Show HN: Relay – turn Claude Code into a visual Kanban build loop

Relay Studio, a desktop application that wraps AI coding agents into a visual Kanban build workflow, has been released. The tool supports Claude Code and OpenAI Codex as execution engines, enabling users to describe features, generate specifications, decompose tasks, and review code via an approve/reject gate. Relay Studio is distributed via npm and supports macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Turn AI coding agents into a visual Kanban build loop. Describe a feature → generate a specification or brainstorm interactively → decompose into tasks → autonomous agent builds each task → you review via approve/reject gate. All installers live on the latest release page — or run instantly with npx relay-studio no install . macOS note manual download only :Installing via npm avoids this. If you instead downloaded the .dmg / .zip and see "app is damaged and should be moved to trash", run this in Terminal: xattr -cr "/Applications/Relay Studio.app" This removes the macOS quarantine flag. The app is not signed with an Apple Developer certificate yet. relay-demo.mp4 Relay Studio is distributed via npm — no code-signing prompts, no quarantine command. Run it instantly nothing installed permanently npx relay-studio Or install the launcher command globally npm install -g relay-studio relay-studio The first run downloads the app for your platform macOS Apple Silicon, Windows x64, Linux x64 and caches it under ~/.relay-studio/ . Later runs launch instantly. Intel Macs: install via the .dmg from the latest release npm distribution is Apple Silicon only . Prefer a classic installer? Every platform build is attached to the latest release https://github.com/YoniRaviv/Relay/releases/latest : | Platform | Asset | Notes | |---|---|---| macOS Apple Silicon | .dmg installer · .zip | Run xattr -cr "/Applications/Relay Studio.app" after first launch see note above | Windows x64 | .exe NSIS installer · .zip | Choose install location during setup | Linux x64 | .AppImage | chmod +x then run | All assets are listed on the latest release page. Relay Studio is a desktop application that wraps AI coding agents into a structured, visual build workflow. Instead of manually prompting an AI and copy-pasting code, Relay automates the full cycle: planning, task decomposition, code generation, and review — all in a Kanban-style interface. Supports Claude Code and OpenAI Codex as execution engines. Relay has two workspaces, switchable from the left rail: Build — the feature-to-PR Kanban loop spec → tasks → agent build → review gate . Schedule — a scheduler that runs agent jobs on your machine one-off or on a recurring cadence, chains them into reusable playbooks, and gates results behind an optional approval step. Setup — Choose your engine Claude Code CLI, OpenAI Codex CLI, or Anthropic API key and open a project folder Describe a feature — Write what you want built in plain English, attach screenshots, reference project files with @filename Specification or Brainstorm — Generate a spec directly, or brainstorm interactively with structured Q&A, approach proposals, and incremental design approval Task decomposition — The spec or design document is broken into 3-10 structured tasks on a Kanban board Build loop — Start the agent and watch it build each task, streaming progress in real time Review gate — For each completed task, review the diff — approve to commit, or reject with notes to retry Run your project — Click the Run button to preview your app with auto-detected run commands Code Review — Run the AI code review agent to scan for security issues, performance problems, race conditions, and convention violations — then selectively fix them Create PR — When all tasks complete, create a pull request directly from the app Track progress — Cost, tokens, build time, and first-pass success rate in the Summary view Specification Wizard — AI-generated feature specs with streaming preview, clarification questions, @file tagging, image paste support, and manual editing Brainstorm Mode — Interactive structured conversation: AI asks focused questions with multiple-choice options, proposes 2-3 approaches with trade-offs, presents design sections for incremental approval, then generates a design document Kanban Board — Drag-and-drop task management across Pending, Building, Human Review, and Complete columns Agent Loop — Autonomous code generation with play/pause/stop controls and three build modes: Pause for Review — Pauses after each task for human approve/reject Auto-Pilot — Commits each task automatically and