# Seance: Human first, agent friendly. Tiling terminal+ workspaces (Rust+GPUI)

> Source: <https://github.com/zackham/seance>
> Published: 2026-07-21 21:27:51+00:00

**A shared space where humans and agents work together, live.**

Seance is a candlelit multi-pane terminal for Linux. Every pane is on the human’s screen. Agents (Claude, Codex, Grok, any CLI) and shells sit beside you — not hidden in a background job. They can see each other, ask you questions, propose commands for your approval, and leave notes on a scratchpad you both flip into. Visibility is the point.

Native app on [GPUI](https://www.gpui.rs/). Sessions live in a long-lived
daemon; the window is disposable.

**License:** MIT · **Platform:** Linux (Wayland / X11) · **Status:** 0.9.13

Release notes: [ CHANGELOG.md](/zackham/seance/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md).

Most agent tooling optimizes for *the agent alone*. Seance optimizes for
**engagement in a shared space**:

| human | agent |
|---|---|
| watches every pane live | runs in a real terminal on that screen |
| flips notes, steers, takes over a shell | drives siblings via `seance ctl` |
answers `ask` toasts; Enter/Esc on ghost commands |
prefers `propose` over silent risk |
| triages by status badges + stage strip | reports `planning` / `working` / `needs-human` |
| inspects pad drawer without flipping | opens file panes so edits appear live |

Attribution is first-class: actions are logged as `human`

/ `agent:<pane>`

/
`cli`

. The timeline answers “what happened while I was looking elsewhere?”

Any command is a pane. Default summon is a **shell** (so you can always take
the keyboard). Point `--command`

at whatever agent CLI you use.

**Live multi-pane terminals**— real PTYs, selection, scrollback; weighted tile grid with drag sashes (n≥2)** Workspaces**— keep circles of work apart; sidebar drag-reorder** Notes on the back of every pane**— shared markdown (`$SEANCE_SCRATCHPAD`

)**Pad drawer**— stage chip / ▤ shows task inject body + pad tail (live-refreshes)** Stage strip**— urgency-sorted roster chips (click focus+pad, double-click zoom)** File panes**— live markdown/text + history/diff when co-editing** Control plane**—`seance ctl`

so any pane (or external script) can spawn, send, wait, harvest**Orchestrator A+**—`--agent`

profiles, evidence-bound`wait --status done`

,`send --file`

, task envelopes,`harvest`

, event-driven wait, boot-clear**Human-in-the-loop**—`ask`

,`propose`

, seize/release/drive**Phone a pane**— ☎ /`ctl phone`

opens a telegram topic and seeds a**stage card**(workspace, roster, ctl how-to). No participant claim — you drive panes with normal`seance ctl`

on this host. Optional needs-human one-liners post to the topic when linked.**Daemon architecture**— upgrade binary without killing the circle (concurrent-upgrade gate)** Event bus**— sequenced, attributable events +`seance ctl watch`

**Capabilities**—`policy open|propose_required|locked`

+ per-principal grants

```
./scripts/bootstrap-deps.sh    # pinned gpui checkout — see docs/PLAYBOOK.md
cargo build --release          # first build can take ~10 min
./target/release/seance

ln -sf "$(pwd)/target/release/seance" ~/.local/bin/seance   # optional
```

Requirements: recent Rust, Vulkan-capable drivers, a monospace font
(default *CaskaydiaMono Nerd Font Mono* — change in `src/term_font.rs`

).

```
seance ctl skill                 # agent-facing protocol (⚡ arm / paste)
seance ctl doctor
seance ctl roster
seance ctl new --name w --agent claude --wait-ready
seance ctl send w --file /tmp/task.md
seance ctl wait w --status done --timeout 600 --cat
seance ctl harvest w1 w2 w3 --timeout 900
seance ctl phone w               # telegram topic + stage card (no claim)
```

Multi-agent live test: `./scripts/agent-collab-test.sh`

Thorough smoke: `./scripts/e2e-thorough.sh`

Upgrade load test: `./scripts/upgrade-load-test.sh`

(upgrades live daemon)

| key | action |
|---|---|
| ctrl+shift+n | new pane (shell by default) |
| ctrl+shift+w | banish (kill) active pane |
| ctrl+shift+s | flip notes ↔ face |
| ctrl+shift+p | pop pane to its own window |
| ctrl+shift+k | precanned prompt palette |
| ctrl+shift+j | fuzzy jump (pane / workspace) |
| ctrl+shift+z | focus-zoom active pane |
| ctrl+shift+f | last failed shell command |
| ctrl+pageup / pagedown | cycle workspaces |
| ctrl+shift+pageup / pagedown | cycle panes in this workspace |
| ctrl+shift+v | paste |
| ctrl+click / middle-click | open OSC-8 / URL |
| stage chip click | focus + pad drawer |
| stage chip double-click | zoom |
| ⚡ | arm agent (`ctl skill` orientation) |
| ☎ | phone pane (telegram stage card) |
| ▤ | pad drawer |
| 💬 | whisper — compose a steer into the pane |
| sash drag | resize 2-pane ratio or multi-pane weights |

| process | role |
|---|---|
`seance daemon` |
owns PTYs, grids, state; Unix socket |
`seance` (GUI) |
shared space UI; reconnects safely |
`seance ctl …` |
JSON-lines client for agents, shells, scripts |

**Do not** `pkill -x seance`

to reload — that kills every session. Prefer
`cargo build --release && seance upgrade`

, or `seance restart-gui`

for UI-only.

| path | |
|---|---|
| state | `~/.local/share/seance/state.json` |
| scratchpads | `~/.local/share/seance/scratch/<slug>.md` |
| layout weights | `~/.local/share/seance/layout.json` |
| events | `~/.local/share/seance/events.jsonl` |
| socket | `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/seance.sock` |

Injected into every pane: `SEANCE_SESSION`

, `SEANCE_WORKSPACE`

,
`SEANCE_SCRATCHPAD`

, `SEANCE_SOCKET`

. Workspace scoping is automatic inside a
pane — agents only see their circle unless you pass `--all`

.

| doc | |
|---|---|
|

[docs/DAEMON.md](/zackham/seance/blob/master/docs/DAEMON.md)[docs/ORCHESTRATION.md](/zackham/seance/blob/master/docs/ORCHESTRATION.md)[docs/SHELL-INTEGRATION.md](/zackham/seance/blob/master/docs/SHELL-INTEGRATION.md)[docs/PERF-TERMINAL.md](/zackham/seance/blob/master/docs/PERF-TERMINAL.md)[CLAUDE.md](/zackham/seance/blob/master/CLAUDE.md)*on*this repoCanonical agent instructions: ** seance ctl skill**.

```
./scripts/bootstrap-deps.sh
cargo test
cargo build --release && seance upgrade
./scripts/e2e-thorough.sh
```

Pin discipline: `gpui-component`

rev-pinned; zed patched to `deps/zed`

at
`1a246efd…`

. Bump only as a pair — PLAYBOOK.

- OSC-133 shell-agnostic markers (bash hooks + cmdlog work today; OSC-8 open shipped)
**Full continuous session replay**(grid recorder + browser player) — filed in vita working doc; not the retired timeline HTML export- GPU glyph atlas (CPU path is multi-pane smooth — explicit non-goal for now)
- worktree-backed agent rooms, best-of-N

MIT — see [LICENSE](/zackham/seance/blob/master/LICENSE).

Uses [zed’s alacritty fork](https://github.com/zed-industries/alacritty)
(Apache-2.0), [GPUI](https://www.gpui.rs/), and
[gpui-component](https://github.com/longbridge/gpui-component).