Mission control
for coding agents.
Houston is a Mac app for running coding agents. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Grok, or a local model: each project gets a chat, a real terminal, its dev servers with live links, and its git state in one window.
For running coding agents all day
Every harness.
One chat.
Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Grok, and local models through Pi, each running through its own CLI. Switch the harness from the composer. Permissions, thinking, and the context meter stay in view whichever one is answering.
Chat and terminal.
One workspace.
A project's chat and its terminal share a top bar and a side panel. Chats, terminals, branches, and servers move between the two with one click, and the surface underneath swaps without stopping anything.
Your dev server,
on any device.
Houston finds every dev server on the machine. One switch puts it at project.local for any phone on your Wi-Fi, with a QR code. The other gives it a live link on the web, with an access code if you want one. Hot reload works through both.
Told the moment
an agent needs you.
Run agents in several projects at once. When one asks for permission, goes idle, or finishes a turn, its row flags, the menu bar dot lights, and a notification arrives. Click it and you land on the exact chat or terminal that is waiting.
Ask about
one paragraph.
Hover a paragraph of a reply and ask about just that. The thread opens beside the chat with the quote at the top, the answer comes from the same session, and the main conversation never moves.
Highlight it.
Press ⌘S.
Any text an agent writes can become a task. Select it, press ⌘S, and it lands in the open project's list while the tasks menu drops open to show it. Nothing to copy, no app to switch to.
The rest of
the app.
The things you will use every day, listed.
Model, context, and limits, in view
A status bar under each terminal shows what Claude Code reports: the model, context used against its real window, rate limits with reset times, and cost. The chat has the same meter and rolls into a fresh session past 80%.
Git in three stages
Uncommitted, committed but not pushed, and synced with the remote. Open a commit for its files and diffs. The branch chip carries a dot: green when clean, amber when there is work to commit.
Projects, pinned where you want them
Add a single repo or a folder of them. Each project shows its own icon, the ones you live in pin above the line, and a click opens its latest chat, or whichever one is waiting on you.
Real terminals
Panes run on libghostty, the engine behind Ghostty, in the project's directory with your own shell and dotfiles. Split right with ⌥⌘D or down with ⇧⌘D. Run any CLI agent in one.
Model, effort, permissions
Every provider's models in one menu, plus local models through MLX. Set the effort, and choose how far the agent goes on its own: ask first, auto edits, or full access. Each project remembers its default.
Tasks and reminders
Highlight any text and press ⌘S to save it as a task. Tasks live in each project's workspace, in one list across all projects, and in the menu bar. Tell Claude to track a cert renewal and Reminders flags it before it is due.
Terminal themes
Hundreds of Ghostty color themes in a searchable picker, applied live to running shells. Font and settings carry across all of them.
Updates that verify themselves
Houston updates in place from GitHub Releases. A build that is not signed and notarized as Houston is refused.
Local first, always
Houston reads files the agents already write on your machine. No backend, no telemetry, no account.
Three steps.
About a minute.
Download it.
A 22 MB DMG, signed and notarized. Drag Houston to Applications and open it. A short welcome connects your AI accounts, or skip it and go.
Point it at your code.
Add the folder where your projects live, or pin repos one at a time. They appear in the sidebar. Pin the ones you live in.
Click a project.
Its latest chat opens, with its terminals, servers, git state, and tasks one click away. Pick a harness and start talking, or run the agent in a terminal.
Free where it runs on your Mac.
Everything local costs nothing, forever. The paid tier covers the one part that needs servers: live links to your dev servers from anywhere.
- Every harness: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Grok, Pi
- Unlimited projects, chats, and terminals
- Status bar, git panel, threads, notifications
- Tasks from any text with ⌘S, plus reminders
- Sharing at project.local on your Wi-Fi, with QR codes
- Everything in Free
- Live links on the web for any dev server
- Optional access code on every link
- A stable link per project, regenerate any time
Frequently asked.
Which agents does it work with?
Houston is a harness. The chat runs Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Grok, or Pi (which brings local models) through each one's own CLI, so permissions, thinking, and context work the way that CLI does. Switch harness per chat from the composer. The terminal is a normal shell, so anything else runs there.
How do live links work?
Houston already detects every dev server on your Mac. Flip the Wi-Fi switch and it is served at project.local to any device on your network, with a QR code. Flip the web switch and Houston opens an outbound tunnel to its relay and hands you a public link, with an optional access code. Your server keeps listening on localhost the whole time.
Do I still need Ghostty or iTerm?
No. Houston hosts its own terminal panes, built on libghostty, the engine behind the Ghostty terminal. Your existing terminal apps and their configs are left alone.
Does Houston send my code anywhere?
There is no telemetry and no account for anything local. Houston reads the files the agent CLIs already write on your machine, plus what your Mac reports about running processes. The one exception is a live link: while it is on, traffic to that dev server goes through Houston's relay, and you can turn it off any time.
Is the download safe to open?
The DMG is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings. If macOS ever complains about a copy of Houston, it did not come from this site.
What does it cost?
The app is free, forever. Everything that runs on your Mac stays free. Houston Pro, $7 a month or $49 a year, adds the one part that needs servers: live links on the web to your local dev servers.
macOS only?
Yes. macOS 14 or newer, and the one DMG covers both Apple Silicon and Intel. Windows and Linux are not on the near-term roadmap.
Download Houston.
Free, 22 MB, signed and notarized. No waitlist and no account. You will be running a project in about a minute.