One window for your coding agents: their terminals, their changes, and a native Git client.
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Running several coding agents usually means a terminal tab per worktree, a Git app somewhere else and a diff tool on top. Forest puts them in one place:
- Left: an accordion of projects → agents' worktrees → their sessions, each showing what the agent is doing right now.
- Middle: that worktree's terminal (real Ghostty), its changes, or its history.
- Right: files appearing live as the agent writes them, with Review and Merge one click away.
Claude Code is the first-class citizen; Codex, Gemini CLI or any command run just as well.
- Download the latest
Forest-<version>.dmgand drag Forest to Applications. Builds are signed and notarized by Apple, and Forest updates itself from GitHub Releases. - Have at least one agent CLI on your machine: Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI.
- Optional: the GitHub CLI (
gh auth login) for pull requests and CI status.
Or with Homebrew:
brew tap pballada/tap
brew install --cask forestRequires macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Forest uses your own git, so hooks, credential helpers, LFS, signing
and config behave exactly as on the command line.
- Add a project (⌘O), or drop a repository folder on Forest's Dock icon.
- New Agent (⌘N): describe the task, pick Claude Code, Codex or Gemini, and Forest creates
.claude/worktrees/<name>on its own branch and starts the agent there. - Watch it work in the terminal while files light up in Live Changes. A ! on its row (and the Dock badge) means it's waiting for you.
- Review (⇧⌘R) what it changed against main, send feedback straight into its session, then Merge or push a PR.
- Quit whenever you like: next time, the agent's card offers Continue (↩) to resume that exact conversation.
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One window, every project: a sidebar accordion of projects, their worktrees and each worktree's sessions. Fold a project and its header still sums up how many agents are working and how many are waiting for you. ⌘1…⌘9 and ⌃Tab jump between worktrees like tabs; click a session to resume it.
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Know what each agent is doing at a glance:
Indicator Meaning Pulsing dot The agent is working Orange ! It's waiting for your input (a permission, a question, the bell) Solid dot A session is open and the agent is idle Hollow ring Nothing running; Continue resumes it -
Hear it when an agent needs you: pick a sound for "needs your input" and another for "finished" (any macOS sound, or none), play them only when Forest is in the background, and optionally get a notification. The Dock badge counts agents waiting for you.
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Continue sessions easily: a worktree without a running terminal lists its Claude conversations by title, so you can resume the last one (
claude --resume <id>), pick an earlier one, or start fresh with a task. Codex and Gemini continue withcodex resume --lastandgemini --resume latest. -
Any agent: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or a custom command, chosen per agent or by default in Settings › Agents.
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Merge into main, push and open a PR, lock, or remove the worktree and branch in one step.
- Every worktree gets a Ghostty terminal (libghostty, GPU-rendered) that reads your Ghostty config for fonts and keybindings and wears Forest's theme. ⌘D adds a shell underneath.
- Terminals keep running while you switch between worktrees: no lost scrollback.
- Live Changes: files appear the moment they're written, freshest first and briefly lit, with line counts and what the branch has already committed on top of main.
- Review an agent: every commit and file it changed against main (uncommitted work included), a one-click Claude review, and feedback typed straight into its running session.
- Compare (⌥⌘C) two branches, two agents' worktrees (fully, or only since they diverged), or any two files on disk.
- Commit graph with coloured lanes, ref badges, search and "show only this branch"; branches, remotes, tags and stashes beside it.
- Commit, amend, commit & push; stage, unstage or discard hunks or individual lines.
- Undo (⌥⌘Z) for commits, discards, checkouts, branch deletes, merges, rebases, cherry-picks, reverts, pulls, resets and stashes.
- Drag a branch onto the current one to merge, or the current one onto another to rebase. Conflict banner with ours/theirs, continue and abort.
- Claude helpers that use your Claude Code login: write the commit message (⌥⌘M), explain a commit, resolve conflicts.
- A custom renderer draws only what's on screen: 100 000-line files scroll smoothly.
