macOS support — built cross-platform from day one

[benkauffman]

I've been building ctrl — an 8-bit office for AI coding agents. Cross-platform support (macOS, Linux, Windows) has been a priority from day one.

The daemon handles path resolution, file watching, and session detection across all platforms natively. If you've run into macOS-specific issues with similar tools, I'd really appreciate you giving ctrl a try and letting me know if anything breaks:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon

Then open ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. Still in beta — your feedback directly shapes what ships.

Particularly interested in:

• Path handling with spaces, symlinks, non-ASCII characters
• File watcher reliability (especially on APFS)
• Session detection across different terminal emulators

I'm building this solo and could really use more eyes on the platform-specific edge cases.

cc @taejaehan @johnnnzhub

[benkauffman]

Hey @johnnnzhub, @taejaehan, @whtjtjddn, @luciancerbu-vsp, @mitre88 — tagging you here since macOS is something you likely care about. ctrl is now in beta and I have been focused on macOS polish — the session hub, inspector panel, and terminal view all work well on macOS now. Give it a spin with npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta or at https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and let me know what you run into.

[benkauffman]

cc @Jaesung-Jung — iOS developer background is actually interesting context here. ctrl runs entirely in the browser — the daemon is local (bun/node), but the visualization is a web app you can open on any device. If you are running Claude Code sessions on macOS and want to observe them from your phone, the relay sharing makes that possible.

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Would appreciate any macOS-specific feedback — path handling, file watcher behavior under APFS, anything that feels off.

[luciancerbu]

@benkauffman currently I switched to using Xcode "coding assistant", but I will test your extension in visual studio code.

[benkauffman]

@luciancerbu — just to clarify: ctrl is not a VS Code extension. It is a standalone web app. The daemon runs locally (a single npx command) and watches your JSONL session files, then you open the browser UI at https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh to see your agents working in the office.

Xcode is a totally different workflow, but if you ever run Claude Code or another agent from the terminal, ctrl will pick it up automatically. No VS Code required.

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Would be curious whether Xcode sessions write any kind of log you could point at — that is how I add support for new tools.

[luciancerbu]

@benkauffman Thanks for the simple explanation, yes I will test it out. About Xcode I will submit an issue for that.

Now i don't know why in my case the agents are not showing in the browser UI even if the daemon is running, I'm using codex cli by de way.

I pressed on discover several times, in the web client.

[benkauffman]

@luciancerbu — the "agents not showing" issue with Codex CLI is something I want to dig into. A few things to check:

1. Session file location: Codex CLI writes JSONL session files to ~/.codex/ by default. Make sure the daemon is watching the right directory — when you run npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta it should print which paths it is scanning.

2. Active vs. completed sessions: The daemon detects sessions that are currently writing to their JSONL file. If Codex has already finished, the session will show as done (character at rest) rather than active.

3. Codex via Xcode: The path you shared in issue Support for Xcode #17 — ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/CodingAssistant/codex — is interesting. That may be a different session format than the standalone Codex CLI. I want to look at what that JSONL looks like to see if the existing adapter covers it or if we need a separate one.

Can you run the daemon and share what it prints when it starts? Specifically looking for which paths it scans and whether it mentions any Codex sessions. That will tell me exactly where the detection is failing.

[luciancerbu]

What is interesting is that the daemon and webclient don't work, but the app for Mac works great.

Using normal Claude Code in CLI.

And here is the app:

[benkauffman]

cc @f7o — Apple, California. You are probably closer to macOS internals than most people who have tried ctrl, which makes your feedback especially interesting to me.

ctrl is a browser-based pixel-art office for AI coding agents — the daemon runs locally (bun/node) and watches JSONL session files, then you open the web app to see your agents. I have been focused on macOS reliability: APFS file watching, path handling with symlinks and non-ASCII characters, and session detection across different terminal emulators.

If anything does not work as expected on your setup:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. The specific things I am most interested in from a macOS perspective: does the file watcher catch sessions reliably, and do sessions appear without needing to restart the daemon?

