Crew

What is Crew?

Crew is a macOS desktop companion for Claude Code that gives every chat and subagent a visible, living form. Instead of a static terminal window, each session becomes a small pixel monster that walks along the bottom of your screen. It digs while working, sleeps when idle, and waves when finished. The app reads only local status files, so nothing about your work ever leaves your Mac. It's free, requires macOS 13 or newer, and works on both Apple Silicon and Intel machines.

Who it's for

• Parallel-agent power users — anyone running multiple Claude Code chats at once who's tired of alt-tabbing to figure out which session needs attention.
• Visual thinkers — developers who process status faster through motion and color than through text logs and terminal output.
• Local-first privacy advocates — people who want session awareness without telemetry, cloud sync, or any data leaving their machine.

Key features

Ten distinct species

Every chat and subagent hashes into one of ten creature species — Ember, Sprout, Puddle, Spark, Boulder, Breeze, Moth, Grub, Glitch, and Beacon. A subagent always gets the same species, so you learn to read your row of creatures at a glance and know exactly which role each one plays.

Live states and needs-you alerts

Each creature shows its current state: thinking, running a tool, waiting on you, or done. When a session is blocked, the creature hops up and flags you down. You can read the room without ever switching windows.

Tap-to-jump session switching

Click any creature and the terminal running that Claude Code chat comes to the front. Your entire session list becomes one click away, making it the fastest way to juggle parallel agents. Pro adds hover-to-inspect cards for even quicker context.

Squads and command approval

Subagents huddle on a platform beneath the chat that spawned them, keeping your hierarchy visible. When a command needs permission, the creature raises the command with Allow and Deny buttons — you can approve it without leaving your current window.

What stands out

Crew turns your terminal's invisible background processes into a cast of characters you can read at a glance.

That's the core insight: running five chats is easy, but knowing which one is waiting on you usually means alt-tabbing to find out. Crew eliminates that friction by making each session's state physically visible. The creatures aren't just decoration — they're a functional status interface with a personality. And the whole thing stays fully local, reading only status files on your own machine.