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Show HN: Timon, an open-source AI workstation for coordinating agents

Timon, an open-source AI workstation released on GitHub as a Show HN project, coordinates a team of coding agents that run on the CLI subscriptions users already pay for rather than token-billed APIs. The orchestrator splits a job into tasks and dispatches them to roles including Coder, Reviewer, Merger, Researcher and Ops, with each task in its own git worktree and code reviewed by a second model before it lands; Timon requires one signed-in agent CLI from claude, codex, copilot, grok, opencode, pi or hermes-acp, and runs on Windows 10+ (x64), macOS 11+ (Apple silicon) and Linux x64 with glibc 2.28+.

read5 min views3 publishedNov 14, 2026
Show HN: Timon, an open-source AI workstation for coordinating agents
Image: Michielbdejong (auto-discovered)

Your AI agent team, running on your own machine.

They work through the CLI subscriptions you already pay for, ship code that has been reviewed, and ask you before anything that matters.

Download for Windows, macOS or Linux Β»

Docs Β· Website Β· Discord Β· Changelog Β· Write a plugin

Your agents run on the CLI you already sign in to:

<sub>your subscription, never a token-billed API Β· any ACP agent Β· add your own as a provider plugin</sub>

You tell Timon what you need, in plain words. The orchestrator splits the job into tasks and hands each one to the right agent: one codes, another reviews with a different model, a third merges. Every agent has a role, its own skills and a memory that follows it from mission to mission. You follow everything from one cockpit and step in whenever you want. They ask before they push, publish or delete anything.

The team every project starts with:

| Orchestrator<sub>Plans the job, dispatches the tasks, keeps track of what is blocked</sub> | Coder<sub>Works in its own git worktree, runs the checks, commits step by step</sub> | Reviewer<sub>Reads the diff with another model and sends it back when it is not right</sub> | | Merger<sub>Runs the full test suite once, then lands the branch</sub> | Researcher<sub>Digs through the code and the web, and turns an idea into a brief</sub> | Ops<sub>Handles the chores: dependencies, clean-ups, release notes</sub> |

<sub>Roles are fields, not names: rename them, add your own, import agents you already have.</sub>

🧭 The orchestrator runs your team. Describe the job, out loud if you like. It breaks it down, lets you pick the models for each part on one screen, then dispatches and follows the work until it lands.

| πŸ”€ Code, review, merge<sub>Every task in its own worktree, reviewed by a second model before it lands</sub> | βœ‹ You stay in charge<sub>Questions with buttons, permission cards, secrets the agent never sees</sub> | | πŸŒ™ Work while you sleep<sub>Routines, cron and webhook triggers, overnight series paced to your quotas</sub> | 🧩 Make it yours<sub>Widgets, pages, themes, layouts: signed plugins installed without a restart</sub> |

And everything else a team of agents needs:

  • 🧠 Memory that reaches the agent : a rule learned once is injected into the next mission
  • πŸ” Missions that survive : every turn and tool call is kept, a dead mission is resumed
  • πŸͺ‚ Quota fallbacks : when one subscription runs dry, the work moves to the next backend
  • 🌐 A built-in browser : isolated per mission, with annotations and recordings
  • πŸŽ™οΈ Voice : dictate a request, hear the answer
  • πŸ“± Reachable anywhere : desktop app, browser, phone, Telegram, CLI, remote API
  • πŸ–₯️ Three systems, one service : Windows, macOS and Linux, running in the background

<sub>Windows 10+ (x64) Β· macOS 11+ (Apple silicon) Β· Linux x64, glibc 2.28+</sub>

You need one agent CLI already signed in: claude, codex, copilot, grok, opencode, pi or hermes-acp. The installer brings its own Node.js, and on Windows installs Git when it is missing.

Once it is running, check that everything is in place:

timon doctor     # checks the service, the backends and the paths
timon backends   # lists the agent CLIs Timon found

That's it: open Timon and say hi to your orchestrator. πŸŽ‰

On a server without a screen, install the background service from the terminal:

timon service install --dry-run   # shows what will be installed
timon service install

The installation guide covers each system, remote access from your phone, updates and troubleshooting.

From source. Clone this repository and follow GETTING-STARTED.md: the daemon and the web app run on all three systems without the desktop app.

Same app, same features. Pro adds what a team needs.

πŸ§‘ Free πŸ‘₯ Pro
Agents, missions, Kanban, memory, routines βœ… βœ…
Every bundled module and every third-party plugin βœ… βœ…
Your CLI subscriptions, quota fallbacks βœ… βœ…
Desktop, browser, phone, Telegram, CLI βœ… βœ…
Several users, roles and groups, per-person permissions βœ…
Support Community βœ…
Price Free See plans

<sub>A licence never replaces your CLI subscription, and Timon never calls a token-billed API on your behalf.</sub>

flowchart LR
    you(["πŸ§‘ You"]) --> clients["<b>Clients</b><br/>Desktop Β· Browser Β· Phone<br/>CLI Β· Telegram"]
    clients <--> daemon["<b>Daemon</b><br/>Cordis kernel<br/>~50 bundled plugins<br/>SQLite"]
    daemon --> agents["πŸ€– Agent CLIs<br/>Claude Code, Codex, …"]
    daemon --> worktrees["🌿 Git worktrees<br/>one per task"]
    daemon <--> plugins["🧩 Plugins<br/>signed, hot-installed"]
    agents <--> tools["πŸ”Œ MCP tools<br/>Timon + your servers"]

The daemon runs as a plain service on your machine (systemd, launchd or a Windows scheduled task) and holds all the state. The clients hold none: close the app and your agents keep working.

Built with TypeScript, Node.js 22, Cordis, SQLite, Next.js, React, Tailwind and Electron.

Product surfaces and third-party plugins are written the same way: a widget, a page, a theme, a layout, a provider or a bundle of them. Start from a template, build against @timon-ai/sdk, publish on npm.

Bug reports, translations and plugins are welcome.

  • Want to change the code? ReadCONTRIBUTING.md : how to run the checks, and the rules a review looks at. Your first pull request asks you to sign theCLA .
  • Found a bug?Open an issue with your version and the output oftimon doctor . An issue without them is closed with a link to the guide.
  • Speak another language? The interface is translated by pull request, without touching any code: seeCONTRIBUTING-TRANSLATIONS.md .
  • Found a vulnerability? Report it privately, asSECURITY.md explains.
  • Questions, plugins and show-and-tell go to Discord .

If Timon saves you a few hours, a ⭐ helps a lot.

Timon is free software under the GNU AGPL v3, with an exception that leaves plugins free to use any licence: LICENSING.md explains what that means for you. The SDK and the plugin templates are under the MIT licence. The name, the logo and the mascot are not covered by these licences: see TRADEMARKS.md. Third-party components are credited in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

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