Workbench 0.9.2 (build 52)

Here's what's new in today's update to Workbench.

A steadier chat

Numerous updates to make the chat view more stable and faster, and to make sure it never shows you a blank screen ever again.

Drag tabs to reorder them

Tabs can now be dragged along the tab bar, and the other tabs move out of the way as you go. A split pair moves together as one tab.

Fixes and smaller changes

• Ctrl-Tab works in every tab. Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab used to switch tabs only from a terminal. In a chat, the message box treated them as typing. Now they step through the project's tabs from anywhere in the main window.
• Clicking near a tab's close button selects the tab. The gaps around a tab's title and close button used to grab the window instead, so a click there could drag the window out of its tiled spot.
• Quit Workbench Completely means completely. With Keep Working on, this now ends the Claude tabs Workbench was keeping running, too.

Workbench 0.9.1 (build 51)

Here's what's new in today's update to Workbench.

Queue prompts while your Mac is asleep

Have an idea while you're out? Open a project in the iPhone app and queue a prompt. When your Mac wakes up, Workbench starts it as a new agent on its own branch, with nothing for you to confirm. Your project list stays on your phone while the Mac is offline, and prompts are encrypted so only your devices can read them. Needs the iPhone app 1.1.1, rolling out now.

Up arrow brings back your last message

In the chat, press up in an empty message box to get back what you sent last, just like the terminal. Keep pressing to go further back, edit, and send again.

Fable is marked amber

Fable uses your plan limits faster than the other models, so its name under the message box is now an amber capsule with a flame. In the model list, Fable says so and Haiku gets a leaf as the light, economy model.

Smaller changes

• Anonymous usage counts now include which Claude model a session uses and when you switch. "Share anonymous usage data" in Settings turns this off, as before.

Workbench 0.9.1 (build 50)

Here's what's new in today's update to Workbench.

Mention files with @

Type @ anywhere in a chat message to pick from the project's files and folders, the same way you would in Claude Code's terminal. Use the arrow keys and Tab or Return to choose one. Picking a folder fills in @Sources/ and keeps suggesting what's inside it, so you can drill down to the file you want. This works for remote Mac tabs too.

Slash commands in the middle of a message

You no longer have to start a message with a command to use one. Type something like "clean this up with /uns" and Workbench suggests /unslop. Commands that only make sense on their own, like /clear or /model, still only show up when they're the whole message.

Select across a whole reply

On the Mac, you can now drag across several paragraphs, headings, and list items in Claude's reply and copy them all at once. Before, each paragraph had to be selected on its own. Code blocks and tables are still selected separately.

Fixes and smaller changes

• SSH works in Workbench tabs again. If your Ghostty config turned on its SSH shell features, running ssh in Workbench failed with "Unknown command: ghostty". Workbench now turns off just those two features and keeps the rest of your settings.
• New Claude tabs work after logging out. With Keep Working on, logging out of your Mac and back in could leave new Claude tabs stuck at "Login incorrect". Workbench now notices and starts fresh, and your conversations pick up where they left off.
• Your message stays when you change models. Picking a model from the model name under the message box used to erase what you'd typed. Now it stays put.
• A new home on the web. The Workbench website is now at workbenchapp.dev. Old links still work.

Workbench 0.9 (build 49)

Here's what's new in today's update to Workbench.

Keep working

Sometimes you want to restart Workbench, but you don't want to interrupt your agents. So you wait for them to be done. And they keep going so you wait some more.

This is off by default for now, but there is a new feature you can enable from the general settings called "Keep Working". When this is enabled, your Claude Code sessions operate independently of the Workbench UI. What this means is that if you have 1, 2, or 20 agents grinding away on stuff, and the next Workbench update shows up, you can install it and restart without slowing your agents down at all.

I'm not the first person to implement something like this by any means, but it's so cool once you get used to having this.

Performance improvements

I've been adding a lot of features to the app, and this release is clearly no different, but I did take some time to go through some of the core code flows in the project and make sure that they were solid. And I took a look at some of the performance issues in the app and figured out ways to make them better.

There's more to do here for sure, but hopefully some things will feel a bit more zippy than before.

