Mission control
for Claude Code.
Houston is a Mac app that puts every agent session, terminal, and dev server in one window. Click a project, get a real terminal in that directory, and see Claude's model, context, and rate limits at all times.
Built for running coding agents all day
See everything
that's running.
Run agents in a few projects at once and the sessions scatter across terminal windows until you can't say what is running where. Houston finds every agent and dev server on your machine, ties each one to its project, and lists them in one sidebar. One glance replaces the window hunt.
- A git dot on every session shows uncommitted work before you forget it exists.
- The agent's logo on each row tells you who is driving: Claude Code, Codex, or a plain shell.
- Dev servers are detected automatically, with their port and a health check.
Interactive mockup. Click a project to open it; hover a session and close it.
Interactive mockup. In the app these are keyboard shortcuts.
A real terminal,
one click away.
Starting work should not mean finding the right window and typing cd. Click a project in Houston and a real shell opens in that directory. The panes run on libghostty, the engine behind the Ghostty terminal, so nothing about your setup changes.
- Split a pane with ⌘D and open as many terminals per project as you need.
- Run claude, codex, or any other CLI tool. It is a normal shell.
- Your shell, prompt, and dotfiles are untouched. Houston lives in the menu bar so the window is always one click away.
Catch context and
limits early.
Running out of context mid-task or hitting a rate limit you never saw coming wastes the work in progress. Houston reads the same numbers Claude Code uses internally and keeps them in a native status bar under every session, where you can act on them before they cost you.
- Context is measured against the model's real window and color graded as it fills.
- Session and weekly rate limits are meters with reset times, not surprises.
- Switch models from a menu. Houston types the /model command for you.
- MCP server health at a glance, with one-click login when a server needs auth.
Interactive mockup. Try the model menu, the limits meter, and MCP.
8:59 PMInteractive mockup. Click the session or the banner to clear the flag.
Stop watching
the terminal.
Agents work for minutes at a time, then stop and wait for a decision. Every one of those minutes you spend staring at the terminal is wasted, and every minute the agent waits unnoticed is too. Houston flags the moment Claude asks for permission, goes idle, or finishes a turn.
- A badge on the session row and an amber dot in the menu bar.
- A notification if you are in another app.
- Events for the session you are already watching are dropped, so you are only told what you cannot see.
Know what the
agent changed.
Agents commit fast, and losing track means shipping something you never reviewed. Houston shows each project's git state as a three-stage pipeline right next to the terminal: what is uncommitted, what is committed but not pushed, and what is synced with the remote.
- Drill into a commit, read a file diff, open it in your editor.
- The same state feeds the git dot on every sidebar row, so dirty projects stand out without opening the panel.
Interactive mockup. Click the unpushed commit to see its files.
Interactive mockup. Toggle sharing on and off.
Open your work on
any device you own.
Checking a layout on a real phone usually means a tunnel service or server config changes. Houston serves every dev server it detects at project.local on your Wi-Fi, with zero configuration. Your server keeps listening on localhost only; Houston proxies the traffic, and hot reload works through it.
- Works for phones, tablets, and other computers on the same network.
- Public share links beyond your network are coming with Houston Live.
The rest of the
workflow, handled.
Smaller things that remove friction every day.
Skills on hand
Every skill installed in ~/.claude, listed next to the terminal. One click types the slash command into the session, so you use the skills you forgot you had.
Reminders that find you
Tell Claude to track a cert renewal or a domain expiry and Houston's bell reminds you before it is due. Obligations stop living in your head.
Projects, your way
Pin a single repo or point Houston at a whole folder of them. Folders group and collapse; recent work floats up.
Terminal themes
Hundreds of Ghostty color themes in a searchable picker, applied live to running shells. Your font and settings carry across all of them.
Updates that verify themselves
Houston updates in place from GitHub Releases and refuses any build that is not signed and notarized as Houston. One click, no reinstall.
Local first, always
Houston reads files Claude Code already writes on your machine. No backend, no telemetry, no account. Your code stays put.
Three steps.
About a minute.
Download it.
A 12 MB DMG, signed and notarized. Drag Houston to Applications and open it like any other Mac app. No account, no setup wizard.
Point it at your code.
Add the folder where your projects live, or pin repos one at a time. They appear in the sidebar, most recent work first.
Click a project.
A terminal opens in that directory. Run claude and the status bar lights up with model, context, and limits. That is the whole workflow.
Free where it runs on your Mac.
Everything local costs nothing, forever. The paid tier covers the one part that needs servers: sharing your work beyond your own network.
- Unlimited projects, terminals, and sessions
- Status bar: model, context, rate limits, MCP
- Git panel, skills panel, and notifications
- Reminders and the tracked-obligations bell
- Local sharing at project.local on your Wi-Fi
- Everything in Free
- Public links to your local dev servers
- PIN protected, with revocable links
Frequently asked.
Which agents does it work with?
Houston is built around Claude Code: the status bar, context meter, and skills panel read from it directly. But the terminal is a terminal, so you can run any CLI agent. Houston recognizes the ones it knows and badges their sessions in the sidebar.
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 Houston backend, no telemetry, and no account. It reads files Claude Code already writes locally, plus what your own machine reports about running processes. Nothing leaves your Mac.
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 Live, $12 a month, adds the one part that needs servers: public share links to your local dev servers. It is not live yet.
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, 12 MB, signed and notarized. No waitlist and no account. You will be running a project in about a minute.