Switchboard is a desktop application designed to centralize and manage CLI coding sessions, specifically for Claude Code. It offers a unified interface for browsing, searching, launching, and monitoring all sessions across projects, aiming to streamline developer workflows by eliminating the need to juggle multiple terminal tabs.

How It Works

Built with Electron, Switchboard aggregates Claude Code sessions, organizing them by project and providing a searchable database. Its core approach involves an integrated terminal for direct session interaction and an optional IDE-like side panel for reviewing and managing file changes proposed by Claude. This panel displays diffs, allowing users to accept, reject, or edit modifications before they are applied, enhancing control over code generation. The application uses SQLite for local session caching and metadata management.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Installation: Download the latest release for macOS (.dmg), Windows (.exe), or Linux (.AppImage or .deb).
• Prerequisites: Node.js 20+, npm 10+. Platform-specific build tools are required for native modules (e.g., Xcode Command Line Tools for macOS, build-essential and python3 for Linux).
• Development Setup: npm install followed by npm start.
• Links: Download links are implied by platform installers.

Highlighted Details

• IDE Emulation: Acts as an IDE for Claude CLI, displaying file diffs in a side panel for review and acceptance/rejection, with support for inline and side-by-side views.
• Full-Text Search: Enables searching sessions by their content, not just metadata.
• Session Management: Unified browser for all sessions, organized by project, with options to launch, resume, and fork.
• Real-time Monitoring: Live terminals for open sessions, status indicators (running, stopped, busy), and notifications for permission approvals or user input.

Maintenance & Community

No specific details on contributors, sponsorships, community channels, or roadmap are provided in the README text.

Licensing & Compatibility

No license information is explicitly stated in the provided README text.

Limitations & Caveats

IDE emulation can be disabled for users preferring external editors like VS Code or Cursor; these changes apply to new sessions. The macOS build utilizes custom entitlements for JIT and unsigned memory execution, which may require careful consideration in certain security-sensitive environments.