Switch models and effort from the chat

Type /model in the chat, or click the model name under the message box, to get the same list of models Claude Code shows in its terminal. The list sets effort too! On iPhone, tap the model name at the top of a session, or send /model as well.

Run a command from the chat

Start a message with ! to run it in the shell, the way you would in Claude Code's terminal. This works from iPhone as well.

See when Claude edits another project

Sometimes you have related projects, and while your chat exists in one of them, you need it to update a different one. Previously that was effectively impossible to track, but now the right sidebar shows you what other projects are being edited by Claude in a new "Also Changed" section.

Commit, push, and open a PR in one click

The Changes panel has Commit, Push, and Open PR buttons. Each one sends a message to the project's Claude tab, and Claude does the git work, so the buttons work with GitHub, GitLab, or anything else. Reword them, reorder them, or add your own in Settings › Shortcuts › Claude Actions.

Better narrow windows

Sometimes you just want a narrow window, and Workbench now does this better than before. As the window gets smaller, the side panels will collapse to make sure you can still see the chat and you can still see them as needed. Also when the project sidebar is collapsed, you can still see project icons, so you can navigate from a more streamlined view if you prefer.

A new app icon

Workbench has a new icon that's more fun! Five others are available, from Settings › Appearance on the Mac or in the iPhone app's settings.

Appearance settings

Colors, fonts, and text size have their own page in Settings, with a live preview that changes as you do.

Appearance also has a new Motion setting, for when the sparkles and glows are more than you want:

• Full is how Workbench looks today, and it's the default.
• Calm stops the big effects, like the sparkles on a working project and the glow on the start page. The small spinners keep moving, so you can still tell when Claude is working.
• Still stops everything that moves on its own.

Calm and Still also use less of your Mac's power, so play with these if you want to make the app as light on your system as possible. If Reduce Motion is on in System Settings, Workbench uses Still automatically.

Fixes and smaller changes

• Notifications from Claude. Claude can run bench notify in a Workbench tab to send you a notification on your Mac and your paired iPhone.
• Lists in the message box. Type a dash or a number, then press Shift-Return (Return on iPhone), and the next line continues the list. Your own messages now show as Markdown, so lists read as lists.
• File paths open in the Finder. Click a file path in Claude's reply to show that file in the Finder.
• A steadier iPhone connection. A dropped connection is noticed within a minute, and a reply that didn't reach the Mac says so and gives you your draft back.
• The version is in the sidebar. The bottom of the sidebar shows the version and build you're running.
• Crash reports. If Workbench crashes, it sends a report so the bug can be fixed. It's part of Share anonymous usage data in Settings › General, so turning that off turns this off too.
• Easier to install. Downloads now come as a disk image. Open it and drag Workbench into Applications.

Workbench 0.8.4 (build 48)

Pick a color theme

Workbench now comes with 36 color themes. Choose one for light mode and one for dark mode in Settings › General › Colors, or while setting up, and Workbench switches between them with your Mac's appearance. The terminal tabs, sidebars, chat and diffs all take the theme's colors. If you'd rather keep your Ghostty theme, that's still an option.

Your theme's own color now shows up throughout, instead of the same orange everywhere: the Start Claude button, the send button, the checklist and timer, and the sidebar rows for sessions Claude is working on. Your messages in the chat view get a soft tint of it too, so they stand out from Claude's. A few themes have no color of their own, and those keep the orange.

Read Claude's plan in the chat

When Claude asks you to approve a plan, the chat view now shows the plan itself, so you don't have to switch to the terminal and scroll back to read it. Long plans fold after a screenful, with Show Full Plan to read the rest, and the question card has a Read the Plan button so you can read it all right before you answer. The iPhone app shows the plan too.

Clicking a file name in the chat now opens files outside the project, like Claude's plan files, in a read-only tab. Before, those looked like links but did nothing.

Close several tabs at once

Right-click a tab for Close Other Tabs, Close Tabs to the Right and Close All Tabs. If any of those tabs is still working, Workbench asks once instead of once per tab.

