, images, cursor behavior, or tmux passthrough.

The outer terminal controls the live TUI font. JetBrains Mono is recommended; 14–16 px is a good starting point. The browser-backed test harness bundles JetBrains Mono so screenshots remain deterministic.

Install and Update

Install from source:

curl -fsSL https://ehq.so/install | bash

The installer:

1. Ensures a compatible Bun is available.
2. Checks out Workbench under ~/.local/share/workbench-cli by default.
3. Installs the package dependencies.
4. Links both workbench-cli and work into ~/.local/bin.

Workbench checks for a newer release when it starts and updates a clean, installer-managed checkout automatically. Network failures do not block startup, and checkouts with local changes are never overwritten. Set WORKBENCH_CLI_AUTO_UPDATE=0 to disable the startup check.

You can also update an existing installation immediately with either form:

work update
workbench-cli update

The updater preserves the checkout and launcher locations and refuses to overwrite an installation checkout with local changes. The in-app Update button saves the layout, detaches the persistent panes, and restarts Workbench in the same terminal so the newly installed version takes effect immediately.

Anonymous analytics

Workbench sends a small set of anonymous product-usage events to PostHog so the project can understand which features are useful. Events include app launches, workspace/harness/terminal creation, theme changes, repository-clone outcomes, and manual-update outcomes. Workbench does not send prompts, terminal content, file paths, filenames, repository URLs, or other workspace content. GeoIP and person-profile processing are disabled.

Set WORKBENCH_TELEMETRY=0 or DO_NOT_TRACK=1 to disable analytics. Analytics are also disabled automatically for work --hot, tests, screenshots, and E2E runs. The PostHog host and public project token can be overridden with WORKBENCH_POSTHOG_HOST and WORKBENCH_POSTHOG_KEY.

Run

work
work path/to/project
work --harness claude
work --splash
work path/to/project --harness codex --hot

workbench-cli is the equivalent long command. The path defaults to the current directory. If a path entered in the New Workspace dialog does not exist, Workbench creates it recursively.

Available harness IDs are codex, cursor, claude, gemini, and opencode. For a new installation Workbench prefers the first installed CLI in this order: Codex, Cursor, then Claude Code; it falls back to Codex when none can be detected. Override the choice with --harness, --agent, or WORKBENCH_UI_HARNESS_ID.

Use Codex and Claude Code in the same Workbench workspace, with each agent kept alive in its own tab.

Use work --splash to hold the startup artwork on screen until the first key press or click, which is useful for previewing it at the current terminal size.

Every new workspace starts with one harness and one shell terminal, both rooted in that workspace directory.

Interface

• Sessions: outlined workspace cards on the left. The selected card is themed, hovering highlights a card, and a flowing lower edge indicates a running harness. Right-click for Close Others, Close to the Top, and Close to the Bottom.
• Tabs: harnesses, terminals, Changes, and files across the top. Right-click for Close Others, Close to the Left, and Close to the Right.
• Workspace pane: active harness, Explorer, Terminals, and Changes.
• Harness header: restart the current harness in place with ↻, or use switch ... to add/select another harness.
• Help: click ? Help or press Ctrl+? for the current command guide.

Closing a tab or workspace kills its backing private tmux pane immediately. Quitting Workbench only detaches panes so they can be restored on the next run.

Keyboard Shortcuts

When a harness or shell owns focus, ordinary keys—including its own shortcuts— are sent to that PTY. Clickable Help remains available if the terminal cannot distinguish Ctrl+? from Backspace.

Persistence and Local Data

Workbench stores layout and tab identity in ~/.workbench/workbench-ui-state.json. Agent and terminal processes run on the private tmux socket ~/.workbench/tmux-ui.sock; Workbench never uses or destroys the user's normal tmux server.

Development

Start with the development guide. Package-specific runtime notes live in workbench-ui/README.md, and invariants for coding agents live in AGENT.md.

License

MIT