Frontier Proxy

Frontier Proxy is a local-first desktop orchestrator for Codex CLI, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, and Ollama-backed coding models. It sends work to executables already installed and authenticated on your computer; it does not call model APIs or require API keys of its own.

Website and documentation: https://frontier.thisara.me

Download

Latest release: v0.6.2 — no build step required, just download and run.

Platform	Download
macOS (disk image)	Frontier.Proxy-0.6.2.dmg
macOS (zip)	Frontier.Proxy-0.6.2-mac.zip
Windows (installer)	Frontier.Proxy.Setup.0.6.2.exe
Windows (portable)	Frontier.Proxy.0.6.2.exe
Linux (AppImage)	Frontier.Proxy-0.6.2.AppImage
Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)	frontier-proxy_0.6.2_amd64.deb

Builds are x64 and unsigned. On macOS, open the app the first time with Control-click → Open; on Windows, choose More info → Run anyway in SmartScreen. Every version is kept on the releases page.

You still need at least one supported CLI installed and signed in — see Provider setup.

What works

• Detects enabled local providers and their CLI versions.
• Classifies tasks as coding, debugging, review, planning, documentation, or general work.
• Routes with Balanced, Quality first, or Token saver policies.
• Balances recent task/token estimates across subscriptions and respects optional per-provider daily budgets.
• Runs multiple independent tasks in parallel while respecting global and per-provider concurrency.
• Streams provider output, keeps a local task history, supports cancellation, retries, and explicit provider switching between turns.
• Opens each task in a dedicated workspace with its conversation, task-scoped context meter, route/activity history, and syntax-highlighted source and diff views for recorded file changes.
• Accepts image attachments by picker, paste, or drag-and-drop, and resolves @ file/folder references from the task's selected working directory.
• Provides a keyboard-first command palette for navigation, common actions, and task lookup (⌘K on macOS or Ctrl+K elsewhere).
• Shows per-provider session usage, reset information, and the latest context-window occupancy.
• Detects quota/rate-limit/overload errors, cools that provider down, and fails over to the next eligible provider across first turns, follow-ups, and orchestrated runs.
• Runs Codex in workspace-write, Claude Code in acceptEdits, and every process with shell: false.
• Packages for macOS, Windows, and Linux with Electron Builder.

Build from source

Prerequisites: Node.js 22+, pnpm, and at least one supported CLI.

pnpm install
pnpm dev

Production build and unpacked desktop package:

pnpm typecheck
pnpm test
pnpm package

Create distributable installers on each target operating system with pnpm dist. Electron Builder produces DMG/ZIP on macOS, NSIS/portable on Windows, and AppImage/DEB on Linux. Native installers should normally be built on their target OS or in a CI matrix.

Development builds

GitHub Actions builds Windows, macOS, and Linux installers after every push to main, when a v* tag is pushed, or when the workflow is started manually. Open the repository's Actions tab, select a successful Build desktop apps run, and download the artifact for your platform. Build artifacts are retained for 30 days.

Version tags also create a GitHub Release with the installers attached for permanent public downloads. For example:

git tag v0.2.0
git push origin v0.2.0

Provider setup

In the app, open Providers in the left sidebar:

1. Codex, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot are already registered; do not add them again. Leave the executable fields as codex, claude, and copilot, enable the providers you use, and select Check providers.
2. A green Ready status confirms that the packaged app can locate the CLI. If it says Not detected, run command -v codex, command -v claude, or command -v copilot in Terminal and paste that absolute path into the provider's Executable field.
3. Configure an optional model, tracked usage limit, and context-window size, then select Save provider. A CLI-reported context limit takes precedence over the configured fallback.
4. Use Add custom CLI only for another locally installed agent executable.

The app version is shown at the bottom of the sidebar. GitHub Copilot support requires v0.2.0 or newer.

Codex

Install and sign in to Codex CLI, then leave the executable as codex. Frontier runs:

codex exec --json --sandbox workspace-write --skip-git-repo-check -C <workspace> -

The task prompt is written to stdin. Image turns add Codex's native --image <path> arguments, while @ references are resolved to validated paths inside the selected workspace. Existing Codex login and local configuration are reused.

Claude Code

Install and sign in to Claude Code, then leave the executable as claude. Frontier uses print/streaming mode with acceptEdits. Existing Claude Code login and settings are reused. Extra CLI flags, such as allowed tools, can be configured on the Providers screen.