Fixes and smaller changes

• Switching models feels instant. The model you pick shows right away, with a small spinner until Claude confirms. A switch made with /model in the terminal shows up right away too.
• A quieter sidebar. The large card that popped up when you hovered over a project is gone.
• Settings looks right in every theme. The strip at the top of Settings and the selected section now follow your theme, so they're easy to see on dark themes. You can also browse the themes with arrows, for mice that can't scroll sideways.
• The New Agent sheet matches your theme. It no longer shows a dark box inside a light sheet when your theme and your Mac disagree on light or dark.
• Pairing another Mac is easier to find. The switch in Settings › Remote Access is now called "Let my iPhone and other Macs connect", and the directions point to the + next to This Mac at the top of the sidebar.
• No stray blue box on the welcome screens when Keyboard navigation is turned on in macOS.
• "Left running" is the new name for processes still going after you close their tab, with a note on what that means.

For the iPhone app

With this version on your Mac, the iPhone beta can show code in color in diffs and files, open the whole file around a change with unchanged stretches folded away, review a commit by tapping it, and show file type icons. Phones that use Match Mac for their colors follow your Mac's theme, including its accent color.

Workbench 0.8.3 (build 47)

Send Feedback is always there

The feedback button at the top right now stays put when the right panel is open. Before, it often disappeared to make room for the panel's Changes, Files and Artifacts switch. Now that switch makes room instead. Workbench is in beta, so please keep the feedback coming.

Fixes

• Approve Claude's plan from the chat view or your phone. When Claude asked you to approve a plan, the chat view and the iPhone app used to tell you to answer in the terminal. Now they show the choices as buttons, like Claude's other questions.
• The Files view shows every folder in a project folder that holds several repos. Before, it could run out of room on one repo's build output and leave later folders off the list.

Workbench 0.8.2 (build 46)

A cleaner, glassier window

The tabs now sit up in the title bar, so the whole top of the window is one tidy strip and your work gets more room. The open tab flows straight into what's under it.

The message box is now glass, and the conversation scrolls underneath it. The same glass shows up on the other things that float: the jump-to-latest button, the checklist and agents bars, the slash-command list, the usage and Mac meters at the bottom of the sidebar, and the command bar (⌘K).

• The Terminal | Chat switch now appears when you point at a Claude tab, and slides between the two.
• Shortcuts and past sessions moved into the + menu next to New Claude.
• A split shows as one tab with both halves in it. Click the mark between them to put the panes side by side or one above the other, swap sides, or separate them back into two tabs.
• When the message box holds more than fits, its text fades at the edges so you can tell there's more.

Reviewing changes is much nicer

Diffs and files now show code in color, using your terminal theme. Diffs show the whole file with the long unchanged parts folded away, so you see what changed in context. Click Show 13 lines to open a fold.

• Changes | File in a diff's header flips between the diff and the whole file. The file view marks changed lines in its margin.
• The up and down arrows in the header (or Control-Option-↑ and ↓) step from change to change, and on into the next file.
• You can select across lines in a diff, copy without the line numbers, and search with ⌘F.
• Clicking a file opens it in a preview tab that the next file you click replaces, so tabs don't pile up. Double-click a file to keep its tab.
• Click a commit to review it on one page: its message, the files it touched, and every diff in one scroll. Review All does the same for everything on your branch.
• Changed files show an icon for their type, and buttons to open them or show them in Finder when you point at them.

Fixes

• Workbench no longer crashes when the window is narrow with both the sidebar and the right panel open.
• Status colors (added, removed, done, failed) are easier to read in both light and dark mode.
• VoiceOver can now name every control in Settings.

Workbench 0.8.1 (build 45)

Split panes

Keep Claude and a terminal on screen together instead of flipping between tabs. Press ⌘D to open a shell beside the tab you're in, or ⇧⌘D to open one below it.

• ⌘] or a click switches sides. The side you're typing in gets a ring, and the other side dims a little.
• Drag the line between them to resize, or double-click it to make both sides the same size.
• Already have the tab you want beside Claude, like your dev server? Right-click a tab and choose Split With.
• Right-click the joined tab to stack the panes, swap sides, or unsplit. Splits come back after you quit and reopen.

Group projects your way

The sidebar can now use groups you make, like a backend and its apps together. Turn it on in Settings › General › Group projects, or View › Group Projects › Custom Groups.

• Drag projects into a group, or right-click one and choose Move to Group.
• Fold a group away when you're not using it. Projects you haven't grouped wait in Ungrouped.
• By Activity, the Pinned, Active, Recent, and Inactive sections you have now, is still there if you prefer it.

