axel

Components

Native macOS app (SwiftUI)

• Five‑column workspace layout for tasks, inbox, terminals, skills, and team.
• SSE inbox for real‑time agent events and permission requests.
• SwiftData + Automerge for local state + cross‑device sync.

Axel CLI (Rust)

• Launches tmux grids and agent panes.
• Reads AXEL.md layouts and skills.
• Manages worktrees and session recovery.

Terminal layer

• Ghostty for fast, modern terminal emulation.
• tmux for pane orchestration.
• git worktrees for clean agent isolation.

Quick Start

Requirements: macOS 14+, Xcode 15+ (for app), Rust (for CLI dev)

# Open the app in Xcode
open Axel.xcodeproj

# Run the app (Debug)
./run.sh

When you launch Axel, it can install the CLI to ~/.local/bin if it isn’t already present.

A Typical Flow

1. Create a task “Refactor API caching”
2. Assign it to Claude in a new worktree
3. Claude runs in tmux + Ghostty
4. Permission requests appear in Inbox
5. Review output, merge, and mark done

Project Structure (Partial)

Axel/
├── Views/macOS/          # macOS UI (tasks, inbox, terminals)
├── Services/             # SSE inbox, sync, CLI orchestration
├── Models/               # SwiftData entities
Packages/
├── GhosttyKit/           # terminal emulation
├── AutomergeWrapper/     # CRDT sync wrapper

Contributing

We want Axel to feel like a tool you want to use daily.

Here’s what we value in contributions:

• Workflow‑first: every feature should reduce mental overhead for multi‑agent work.
• Beautifully restrained UI: clarity and delight, never clutter.
• Terminal authenticity: real tmux panes, real worktrees, no fakery.
• Performance: fast startup, fast rendering, fast agent recovery.

If you’re interested, open an issue or send a PR with:

• a short problem statement
• a proposed solution
• any design notes or workflow details

Related Experiments

We’ve built other systems in this space (not necessarily good, but useful lessons):

• https://github.com/txtx/surfpool
• https://github.com/txtx/moneymq

Status

Axel is under active development. The core workflow is here, and we’re making it sharper every week.

See CLAUDE.md for workspace‑specific notes.