GitHub Copilot

Install the current standalone GitHub Copilot CLI—this integration does not use the retired gh copilot extension:

# macOS or Linux
brew install --cask copilot-cli

# Or on any platform with Node.js 22+
npm install -g @github/copilot

copilot login

Leave the provider executable as copilot, then enable it and select Check providers. Frontier sends prompts through stdin in Copilot's non-interactive silent mode. By default it grants file writes and common Git/package/build commands, but it does not grant --allow-all. Add or replace --allow-tool rules in Extra arguments if a project needs different tools. An optional model can be entered using a model name supported by your Copilot plan.

The provider card also lets you extend Copilot's built-in GitHub MCP server with selected toolsets or individual tools. Enabling every GitHub MCP tool is available as an explicit override; otherwise Copilot keeps its default CLI subset plus your selections.

Official references: installing Copilot CLI and programmatic CLI options.

Open-source models

Start Ollama and pull a coding model, for example:

ollama pull qwen3-coder
ollama serve

Then enable one of these providers:

• Codex + Ollama uses Codex's agent harness with --oss --local-provider ollama. It can perform coding tasks with local inference.
• Ollama invokes ollama run directly. It is intentionally limited to planning, review, documentation, and general tasks because the raw model runner has no file-editing agent tools.

Change the configured model to one installed on your Ollama instance.

Other local agent CLIs

Choose Add custom CLI in the provider registry. Configure the executable and its argument list; quoted arguments are supported. The prompt is sent over stdin by default. Use {prompt} in one argument only when a tool requires the prompt as an argv value, plus {cwd} and {model} for the selected working directory and configured model. Custom processes are still launched directly with no intermediary shell.

Routing

Eligible providers must be enabled, detected, below their concurrency and optional token limits, outside a cooldown, and below any plan-window percentage reported by the CLI. Frontier then scores:

1. User provider override.
2. Routing policy (quality vs. local usage saving).
3. Task/provider affinity.
4. User-set priority.
5. Today's locally estimated usage and current load.

Only quota/unavailable failures automatically fail over. Intentional cancellation never triggers provider switching, and later messages remain pinned to the last provider unless the user changes the Next provider selector. A normal agent failure stops the task, because rerunning a partially completed coding task through another agent could duplicate or conflict with edits. When a follow-up moves to another provider, Frontier replays the complete attributed conversation transcript—including partial or cancelled responses—to the replacement provider.

Important boundaries

• Frontier proxies CLI processes, not the private internals or UI automation of the Codex/Claude desktop apps. This is the stable local integration surface and still reuses the account sessions available to those CLIs.
• Subscription tools do not expose a reliable, universal local “tokens remaining” interface. Frontier therefore tracks conservative local estimates and learns temporary unavailability from CLI errors. Optional daily budgets give you deterministic control.
• Context occupancy is not inferred from cumulative billing usage. Claude reports enough per-request data for a live task context gauge; providers that do not expose current conversation occupancy show either a clearly labeled estimate (when a context-window fallback is configured) or “Not reported.”
• Direct Ollama output is not an agent. Use Codex + Ollama when a local model needs filesystem and shell tools.
• Every task agent can modify its selected working directory. Review the provider permission mode and use version control.

macOS permissions and folder selection

The normal folder chooser and projects under your home directory do not require Full Disk Access. Choose New task → Choose folder… → Use this folder, or paste an absolute path into the field. Full Disk Access is only relevant for protected locations such as Mail, Messages, some system folders, or another user's data.

If a provider is Ready but later receives an operating-system permission error, grant access to Frontier Proxy and the relevant CLI host in System Settings → Privacy & Security, then restart the app. A provider that says Not detected is normally a PATH/executable configuration issue, not a filesystem permission issue.

Data and security

State is stored in Electron's per-user application-data directory as frontier-state.json. Prompts are passed through stdin by default and never interpolated into a shell command. Executables are launched with a cross-platform argument-safe process wrapper (including Windows .cmd shims). Renderer code has no Node.js access; a small context-isolated preload API exposes only task and settings operations. No telemetry is included.

Project layout

src/main/       queue, router, process adapters, persistence, Electron main
src/preload/    narrow typed IPC bridge
src/renderer/   desktop user interface
src/shared/     shared types, defaults, task classification
tests/          routing, classification, persistence, process-safety tests
site/           Astro marketing and documentation site (GitHub Pages)

The site is a separate package outside the pnpm workspace, so it never affects the desktop app's install or CI. See site/README.md.