Code in the chat stands out, and copies with one click

Variable names, commands, and file names in Claude's replies now take your terminal theme's blue, the way Claude Code shows them in the terminal, on a soft background. They're easy to spot even if you use a monospaced font for everything.

Click one to copy it. No more carefully selecting STRIPE_SECRET_KEY with the mouse. Code blocks have a copy button in their corner too.

Make the chat yours

Pick the chat's font, its code font, and its text size in Settings › General › Chat Text, with a preview as you go. While a chat is on screen, ⌘+, ⌘−, and ⌘0 change the size.

You can also choose the color of the ring around a split's focused side, in Settings › General › Appearance. The choices come from your Ghostty theme, so they still fit when you change themes.

Smaller improvements

• ⌘1 to ⌘9 follow the sidebar, top to bottom, including your agents' worktrees. With another Mac's list showing, they open that Mac's projects.
• Option-Backspace and Control-Backspace delete the previous word in the terminal, like they do in other Mac terminals.

Fixes

• The chat no longer opens blank until Claude prints something.
• On the Mac, a code block with a long first line no longer hides every line after it.
• Quotes in the chat read like they do in the terminal: one unbroken bar, full-brightness text, and no cut-off lines around them.
• When pairing another Mac over Tailscale fails, Workbench now says why, like a link from a different tailnet or HTTPS Certificates turned off. Before, it only said "Connecting".

On iPhone

Custom groups and the new code styling come to the iPhone app in its next TestFlight beta.

Workbench 0.7.20 (build 43)

See your month's spending without a plan

If your Claude account has no plan limits, like an API key, a company gateway, or an Enterprise plan billed by usage, the foot of the sidebar now shows what you've spent this month. Before, some of these accounts showed nothing there.

• Working to a quota? Set a monthly budget on the Usage page and the ring fills toward it.
• It's an estimate. The number is worked out at standard API prices from Claude Code's logs on this Mac, so a negotiated rate or use on other computers won't be included.

All your projects in Brain Dump

Brain Dump used to stop at 10 project icons. Now it shows every one, so you can look through them while you decide what to work on. Point at an icon to see the project's name right away.

The top of the window acts like a title bar

Double-click empty space in the tab row or the panel header to zoom the window, the same as any other Mac app, and drag from there to move it. It follows your Mac's title bar double-click setting.

Updates install themselves when your Mac is idle

Updates now install by default after 30 minutes with no input, as long as nothing would be interrupted. Workbench restarts to do this, so this also applies when you step away from your main Mac. If you'd rather choose when, turn off Install updates when this Mac is idle in Settings. If you already turned it off, it stays off.

Also in this version

Workbench now keeps a small log on your Mac of how long chats take to open, to help track down chats that stay blank for a while. It has no conversation text in it and isn't sent anywhere.

Workbench 0.8 (build 44)

Get Workbench for iPhone

The iPhone app is in public beta on TestFlight. Answer Claude's questions, allow a command, or send a follow-up from your phone, and get a notification when a session needs you.

A small card at the bottom of the sidebar links to the beta. It goes away once you open it, close it, or pair a phone. The link is also in Settings › Remote Access and on the iPhone step of setup.

Updates no longer interrupt you

After an update, Workbench used to open What's New on top of your work. Now a small card at the bottom of the sidebar says which version you're on. Click it to see what changed, or close it.

Connecting to your Mac is more reliable

• Renamed your Mac? Workbench now sets up Tailscale for the new name, so your phone and other Macs can connect again instead of failing.
• Remote Access only reports it's working when it is. If HTTPS isn't working yet, the Mac you're connecting to says what's wrong, which is usually HTTPS Certificates being off in Tailscale.
• Clearer errors. When a secure connection to another Mac fails, Workbench says what usually causes it and where to fix it.

Screenshots in feedback

Send Feedback now takes up to four screenshots, so it's easier to show what you mean. The form also uses standard Mac colors instead of your terminal theme.

Recaps and Brain Dump use the right Claude account

If you use more than one Claude account, recaps and Brain Dump now run on the project's own account instead of your main one, and what they use now shows on the Usage page. Brain Dump also splits up your messages with a smaller, faster model.