glint

Glint is a terminal-native workspace switcher and agent sidebar written in Go with Bubble Tea. It scans your local project roots, correlates them with tmux/Zellij sessions and agent lifecycle state, and gives you a fast keyboard UI for jumping between projects, worktrees, and running agent chats.

This is still a prototype. tmux and Zellij are both actionable backends; the tmux-only shelf remains the main feature not yet mirrored in Zellij.

Install / build

# run from source
go run ./cmd/glint

# build a local binary
make build
./bin/glint

# or install to GOPATH/bin
go install ./cmd/glint

Useful development commands:

make run    # go run ./cmd/glint
make test   # go test ./...
make fmt    # gofmt -w .

Commands

glint                    # full-screen workspace UI
glint sidebar            # same UI, marked as the Glint sidebar pane inside tmux/Zellij
glint attach             # create a tmux/Zellij sidebar split running `glint sidebar`
glint popup [options]    # open the command palette in a tmux popup or Zellij floating pane
glint palette [options]  # run only the command palette
glint hook ...           # record an agent lifecycle event
glint events [limit]     # print recent recorded hook events
glint hooks install pi   # install the Pi extension that emits hook events
glint hooks uninstall pi # remove the Pi extension
glint pty start --id ID -- COMMAND ... # experimental native PTY session
glint pty attach ID      # attach to an experimental native PTY session
glint pty detach ID      # close attach clients without killing the PTY session
glint pty pane --name main # run a remotely switchable attach pane
glint pty switch --pane main ID # point that pane at a PTY session
glint pty list           # list experimental native PTY sessions
glint debug data         # dump scanned config/session/workspace data as JSON

Palette options include --movement, --local, --global, --no-agents, --no-actions, --no-workspaces, --no-create, --no-cleanup, and --agents-only.

tmux / Zellij usage

Glint works best from inside tmux or Zellij. Mouse support in tmux is optional, but if you want to use it enable:

tmux set -g mouse on

Start a persistent sidebar:

glint attach

Or manually split a pane:

tmux split-window -h -l 36 'glint sidebar'
zellij action new-pane --direction right --name glint-sidebar -- glint sidebar

Experimental native PTY daemon

Glint includes an MVP native PTY daemon for detachable terminal-native agent processes without a tmux shelf session. It is not wired into the main UI yet.

# start a detached PTY session; the daemon autostarts on first use
glint pty start --id claude-demo --cwd "$PWD" -- claude

# attach from any terminal/tmux/zellij pane
glint pty attach claude-demo

# or run a pane that can be controlled from another terminal
# terminal A:
glint pty pane --name main --session claude-demo
# terminal B:
glint pty switch --pane main other-agent

# detach from the attach client without stopping the agent: Ctrl-]
glint pty list
glint pty detach claude-demo # close any current attach clients without killing it
glint pty kill claude-demo

The daemon listens on $GLINT_PTYD_SOCKET, or $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/glint/ptyd.sock, or /tmp/glint-$UID/ptyd.sock.

In the tmux or Zellij sidebar, n starts the configured agent command in a native Glint PTY session and opens/reuses a remotely switchable glint pty pane. When the agent process exits, that viewer pane execs back into your login shell and stops being Glint-managed.

Configuration

Glint reads JSON config from:

~/.config/glint/config.json

If the file is missing, defaults are:

{
  "workspace_roots": ["."],
  "theme": "auto",
  "spinner": "points"
}

Example:

{
  "workspace_roots": [
    "~/Documents/dev",
    "~/work"
  ],
  "theme": "kanagawa",
  "spinner": "moon"
}

Supported themes: auto, dark, light, dracula, catppuccin/mocha, and kanagawa/wave.

Supported spinners: points, dot, minidot, line, jump, pulse, meter, hamburger, ellipsis, globe, moon, and monkey.

