Duckweed

A local terminal workspace for vibe coding

Open a folder and start working. Duckweed keeps real shells, coding agents, Git context, diffs, tabs, and panes in one place. There is no Duckweed account to create, no cloud workspace to set up, and nothing to sync before your first command.

Launch several coding agents side by side in the same window. Duckweed gives each one a dedicated interface for conversations, tool calls, plans, permissions, and file changes, without taking away the terminal when you need it.

 

_{Windows installer · installs without administrator rights · updates from inside the app}

Download · What it does · Agent usage · Shortcuts · Build from source

Why Duckweed exists

Vibe-coding sessions get messy fast. One agent is implementing a change, another shell is running tests, logs are moving in a third pane, and the Git diff is somewhere behind all of them.

Duckweed is the terminal workspace I wanted for that kind of work. It has the freedom of a tiling layout, but it still behaves like a regular terminal. Open your project, arrange the panes once, and let each agent or command have its own space. Multiple panes can show Duckweed's custom agent interface at the same time, so separate agents can work in parallel without being spread across separate application windows.

Duckweed does not host your repository or wrap your coding tools in another service. It runs the shells and CLIs already installed on your computer. Layouts and settings are saved locally, and agent usage is calculated from the local session files those tools already keep.

Download

Stable

Download the latest stable release

This is the normal install and the recommended choice. The link is permanent: GitHub always sends it to the newest stable Duckweed release.

Beta

Download the newest beta installer

Beta builds ship earlier and may be rough around the edges. They follow their own update channel, so a beta install receives beta updates and a stable install only receives stable ones. Install the other build manually whenever you want to switch channels. The beta download URL stays the same while the file behind it is replaced on every beta release. You can browse the beta release notes before installing.

The Windows installer is per-user. It does not ask for administrator access, and later updates can be installed from the version chip in the status bar or from Check for updates in the command palette.

Windows SmartScreen may warn on the first install because the installer is not yet code-signed. Duckweed's built-in updater still verifies every update with the project's update signature.

Platform support and prerequisites

Official prebuilt releases are currently available for Windows only. Linux and macOS users can build Duckweed from source, but those platforms do not yet have official installers or the same release testing as Windows.

Duckweed runs shells and coding-agent CLIs that are already installed on your computer. Before launching an agent in Duckweed, install its CLI, sign in or configure its provider credentials, and confirm that its command works in a regular terminal. Duckweed does not provide agent accounts, subscriptions, or API credentials.

What it does

• Real terminal sessions. Every pane owns a PTY-backed shell: ConPTY on Windows and openpty on Linux and macOS.
• Layouts that keep up. Split, resize, swap, drag, or zoom panes without killing the process or losing its scrollback.
• Project context at a glance. The current project, Git branch, changed-file count, line totals, shell, tab, and pane count stay visible.
• Diff review inside the workspace. Open the complete uncommitted diff from the status bar or press Ctrl+Shift+G.
• A useful command palette. Projects, shells, tabs, panes, settings, and updates are available through Ctrl+Shift+P.
• First-class coding agent interfaces. Launch Claude Code, Codex, Cursor Agent, Grok, or OpenCode in a pane and Duckweed can replace the terminal UI with a native conversation, tool, plan, permission, and diff timeline. Run several of these interfaces side by side in the same window.
• Search and readable output. Search terminal scrollback and optionally highlight paths, URLs, flags, hashes, diffs, warnings, and errors.
• Shell discovery. Duckweed finds PowerShell, cmd, Git Bash, WSL, Nushell, Bash, Zsh, and Fish when they are installed.
• Workspace tools. A dockable panel (Ctrl+Shift+X) with a project file browser, saved pane layouts, a persistent per-tab checklist, session statistics, a listening-port list with copy, forward, and close actions, and a power watch that sleeps or shuts down the machine after all panes finish.
• Explorer integration. Per-user context-menu entries open a folder in a new Duckweed tab or window straight from Windows Explorer, without administrator rights. Both entries can be toggled in the settings.
• Completion signals. Finished agent turns and commands can play a completion sound, highlight the pane, and outline the taskbar icon so you notice from another window.
• Local persistence. Pane arrangements come back after a restart without pretending the old processes are still alive.

Coding agents

When the custom agent UI is enabled, launching claude, codex, agent, grok, or opencode opens a focused interface inside the current pane. The installed CLI still runs locally and keeps its own authentication and provider configuration.

Each pane owns its agent session. Split the workspace and launch another agent to keep multiple custom interfaces visible and working at once, all within the same Duckweed window. You can mix agent interfaces and regular shells in any layout.

The interface presents streamed responses, reasoning, tool calls, file changes, plans, permission requests, token usage, and session history in a consistent timeline while preserving each provider's identity. When Claude Code stops to ask you something, the question arrives as a card you can answer by clicking a choice, by pressing its number, or by writing an answer of your own. The composer supports slash commands, workspace file mentions, queued follow-ups, and image attachments where the provider accepts them. Model and reasoning controls appear when the agent protocol exposes those choices.

Supported custom interfaces currently include:

• Claude Code and compatible Claudex launches
• Codex CLI
• Cursor Agent
• Grok CLI
• OpenCode

The longer list in Agent usage includes tools whose local transcripts Duckweed can measure even when they do not have a custom agent interface. Usage scanning support does not imply custom-interface support.

Turn off Custom Agent UI from the command palette whenever you prefer to use an agent's original terminal interface.