continues Continuous — Builds all tasks without pausing; review at your own pace Human Review Gate — Syntax-highlighted diff viewer with file tree, approve/reject flow, and git integration Smart Review Detection — Tasks with no file changes are auto-approved and skip the review gate Two-Phase Review — Phase 1 analyzes the feature diff for issues read-only ; Phase 2 fixes selected issues in a single commit Stack-Aware — Auto-detects your tech stack React, Express, Go, Python, Rust, etc. and applies stack-specific review rules Convention-Aware — Reads CLAUDE.md , .cursorrules , and other convention files to enforce your project's actual rules 7 Review Categories — Security, Performance, Race Conditions, Error Handling, Best Practices, Conventions, Accessibility 3 Severity Levels — Critical, Warning, Info — with per-finding checkboxes and bulk select by severity Selective Fixing — Choose which findings to fix; the agent applies all selected fixes in one engine call, one commit Model Selection — Pick which model reviews your code before starting analysis Fresh Context — Each review phase runs on a clean context window, independent of the build loop Works with All Engines — Uses your selected engine Claude Code, Codex, or API key for both analysis and fixes Run agent jobs on a schedule — the Schedule workspace in the left rail. One-off & recurring jobs — Queue a job to run now, at a specific date/time, or on an hourly / daily / weekly cadence; recurring jobs auto-re-arm at their next occurrence when they finish Board & Week views — Track jobs across Backlog, Queue, Running, Needs Approval, Done, and Failed columns, or see them laid out on a weekly calendar click a slot to schedule there Playbooks — Save reusable job templates, including multi-step chains where each step's output hands off to the next; run a playbook against any working directory Approval gate — Flag a job to require approval; it pauses in a Needs Approval column where you can approve, edit the result, or reject — chained jobs stay blocked until the prior step clears Skills — Attach a Claude library skill personal ~/.claude/skills or installed plugin skills to a job to shape how the agent works Usage & cost — A usage panel with total tokens/cost, per-playbook and top-job breakdowns, and a daily trend Keep awake — Optional keep-awake toggle so scheduled jobs still run when the machine would otherwise sleep Claude Code CLI default — Uses your existing Claude Code authentication via @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk OpenAI Codex CLI — Uses your existing Codex authentication via @openai/codex-sdk Anthropic API Key — Direct SDK calls via @anthropic-ai/sdk with built-in file tools Persistent Sessions — Keep one Claude Code session alive across all tasks for 1M token context reduces token waste - Type @ in any text field to reference project files - Autocomplete dropdown with fuzzy search across git-tracked files - Referenced file contents are injected into the AI prompt - Available in feature descriptions, task descriptions, and acceptance criteria Auto-detection — Detects run command from package.json , Cargo.toml , pyproject.toml , go.mod , docker-compose.yml , Makefile Custom override — Define your own command in .relay/run.json Live output — Streams stdout/stderr in a tabbed panel with clickable URLs Play/Stop toggle — In the board header, right next to model picker - Automatic branch creation with search/filter for base branch .gitignore management auto-adds framework-specific patterns - Commit on approve, push to remote, PR creation - Feature rename, archive, and delete Multi-Feature Support — Multiple specs per project with independent task backlogs Add Tasks Manually — "+" button in Pending column or 3-priority-column layout in wizard Feature Rename — Inline edit in board header Feature Archive — Archive completed features to keep workspace focused Build Timer — Live elapsed timer while a task is being built Persisted Summaries — Task duration, actions, and files changed survive app restart loaded from DB + git Metrics Dashboard — Per-task and aggregate stats including cost tracking with per-model breakdown Dark / Light Mode — Toggle in sidebar, respects system preference Keyboard Shortcuts — Space to toggle the agent loop, Esc to close panels Auto-Updates — Built-in update checker for new releases Per-Project SQLite — All data stored locally in .relay/relay.db inside your project folder Desktop Notifications — Get notified when tasks need review or the build finishes Relay Studio supports three engine modes, selectable in Settings: | Engine | Auth | Best For | |---|---|---| Claude Code CLI default | Uses existing claude login auth | Claude Code / Max plan users | OpenAI Codex CLI | Uses existing codex login auth | Codex / ChatGPT Pro users | Anthropic API Key | Your sk-ant- key | Pay-per-token usage | | Layer | Technology | |---|---| | Desktop shell | Electron 30 | | Frontend | React 18, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS v4, shadcn/ui | | State | Zustand | | AI Claude | @anthropic-ai/sdk , @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk | | AI Codex | @openai/codex-sdk | | Database | better-sqlite3 per-project | | Git | simple-git | | Build | Vite, electron-builder | - Node.js 18+ - npm - One of: Claude Code CLI https://docs.anthropic.com/claude-code , OpenAI Codex CLI https://github.com/openai/codex , or an Anthropic API key https://console.anthropic.com/ git clone https://github.com/YoniRaviv/Relay.git cd Relay npm install npm run dev Opens the app with Vite HMR. The Electron main process and preload script are compiled alongside the renderer. In dev mode, enter dev-bypass as the API key to skip real API validation. You can also seed a demo project with sample data: npx tsx scripts/seed-demo.ts Then launch the app, enter dev-bypass as the key, and select the "Demo Project" to explore the UI with pre-populated tasks. npm run build Produces a packaged application in release/ .dmg on macOS, .exe on Windows, .AppImage on Linux . npm run lint Launch Relay Studio and choose your engine in the setup screen Create or open a project — point to any folder on your machine Click "New Feature" — describe what you want built, use @filename to reference code Choose your path — click "Generate Specification" for a direct spec, "Brainstorm" for an interactive design session, or "Skip" to add tasks manually - Review the specification — the AI generates a detailed spec or design document from brainstorming ; edit as needed, then approve - Review tasks — the spec is decomposed into ordered tasks grouped by priority Select your model and build mode, then click Start Watch the agent work — each task streams activity in the feed below the board Approve or reject — review diffs, commit approved work, reject with notes to retry Run your project — click the Run button to preview your app Run Code Review — click "Code Review" in the sidebar available when all tasks are done , select your model, and start the analysis. Review findings by severity, select which to fix, and apply fixes in one click Create a PR — use the green button to add a remote or create a PR Check the Summary tab for cost, performance, and code review metrics electron/ main.ts Electron main process preload.ts Context bridge relayAPI, ~90+ methods agent/ Agent runner, prompts, loop controller, engines engines/ SDK engine, CLI engine, Codex engine openaiRunner.ts Codex text generation for PRD/clarify/decompose reviewRunner.ts Code review agent two-phase: analyze + fix stackDetector.ts Auto-detect project tech stack reviewPrompts.ts Review prompt templates with stack-specific rules db/ SQLite connection and schema 9 migrations git/ Git utilities lock mutex, commit helper runner/ Project runner auto-detect, spawn, stop scheduler/ Job scheduler service, schedule/recurrence, dispatch, playbook chains, skills, DB ipc/ IPC handlers settings, project, prd, brainstorm, tasks, agent, git, review, reviewAgent, runner, metrics, scheduler shared/ types.ts Shared TypeScript interfaces EngineMode, BuildMode, etc. pricing.ts Model pricing table Anthropic + OpenAI, engine-tagged src/ pages/ Board, PRDWizard, Setup, Summary modules/ Feature-based component modules board/ KanbanBoard, TaskCard, TaskDetail, AddTaskButton, ArchiveView agent/ LoopControls, AgentActivityFeed, RunProjectButton, RunOutputPanel review/ ReviewPanel, DiffViewer, PrCreationDialog reviewAgent/ Code Review Agent panel idle, analyzing, findings, fixing, complete prd/ PRDPreview, PRDEditor, FeatureInput, BrainstormChat, FileAutocomplete, StreamingProgress scheduler/ SchedulerView, JobBoard, WeekView, JobDetail, NewJobModal, Playbooks, UsagePanel, RecurrencePicker settings/ SettingsView 3 engines , ModelPicker engine-filtered project/ ProjectSelector, ProjectSidebar, GitHistoryPanel metrics/ TaskMetricsTable, MetricCard shared/ Reusable utilities, hooks, types, and components components/ui/ shadcn/ui primitives store/ Zustand store lib/ Utilities theme, keyboard shortcuts | Key | Action | |---|---| Space | Play / Pause the agent loop | Esc | Close the active panel review or task detail | This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 /YoniRaviv/Relay/blob/main/LICENSE .