# Show HN: Gingerpaw : A voice dictation and agent workspace app

> Source: <https://github.com/Vikrant-Khedkar/gingerpaw>
> Published: 2026-06-22 08:22:27+00:00

**A multi-agent coding workspace for macOS — with on-device voice. Fully local.**

Run a whole team of coding agents in parallel — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor — each in its own git worktree. Agents can even spawn their own workspaces and launch other agents. Plus push-to-talk dictation and a talking ginger cat that speaks (in a neural voice) when an agent finishes. Nothing ever leaves your Mac.

Run multiple coding-agent CLIs side by side, each isolated:

**A tab per agent**— Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor — real interactive terminals (SwiftTerm PTYs) running in-app.** Git worktrees**— every workspace is a worktree on its own branch under`~/.gingerpaw/worktrees`

, so agents work in parallel with zero collisions.**Live diff panel**— Files / Changes / Review with`+/−`

counts, one-click**Commit**, and** Create PR**(via`gh`

).**Ports + branch status**— detected dev-server ports and ahead/behind, right in the status bar.- Agents launch with auto-approve flags — safe, because each is sandboxed to its own worktree.

GingerPaw runs an MCP server, so an agent running *inside* a workspace can drive the cockpit:
**create new workspaces, launch other agents with a task, and read their diffs back.** Ask one
agent for something and a whole team shows up in your sidebar, working in parallel — all visible
and steerable. A `.mcp.json`

is auto-wired into every worktree (Claude Code) and `~/.codex/config.toml`

(Codex).

**Push-to-talk dictation**— hold** Fn or Right Option**, speak, release; transcribed on-device with[WhisperKit](https://github.com/argmaxinc/WhisperKit)and pasted into any app.**Talking-cat notifications**— when a coding agent finishes, a ginger cat pops up and speaks a summary in a natural** Kokoro (82M) neural TTS**voice (or macOS`say`

). Walk away and still know when it's done.

All on-device. No cloud, no account.

- macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon)
- Xcode 16+ with the Metal Toolchain (
`xcodebuild -downloadComponent MetalToolchain`

) — required to compile MLX's GPU shaders. [XcodeGen](https://github.com/yonaskolb/XcodeGen)(`brew install xcodegen`

)- The agent CLIs you want to use (
`claude`

,`codex`

,`gemini`

,`cursor-agent`

) on your`PATH`

. `gh`

(optional) for Create PR. Kokoro TTS (optional) for the neural voice.

``` php
xcodegen generate                                    # project.yml -> GingerPaw.xcodeproj
xcodebuild -project GingerPaw.xcodeproj -scheme GingerPaw \
  -configuration Debug -derivedDataPath ./dd build
```

MLX requires Xcode's build system to compile the Metal kernels — a plain

`swift build`

will not produce the metallib. Use`xcodebuild`

(or open the project in Xcode).

The build is self-contained: a build phase also compiles and bundles `gingerpaw-cli`

(the voice + MCP helper) into the `.app`

, so a fresh clone builds a complete, runnable app —
no extra steps. First launch downloads the WhisperKit model once; grant the three permissions
below. Install the agent CLIs you want (`claude`

, `codex`

, `gemini`

, `cursor-agent`

) to use the
Agent Workspace.

Run `swift test`

inside `Packages/FlowKit`

for the unit tests.

GingerPaw needs three macOS grants (surfaced in the in-app **Permissions** tab):

| Grant | Why |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Record your voice for transcription |
| Input Monitoring | Detect the push-to-talk hotkey globally |
| Accessibility | Paste text into the focused app |

A thin SwiftUI app shell (`App/`

) over **FlowKit** (`Packages/FlowKit`

), a SwiftPM package of focused libraries:

`AgentWorkspace`

— the multi-agent window: SwiftTerm terminals, git worktrees, the diff panel, ports/PR, and the**MCP bridge**(`MCPBridgeServer`

) that lets agents drive the app over a loopback socket.`AgentMCP`

— shared Codable types for the MCP bridge (kept dependency-light so the`gingerpaw-cli`

MCP binary stays small).`AgentNotifications`

— the`<say>`

transcript parser + speech service shared by the app and the`gingerpaw-cli`

hook binary.`Dictation`

— the`DictationCoordinator`

state machine ·`Audio`

·`Transcription`

(WhisperKit) ·`TextInsertion`

.`TextProcessing`

— MLX/Qwen formatter (experimental) ·`Hotkeys`

(global`CGEventTap`

) ·`Permissions`

(TCC) ·`Overlay`

·`Settings`

.`AppCore`

— composition + UI: the Agent Workspace, Dictate / Voice / Permissions / Settings, and the talking cat.

`gingerpaw-cli`

is the bundled helper binary: `notify`

(the Claude Code voice hook) and `mcp`

(the MCP server agents connect to).

MIT