Our take
- Activity
- 86
- Community
- 36
- Issues
- 89
- Pull requests
- 85
+2 stars in the last 8 days
- Merges more pull requests than 98% of the projects we track
- Releases more often than 87% of the projects we track
- Closes issues faster than 83% of the projects we track
Overview
Coven provides a shared local runtime for coding-agent command-line tools such as Codex, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot CLI. Rather than having each harness manage project sessions independently, Coven gives them project-scoped boundaries and a persistent place to launch, observe, and coordinate work.
It is aimed at developers who want to use multiple harnesses through one runtime while keeping session execution and authority enforcement in a local Rust daemon. Clients such as the CLI and other integrations use the daemon rather than acting as the security boundary.
Key Features
- Launches supported coding-agent harnesses in project-scoped sessions.
- Runs harnesses through PTYs and records session events for later observation.
- Persists session state in SQLite.
- Exposes a same-user local IPC API for clients and integrations.
- Provides CLI and interactive terminal UI workflows for managing sessions.
- Supports Codex, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot CLI, with an adapter contract for harness integrations.
- Includes a
doctorcommand to check local readiness.
Use Cases
- A developer wants to run different coding-agent CLIs against the same project without managing separate session workflows.
- A team member needs to inspect or attach to agent work while it is running, instead of treating each CLI invocation as opaque.
- A developer building a client or integration wants to use Coven's local API and shared session runtime.
- A user experimenting with agent-assisted coding wants project-scoped execution and durable local session records, and accepts early-stage software.
Getting Started
Install the CLI and check local readiness:
npm install -g @opencoven/cli
coven doctor
See the repository README and official documentation for setup, supported platforms, and usage details.
Alternatives
- rimz: RimZ controls and monitors agents in tmux or Zellij, while Coven provides a local runtime with shared sessions, durable events, and an API.
- orca: Orca coordinates agents through isolated Git worktrees and a desktop or mobile workspace, rather than Coven’s local runtime and shared event store.
- cli-agent-orchestrator: CLI Agent Orchestrator delegates work among agents in isolated tmux sessions, while Coven focuses on shared session management and durable events.
| Project | Language | License | Stars | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| coven | Rust | MIT | 66 | Not checked yet |
| rimz | Rust | MIT | 30 | New |
| orca | TypeScript | MIT | 88.6k | Active |
| cli-agent-orchestrator | Python | Apache-2.0 | 1.4k | Active |
Considerations
Coven describes itself as an early MVP and warns that rough edges should be expected. It is pre-1.0 software, and its README cautions against using untrusted harnesses or prompts in sensitive repositories because session logs can capture harness output, including secrets. The README lists macOS, Linux, and Windows x64 support; the Linux CLI package requires glibc, with Alpine unsupported.
Found this useful?
Share it with someone who would like coven.