- Unified or side by side, word-level highlights, syntax colours, wrap, whole-file view, hide whitespace.
project.pbxprojchanges in plain words (files, targets, packages, build settings); lockfiles collapsed; images side by side or with a swipe slider.
22 themes for the whole window, diffs and terminal: Forest Night and Forest Day (Automatic follows the system), Everforest Dark and Light, Solarized Dark and Light, Tokyo Night, Kanagawa, Night Owl, Catppuccin Mocha and Latte, Rosé Pine and Rosé Pine Dawn, Nord, Gruvbox, Dracula, One Dark, Monokai, Ayu Light, GitHub Dark and Light. Each comes with a tuned terminal palette, and selections stay readable in all of them.
Forest checks GitHub Releases at launch and every few hours, downloads a new version in the background, verifies its Developer ID signature and notarization, and installs it when you quit. A "ready" note in the sidebar lets you restart into it right away; Forest never restarts on its own, so running agents aren't interrupted. Forest › Check for Updates… checks on demand.
| Continue where you left off | All agents of a project |
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| History, with branches beside the graph | Forest Day |
|---|---|
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| Reviewing an agent | Compare |
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| New agent | Command palette |
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Show all shortcuts
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘N | New agent |
| ⌘O | Add project |
| ⌘1 … ⌘9 · ⌃Tab / ⌃⇧Tab | Go to worktree n · next / previous |
| ⌥⌘1 / ⌥⌘2 / ⌥⌘3 | Terminal / Changes / History |
| ⇧⌘↩ | Continue the last session |
| ⌘D | Shell under the terminal |
| ⌥⌘0 | Show or hide Live Changes |
| ⇧⌘R | Review agent |
| ⌥⌘C | Compare |
| ⌘K | Command palette |
| ⌘↩ | Commit |
| ⌥⌘M | Write commit message with Claude |
| ⌥⌘Z | Undo last action |
| ⌥⌘↓ / ⌥⌘↑ | Next / previous change in a diff |
| ⇧⌘F / ⇧⌘P / ⇧⌘U | Fetch / Pull / Push |
| ⇧⌘B | New branch |
| ⌥⌘S | Stash |
| Space / double-click | Stage or unstage selected files |
| Esc | Clear the line selection in a diff |
Inside a terminal every other key goes to the program, and your Ghostty keybindings (copy, paste, font size…) work as usual.
- Project: a Git repository you added. Its main checkout is the folder you opened.
- Agent: a worktree in
.claude/worktrees/<name>on branchworktree-<name>, where one agent works without touching your checkout. It's the same layoutclaude --worktreeuses, so agents you start from the command line show up in Forest too. - Session: a conversation with the agent. Claude Code records each one in
~/.claude/projects; Forest reads them (read-only) to show titles and to resume them. - Row states: a pulsing dot means working, an orange ! means waiting for you (a permission prompt, a question, the bell), a solid dot means session open, agent idle, and a hollow ring means not running (Continue brings it back).
Do I need Ghostty installed?
No. The terminal engine is built into Forest. If you do use Ghostty, Forest reads your ~/.config/ghostty/config
for fonts and keybindings; colours follow Forest's theme unless you turn on Use my Ghostty colours in
Settings › Terminal.
What happens to running agents when I quit Forest?
Their terminals close with Forest, but nothing is lost: the conversation is saved by the agent itself. Select the
worktree and press ↩ on Continue to pick up exactly where it stopped (claude --resume <id>, codex resume --last or gemini --resume latest).
Can I use my own git worktrees (outside .claude/worktrees)?
Forest focuses on agent worktrees and the main checkout, so other linked worktrees aren't listed. Branches checked out in them still say so, and git commands keep working as usual.
Which keys does Forest keep for itself inside the terminal?
⌘N, ⌘O, ⌘K, ⌘D, ⌘1…⌘9, ⌃Tab and the ⌥⌘ shortcuts above. Everything else, including your own Ghostty keybindings, goes to the terminal.
How do I get a sound when an agent needs me?
