Welcome to Cuewire
Cuewire is a desktop app for running several AI coding agents at once. This page explains what it does and the main ideas behind it.
Figure: Agents work on a canvas and share work over wires. When one needs you, Cuewire tells you, on the desktop or on your phone. A background service keeps them running.
What Cuewire is
Coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex run in a terminal. With one agent, one terminal is enough. With five, it is hard to see who is doing what.
Cuewire gives each agent its own terminal on a large canvas. You arrange the terminals like cards on a table. You draw wires between them, so agents can hand work to each other. Cuewire watches every agent and shows you the one that needs you.
Cuewire works with these agents:
- Claude Code
- Codex
- OpenCode
- Grok
- Antigravity
- Copilot CLI (GitHub Copilot CLI)
- Gemini CLI
A terminal can also run a plain shell. There you can start any program you like.
Figure: A canvas with two agents and a note. The Needs you list, top right, shows the agent that is waiting for you.
Who it is for
Cuewire is for developers who already use a coding agent and want to run several. For example:
- one agent builds a feature while another one reviews it;
- two agents try two ideas, each in its own copy of the project;
- you leave agents working and check on them from your phone.
You still need each agent’s own command-line tool. Cuewire runs those tools. It does not replace them.
The main ideas
The canvas
The canvas is a large surface that you pan and zoom. Everything on it is a node: terminals, notes, browser portals, file trees, labels and shapes. Each project in the sidebar is a workspace, and a workspace can hold several canvases.
Agents
An agent is an AI coding tool that runs in a terminal node. You choose which agent a terminal runs. You can type into it like any terminal, or send it a prompt from Cuewire.
See Add an agent.
Wires
A wire connects two nodes. Wires decide who may work with whom:
- Two wired agents can give each other tasks and wait for the results.
- An agent wired to a note can read and change that note.
- An agent wired to a browser portal can use that web page.
Nothing is shared without a wire.
Needs you
Agents often stop and wait. They wait for an answer, or for your approval to run a command. Cuewire notices. The terminal’s title bar says needs input or needs approval. The Needs you list shows every agent that waits, most urgent first.
See Know when an agent needs you.
Layers
A layer is a separate copy of your project for one task. It is a git worktree with its own copy of the canvas. Agents in a layer can try changes without touching your main checkout.
See Projects and layers.
Review
When agents finish their work in a layer, Cuewire helps you check it. Review changes adds a reviewer agent and a review note to the canvas. Then you can commit the changes and open a pull request.
Your phone as a companion
Pair your phone with Cuewire. Away from your desk, the phone shows which agents need you, and you can answer them there. Messages between the phone and your computer are end-to-end encrypted.
See Your phone as a companion.
Agents keep running
A background service runs your terminals, not the Cuewire window. Close Cuewire, and your agents keep working. Open it again, and every terminal is still there.
Agents can also run on another machine, over SSH or in WSL. See Remote projects.
Note
Cuewire is new and still growing. This manual describes what the current build does.