Environment overrides:

GLINT_SPINNER=moon glint
GLINT_AGENT_COMMAND=claude glint attach  # command used by the "new chat" action; default is pi
GLINT_OPENCODE_BIN=/path/to/opencode     # optional fallback for OpenCode history discovery
GLINT_OPENCODE_DB=/path/to/opencode.db   # optional override for the OpenCode SQLite database
GLINT_T3_DB=/path/to/state.sqlite        # optional override for T3 Code thread-name lookup
GLINT_BIN=/path/to/glint glint hooks install pi

Keyboard shortcuts

Main UI:

• ↑/↓ or j/k: move selection
• /: search/filter workspaces and agents
• Enter: switch to an existing tmux/Zellij session or create one for the selected workspace
• ctrl+p: command palette
• ctrl+w: create/switch VCS worktree or jj workspace
• ctrl+r: cleanup/remove a worktree or jj workspace
• ctrl+x: delete the matching tmux/Zellij session/workspace flow for the selection
• n: start a new agent chat in the sidebar main pane (GLINT_AGENT_COMMAND, default pi)
• b: shelve the current main pane or selected live agent pane into Glint's tmux shelf (tmux only)
• c, space, or tab: collapse/expand visible agent entries
• [/] or h/l: jump between top-level projects
• s: cycle spinner style
• q, esc, or ctrl+c: quit

Palette:

• type to filter
• ↑/↓ or j/k: move
• Enter: run/open selected target
• Tab/h/l: toggle local/global ordering
• ctrl+d/ctrl+x: cleanup selected workspace
• Esc: close

Agent hooks

Glint can record reliable agent lifecycle events from shell hooks, plugins, or extensions. Events are written to:

~/.local/state/glint/agents/events.jsonl
~/.local/state/glint/agents/latest.json

Manual examples:

# Mark an agent turn as running. JSON on stdin is optional but useful.
printf '{"session_id":"abc","cwd":"%s","prompt":"Refactor auth"}' "$PWD" \
  | glint hook pi prompt-submit

# Mark that same turn as complete.
printf '{"session_id":"abc","cwd":"%s","last_assistant_message":"Done"}' "$PWD" \
  | glint hook pi stop

# Inspect recent recorded lifecycle events.
glint events 20

Supported event/status signals include session-start, prompt-submit, stop, session-end, notification, permissionrequest, busy, idle, and error.

glint hook claude notification \
  --workspace "$PWD" \
  --session claude-123 \
  --status needs_attention \
  --task "Approve shell command"

Install the Pi extension after building/installing glint:

# install glint on PATH, then install the Pi extension
go install ./cmd/glint
glint hooks install pi

# or use an explicit binary path
go build -o ./bin/glint ./cmd/glint
./bin/glint hooks install pi --bin "$PWD/bin/glint"

Then restart Pi or run /reload inside Pi. The installer writes glint-session.ts under Pi's extension directory ($PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR/extensions or ~/.pi/agent/extensions).

Currently only the Pi hook installer exists. Manual glint hook <agent> <event> calls can record other agent names.

What Glint currently detects

• tmux, zellij, or plain terminal environment; tmux and Zellij support session/pane actions.
• Directories under configured workspace roots.
• Git repositories/worktrees and Jujutsu (jj) repos/workspaces, grouped under their parent project.
• tmux/Zellij sessions by name and current path where available, including sessions outside configured workspace roots.
• Live tmux/Zellij panes for known agent programs (Pi, Claude, Codex, Aider, OpenCode, Goose) when they can be matched to hook/history records.
• Pi persisted session history under ~/.pi/agent/sessions.
• OpenCode persisted sessions from ~/.local/share/opencode/opencode.db or opencode session list --format json, with T3 Code thread titles resolved from ~/.t3/userdata/state.sqlite when available.
• Hook-recorded agent status, merged with multiplexer pane metadata when available.

Workspaces are sorted with active multiplexer sessions first, then by recent project/agent activity.

Debugging

glint debug data --timing > glint-debug.json
go run ./cmd/glint-perf -n 5

Use --debug or -d before a command to enable internal debug logging where available:

glint --debug

Current limitations / next work

• Zellij does not yet mirror the tmux shelf workflow.
• Automatic hook installers only exist for Pi.
• Agent command configuration is currently via GLINT_AGENT_COMMAND, not the JSON config file.
• Historical session scanning covers Pi and OpenCode; other agents need hooks or live multiplexer correlation for reliable status.