Agent usage

Open Settings → Usage to compare token use and estimated cost over the last 7, 14, 30, or 90 days. Duckweed groups the numbers by day, model, and agent, and keeps exact values available in a table.

Current local-session support includes:

• Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, and Grok CLI
• Factory Droid, Kilo Code, Kimi CLI, Antigravity CLI, and Pi Coding Agent

The scanner reads the transcripts these tools already store on your machine. It does not upload their contents. The first scan builds a local index; later scans only revisit files that changed and resume append-only JSONL logs from their last complete line.

Cost figures are estimates based on published per-token prices unless a provider records an actual cost in the transcript. Unknown models still appear with their tokens counted and their cost marked as unpriced.

Quota cards use provider information only when it is available locally. Claude can query the official usage endpoint with Claude Code's existing OAuth session; Codex and Grok use the latest quota snapshots saved by their CLIs. Duckweed does not invent limits for agents that do not expose them.

Local data and network sharing

Projects, layouts, settings, agent sessions, and usage indexes stay on your computer. Duckweed does not upload repository contents or agent transcripts. Provider CLIs may still contact their own services, and Claude quota cards can query Claude's official usage endpoint with the local Claude Code session.

The Ports tool's Share on network action makes the selected local service reachable from other devices on the same network. Do not share unauthenticated development servers on public or untrusted networks. Stop sharing from the Ports tool when access is no longer needed.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+D / Ctrl+Shift+E	Split right / down
Ctrl+Shift+W	Close the focused pane
Ctrl+Shift+Z	Zoom the focused pane
Ctrl+Shift+B	Equalize all panes
Alt+Arrow keys	Move focus between panes
Ctrl+Shift+[ / ]	Focus the previous / next pane
Ctrl+Shift+T / Ctrl+Shift+Q	New tab / close tab
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Cycle tabs
Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+9	Go to tab N
Ctrl+Shift+O	Open a project
Ctrl+Shift+P	Open the command palette
Ctrl+Shift+G	Review uncommitted changes
Ctrl+Shift+X	Toggle the workspace tools panel
Ctrl+Shift+F	Search terminal output
Ctrl+Shift+K	Clear the focused pane
Ctrl+Shift+H	Toggle output highlighting
Ctrl+= / Ctrl+- / Ctrl+0	Increase / decrease / reset font size
F11	Toggle fullscreen

Right-click copies a selection. With no selection, it pastes from the clipboard.

Building from source

You will need Bun, Rust, and the Tauri 2 prerequisites for your operating system. Duckweed's Rust crates require Rust 1.77 or newer.

git clone https://github.com/MusicMaster4/Duckweed.git
cd Duckweed
bun install
bun run app

bun run app starts Tauri without watching the Rust backend. During backend development, use bun run app:watch to rebuild when Rust files change.

Build the native installer or application bundle with:

bun run app:build

How it works

Duckweed has a React and TypeScript interface backed by Rust through Tauri 2. Terminal instances live outside the React render tree, so rearranging a pane does not recreate its process or scrollback.

src/
├── components/       workspace UI, agent interfaces, settings, palette, search,
│                     diffs, tools panel, updates
├── hooks/            drag-and-drop behavior, Git change polling, update checks
└── lib/              layouts, terminal registry, agent adapters, persistence,
                      IPC, highlighting

src-tauri/src/
├── main.rs                Tauri commands and IPC
├── pty.rs                 one PTY session per pane
├── shells.rs              installed-shell discovery
├── project.rs             project and Git branch detection
├── git.rs                 diff and change collection
├── launch.rs              coding agent launch detection
├── agent_proc.rs          agent process supervision
├── agent_sessions.rs      agent session storage
├── agent_activity.rs      agent turn and activity tracking
├── ports.rs               listening-port discovery and forwarding
├── watch.rs / power.rs    power watch and sleep or shutdown actions
├── process_tree.rs        pane process inspection
├── fs.rs                  project file browsing
├── shell_integration.rs   Windows Explorer context-menu entries
└── usage/                 local agent transcript and quota readers

The PTY stream is transported as base64 and decoded incrementally, which keeps split UTF-8 characters intact during large bursts of output.

Development checks

bun run typecheck
bun test
cd src-tauri && cargo check

GitHub CI currently runs the TypeScript check and Bun test suite. Run cargo check locally before submitting Rust changes; it is not currently part of the automated CI workflow.

Release builds come from two branches: main publishes stable releases and testing publishes beta releases. The full versioning, signing, and updater setup is documented in docs/releases.md.

Current scope

Duckweed is an active project. Projects, tabs, panes, real shells, custom coding agent interfaces, search, Git diffs, local usage analytics, workspace tools (files, saved layouts, checklists, statistics, ports, power watch), completion signals, Explorer integration, updates, and layout persistence are implemented.

Command blocks currently group commands submitted through Duckweed's composer. Grouping raw-mode input the same way still needs OSC 133 shell integration.

Contributing

Issues, ideas, and pull requests are welcome. For bug reports, please include the operating system, shell, reproduction steps, and relevant terminal output.

License

Duckweed is source-available under the Duckweed Source-Available License 1.0. You may use, study, modify, fork, and share the source for free. Selling Duckweed, charging for access to it, or offering it as a paid service is not permitted.

This is not an open-source license as defined by the Open Source Initiative. Future Duckweed releases may use revised terms; a release you already received remains under the license that accompanied it.