Desktop App Overview

PlexusOne Desktop is a macOS application for managing multiple AI CLI agent sessions in a unified interface.

Main Interface

Components

1. Toolbar - Layout picker, new session button, Claude Sessions button, refresh
2. Grid Layout - Configurable panes (1×1 to 4×4)
3. Pane Header - Session dropdown, the Claude session name with a badge when it is waiting for you, pane number, pop-out button, detach button
4. Terminal View - Embedded terminal showing session output
5. Status Bar - Pane indicators, session count

Key Concepts

Sessions vs Panes

Concept	Description
Session	A tmux session running an AI agent (e.g., Claude Code)
Pane	A visual slot in the grid that can display a session

Sessions exist independently of panes. You can:

• Attach a session to a pane (view its output)
• Detach a session from a pane (keep it running invisibly)
• Move a session between panes

Session States

Sessions are color-coded by status:

Status	Color	Meaning
🟢 Running	Green	Agent is actively working
🔵 Idle	Blue	Agent is waiting for input or finished
🟠 Stuck	Orange	Agent may need attention
🔴 Error	Red	Session has an error

Workflows

Multi-Agent Development

Run multiple coding agents in parallel:

1. Create sessions for different tasks:

   tmux new-session -d -s feature-auth "claude"
   tmux new-session -d -s feature-api "claude"
   tmux new-session -d -s tests "claude"
   

2. Use a 3×1 layout to view all three side-by-side

3. Monitor progress and respond to prompts as needed

Code Review Pipeline

Set up a review workflow:

1. Pane 1: Coder agent working on implementation
2. Pane 2: Reviewer agent checking code
3. Pane 3: Test runner agent

Focus Mode

Need to concentrate on one agent?

1. Switch to 1×1 layout
2. Attach the session you're working with
3. Other sessions continue running in the background

Pop-Out Session

Need more screen space for one session without disrupting your grid?

1. Click the pop-out icon (↗) in the pane header (next to the ✕)
2. A new 1×1 window opens with that session
3. The original session stays attached in the grid

This gives you two views of the same tmux session - useful for:

• Expanding one session to full screen while keeping the grid visible
• Viewing the same session on different monitors
• Comparing output at different scroll positions

Features

Scrollback Buffer

Each pane has 10,000 lines of scrollback. Scroll up to review:

• Previous commands
• Agent reasoning
• Error messages
• Full conversation history

Scrolling with tmux:

When attached to a tmux session, enable mouse mode for trackpad scrolling:

tmux set -g mouse on

Add to ~/.tmux.conf to make it permanent. With mouse mode enabled, two-finger trackpad scrolling works to navigate through tmux's scrollback buffer.

Pane Terminal

Each pane can show a plain shell below its coding session, opened in the folder the session works in, so you can review files and run commands alongside the agent. See Grid Layout.

State Persistence

Your workspace is automatically saved:

• Grid layout (columns × rows)
• Pane-to-session assignments
• Saved to ~/.plexusone/state.json

On restart, you're prompted to restore or start fresh.

Session Creation

Create new tmux sessions directly from PlexusOne Desktop:

1. Click the + button in the toolbar or status bar
2. Enter a session name
3. Optionally specify a command to run
4. Session is created and attached to an empty pane

Tips

Use Descriptive Session Names

Name sessions by task: feature-login, bugfix-123, refactor-api This makes it easy to identify them in dropdowns.

Detach, Don't Kill

When done with a pane, click ✕ to detach (session keeps running). Only kill sessions when you want to stop the agent completely.

Match Layout to Task

• 1×1: Focused work with one agent
• 2×1: Side-by-side comparison
• 3×2: Full team of agents