Settings › Agents: choose a sound for "When an agent needs you" (Glass by default) and, if you like, one for "When an agent finishes". You can limit sounds to when Forest is in the background and turn on macOS notifications.
How do updates work?
Automatically: new versions download in the background and install when you quit Forest, or right away with Restart. Turn it off in Settings › General; Forest › Check for Updates… still works.
Is anything sent anywhere?
Only what you ask for: the Claude helpers (commit message, explain, review) send the relevant diff to Claude through your own Claude Code login, and update checks read the GitHub Releases API. Agents themselves run with your CLI and your account.
| Problem | Try this |
|---|---|
| "claude: command not found" in the terminal | Install the CLI, or set its path in Settings › Agents. The terminal runs your login shell, so it uses your usual PATH. |
| No sound when an agent needs me | Check Settings › Agents (sound not "None", "only in background" off while testing) and the system volume. The agent has to ring the bell or post a terminal notification; Claude Code does both. |
| An agent's row never shows working | Claude Code reports progress to the terminal; if it doesn't, Forest falls back to the transcript, which can take a few seconds. Make sure the session runs inside Forest's terminal. |
| No titles in the sidebar | Titles come from Claude Code transcripts in ~/.claude/projects. Codex and Gemini sessions show "No conversation yet" but still continue with ↩. |
| Removing an agent fails | Quit the agent first (it may hold a lock), then Remove again; Forest force-removes locked worktrees. |
| Pull requests or CI aren't shown | Install the GitHub CLI and run gh auth login, then Refresh (⌘R). |
| Keys don't reach the program | Click inside the terminal to focus it. If a Forest shortcut clashes with a tool you use, tell us in an issue. |
Still stuck? Open an issue with your macOS version, Forest version (Forest › About Forest) and what you did. Help › Forest Help in the app brings you back here.
Requirements, build and release
Requires macOS 14+, Xcode 16+ (Swift 6 toolchain) and Zig for libghostty (brew install zig,
the version Ghostty's build.zig.zon asks for).
scripts/build-ghosttykit.sh # once: builds libghostty from Ghostty's official source into Vendor/
scripts/build-app.sh # builds build/Forest.app (release; runs the step above if needed)
open build/Forest.app --args ~/code/my-repoFor development use swift run Forest (after scripts/build-ghosttykit.sh) or open Package.swift in Xcode, and run
the tests with swift test.
A signed, notarized release (build/Forest-<version>.dmg and .zip) needs a Developer ID Application certificate and
a notary keychain profile (xcrun notarytool store-credentials notary …):
scripts/release.sh # version from the latest v* tag; build number = commit countFOREST_SNAPSHOT_DIR=<dir> makes a build walk through its main screens and write PNGs (see
Sources/Forest/Support/Snapshotter.swift); that's how the screenshots above are made.
Architecture
Sources/ForestCore Git engine: runs the system git binary, parses porcelain output, lays out the commit
graph and diffs, builds partial-staging patches, summarises Xcode projects, indexes
Claude Code sessions (incrementally), runs headless Claude and gh
Sources/ForestTerminal The only code that talks to libghostty: the shared app and config, the surface view
(keyboard with IME, mouse, clipboard) and TerminalSession, which outlives its views
Sources/Forest SwiftUI app: WorkspaceStore (projects, selection) → ProjectStore (worktrees, terminals,
agent state) → RepoStore (one per worktree: status, history, actions), views, diff canvas
Vendor/ GhosttyKit.xcframework and Ghostty's shell integration + terminfo (built, not committed)
Tests/ Swift Testing suites, many against real temporary repositories
See docs/ROADMAP.md for what's next. Bugs are welcome in Issues; questions and ideas in Discussions.
The embedded terminal is Ghostty's libghostty (MIT licensed); its licence ships inside the app. Claude Code is a product of Anthropic, Codex of OpenAI and Gemini CLI of Google; Forest isn't affiliated with any of them.
Forest is released under the MIT License. Third-party components keep their own licences (see Credits).