crystl

crystl is a desktop terminal app for macOS built specifically for developers who use AI coding agents. Instead of juggling multiple terminal windows or switching between chat interfaces, crystl lets you run several agents side by side — each in its own isolated shard — and keeps everything organized in groups called gems. You can see what each agent is doing, get notified when one needs your input, and jump in without losing context. The free version gives you a solid start, and upgrading unlocks advanced features like parallel sessions and remote development.

What makes crystl stand out is how it handles multitasking. Action panels float approval requests and questions on screen, color-coded by gem, so you never miss a ping. When you run multiple agents on the same repo, each shard gets its own git worktree and branch — they work simultaneously without file conflicts. You can SSH into any remote machine and all the terminal's features, from file drag-and-drop to click-to-open, keep working through the tunnel. There's also token tracking that counts tokens per turn and shows which plugins are the heaviest, so you can stretch your context budget. And with agent orchestration, you can fan a list of tasks out to different agents across projects and vendors — Claude Code, Codex, you name it — then watch them all finish from one window.

This tool is most useful for developers and teams who rely on AI agents to write code, review PRs, or handle repetitive tasks. If you find yourself bouncing between several agent sessions or struggling to manage parallel work on the same codebase, crystl gives you a single command center. It's also handy for remote development — spin up agents on a cloud machine and control everything from your laptop. Teams that want to experiment with multi-agent workflows, like having a frontend agent and a backend agent collaborate on the same project, will find the gem and shard system especially helpful.