# I built Outerloop – manage your Macs as a Claude Code fleet from one dashboard > Source: > Published: 2026-07-08 21:25:54+00:00 Outerloop turns the Macs you already own into a small fleet of Claude Code workers, managed from one web dashboard. One always-on Mac is the **hub**: it holds the ticket queue, the scheduler, and the dashboard. Any other Mac joins as a **worker**. A single Mac is a complete fleet — the hub does its own work too. The problem it solves: the machine that can do the work is usually not the machine in front of you. The desk Mac has Claude Code logged in, the repos cloned, git/gh configured. When you think of a fix from your phone or another laptop, the options were remoting in — screen sharing or SSH into an interactive session, slow and awkward from a phone — or writing it down to copy-paste later. With outerloop you file a ticket from wherever you are and a capable machine at home picks it up. You come back to a PR. The unit of work is a ticket, and the ticket is also the record: an agent writes code on a branch using the ticket as context, a second agent reviews it (author and reviewer are separate; the reviewer cannot merge), and the PR references the ticket. Merges require manual approval in the dashboard, and failing CI blocks a merge even after approval. Machines find each other on your LAN by Bonjour, or through an outbound SSH tunnel to a cheap VPS when you're away. No VPN, no OAuth, no cloud service. Everything happens in the web dashboard at `http://.local:8765` : **Inbox**— your home. Whatever is waiting on you (approvals, questions, failures) sits at the top; what the fleet is doing right now is below it.**Board**— every ticket, Jira-style. Create tickets here (press`c` ), filter by status, drill into any ticket's thread.**Fleet**— your machines: online/offline, what each is running, pause/resume, pairing, budget.** Activity**— the full log; every action is recorded with a why. A coding ticket walks this path on its own: ``` you file it → triaged & prioritized → agent writes code on a branch → a second agent reviews it (≤3 rounds) → PR opens once it's stable → you approve the merge → merged, done ``` Along the way the agent may pause to **ask you a question** — answer in the ticket thread and work resumes with your answer. At the **merge gate** you see the PR link, diff stat, and CI status; **Approve & merge**, **Request changes** (your note goes straight to the agent for another pass), or **Reject** to stop. You can also add a note to any ticket at any time to steer its next run. **You approve every merge.** Agents only propose; the decision queue is the sole path to anything irreversible. Failing CI blocks a merge even after you click approve.**The author never reviews its own work**, and the reviewer has no way to merge.** Nothing runs away.**Per-ticket and fleet-wide token budgets, per-run timeouts, a hard cap on review rounds, and a one-click** kill switch**that stops all new work.** Get pinged, not surprised.**Set a notify URL (`outerloop config notify_url https://ntfy.sh/` ) and your phone buzzes for every decision, failure, and junk-parked ticket.- A LAN-exposed hub always locks itself: worker auth on, and a dashboard password (self-generated and shown once if you don't set one — `outerloop status` recalls it). Install the menu-bar app — it's the smoothest way in. It's signed + notarized, and it does the whole setup for you (dashboard password, service start, pairing): ``` brew tap phyolim/tap brew trust phyolim/tap # one-time, required for the cask brew install outerloop # CLI + service brew install --cask outerloop-app # the menu-bar app ``` Open **Outerloop** from the menu bar and pick what this Mac is: **Hub + Worker**— the usual choice on your first or only Mac: it holds the queue and dashboard*and*does coding work itself.**Worker**— every other Mac. Its popover lists hubs on your network — click** Join**, it shows a 6-character code, type that code on the hub's** Fleet**page. Paired.** Hub**— rare: a hub that only coordinates and never codes. That's it. The dashboard opens from the menu bar, or at `http://.local:8765` . **One hub, any number of workers.** Any Mac doing coding work also needs `claude` (Claude Code CLI, logged in), `gh` (authed), and `git` (commit identity set) — the app checks all of it on first launch. Python ≥ 3.9 (the built-in `/usr/bin/python3` ) is enough; zero pip installs. ## Prefer the terminal? (headless hubs, no GUI) Skip the cask; after `brew install outerloop` , tell the Mac its role yourself: ``` # first / only Mac — hub that also codes: outerloop setup-both && brew services start outerloop # `setup-hub` = coordinate-only # every other Mac — a worker: outerloop local role worker outerloop local hub_url http://.local:8765 brew services start outerloop ``` `outerloop status` prints the dashboard password; `outerloop doctor` checks the `claude` /`gh` /`git` toolchain. Pair a CLI worker from the hub: `outerloop token ` , then on the worker `outerloop local worker ` and `outerloop local token ` , and restart it. Install the app on it, pick **Worker**, and use its **Join** button (above) — that's the whole pairing. What each worker is allowed to work on is set by its **capabilities**, edited live on the hub's Fleet page. The hub can dial out to a cheap VPS over SSH so you can reach the dashboard from anywhere (HTTPS + password) — no port opened at home. That walkthrough, plus the zero-touch `.pkg` installers for a managed fleet, lives in ** deploy/README.md**. - **Models:** cheap models do the trivial work, capable ones the deep work (triage → Haiku, review → Sonnet, author → Opus). Override with`--models "author=opus"` or`OUTERLOOP_MODEL_` . - **Personas:** give agents identities and specialties — like staffing a team. Drop a markdown file in the hub's`agents/` data dir ("a fintech-savvy author for`banking-*` projects", "a food-delivery UX reviewer for`food-*` ") and tickets route to the matching specialist by project. See`prompts/agents/README.md` . - **State** lives in`~/Library/Application Support/outerloop` — one store shared by the CLI, the daemon, and the app. Run**one hub per machine**, and don't mix a brew-services hub with a`.pkg` hub on the same box. - **Upgrade:** the menu-bar app updates itself; for the CLI/service,`brew upgrade outerloop && brew services restart outerloop` . - **Uninstall:** ``` brew services stop outerloop brew uninstall outerloop brew uninstall --zap --cask outerloop-app rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/outerloop # state — only if you want it gone ``` FAKE mode — the default from a clone — simulates the agents and GitHub, so the whole loop runs end to end with nothing installed but a Mac's own Python: ``` git clone https://github.com/phyolim/outerloop && cd outerloop python3 -m outerloop init python3 -m outerloop serve # dashboard at http://127.0.0.1:8765 python3 -m outerloop tick # advance the loop (second shell; run repeatedly) ``` File a ticket, tick a few times, watch it reach the merge gate, approve it, tick again — merged. That's the whole product in miniature.