[benkauffman]

cc @nakamotojp @sornram9254 @ITlearning @Yoddikko @enlyte — tagging you here since your backgrounds overlap with ctrl's macOS focus.

nakamotojp — PHP Laravel and Python ML on AWS and GCP. You are running real workloads. ctrl gives you a shared visual layer for agent sessions — the daemon runs locally on macOS, watches your JSONL session files, and the web app is accessible from any browser on your network.

sornram9254 — Ayutthaya Technical College background, mobile and embedded experience. ctrl is a single npx command on macOS and requires no configuration to pick up existing agent sessions.

ITlearning — iOS developer at Shoplive. ctrl's daemon is built with native macOS path resolution and file watching in mind. If you are running Claude Code or Codex alongside your iOS work, it should just work.

Yoddikko — QA automation engineer and computer engineering student. ctrl is good for QA contexts: you can watch multiple agents work simultaneously and see which sessions are blocked vs. active without checking each terminal.

enlyte — full-stack with ML inference, desktop, web, and iOS experience. ctrl's daemon handles the macOS-specific parts (APFS file watching, path resolution) and the web app is the monitoring surface. Curious whether it fits your setup.

To try it:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. Any macOS-specific feedback is especially useful to me.

[benkauffman]

cc @Blaked84 @mvandermeulen — tagging you here since your backgrounds overlap with the macOS thread.

@Blaked84 — CTO at Evalmee, Paris. You are running engineering teams and probably juggling multiple Claude Code sessions during development. ctrl is a browser-based dashboard that gives you a shared view of all running agent sessions — no tmux, no configuration, just npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta and it discovers them automatically on macOS.

@mvandermeulen — DevOps at Fivenynes, Sydney. You have 5k+ repos and clearly operate at scale. ctrl is designed for macOS-first workflows: native APFS file watching, correct path resolution, and a local daemon that stays out of your way. The web UI is accessible from your phone or another machine on the same network if you want monitoring without a second terminal.

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. Any macOS-specific feedback — path edge cases, file watching quirks, startup time — is especially useful to me right now.

[benkauffman]

cc @antranapp @a-leblond — tagging you here because your iOS/Swift backgrounds are exactly the audience I had in mind when I prioritized macOS support.

@antranapp — Swift, Mobile, Minimalism. You've shipped 187+ repos, and the discipline shows. ctrl runs as a daemon that watches JSONL session files from Claude Code, Codex, and others — the web interface works from any browser, including Safari on iPhone. Cross-platform path handling and file watcher reliability on APFS were first-class concerns from the start.

@a-leblond — Expo, React Native, iOS SwiftUI from France. You're living in the cross-platform world already. ctrl's daemon is a single npx command with zero config — it finds running agent sessions automatically. The web UI is a React app, no native install required.

If you hit any macOS-specific friction — path handling with spaces, symlinks, APFS file watcher quirks, or terminal emulator detection — I'd genuinely want to hear about it.

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh from any browser while a coding agent session is running.

[benkauffman]

@luciancerbu — sorry for the slow reply on this one. The screenshot tells me a lot — the macOS desktop app picking up your sessions while the daemon + web client don't is a useful diagnostic.

The most likely cause: the daemon and the macOS app are looking in different places for your session files. Claude Code writes JSONL transcripts to ~/.claude/projects/, and the daemon watches that directory. A few things to check:

1. Run the daemon with verbose output: npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta --verbose — it will print which directories it is scanning and which session files it finds (or doesn't find).

2. Confirm the daemon is actually running before opening the web client. The daemon prints a local URL when it starts successfully (http://localhost:4200 or similar). If you open the web client before the daemon is ready, it will show an empty office.

3. The web client must connect to your local daemon — it is not a standalone app. Open ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh in a browser on the same machine where the daemon is running.

If you paste the daemon startup output here I can tell you exactly what it is seeing.

[benkauffman]

cc @daddydanielt — indie developer in Taiwan, TradVoice creator. You are used to shipping tools that run reliably on macOS.

ctrl is a browser-based pixel-art office for AI coding agents. The daemon runs locally and watches JSONL session files — I have put effort into macOS-specific reliability: APFS file watching, path handling, and session detection across different terminal emulators.

If you are running Claude Code or Codex on your Mac:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh — would appreciate knowing if anything does not work as expected on your setup.