Forkbench

Forkbench is a native macOS terminal application built specifically for developers running AI coding agents like Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and Aider. It organizes terminal sessions into isolated "Threads," each carrying its own task board, notes, and secrets, so work from one agent context never bleeds into another. The app is currently available as a signed, notarized .dmg for macOS 13 and newer, at version 1.7.27.

What It Is

Forkbench is a terminal emulator and agent coordination layer for macOS. Every tab is a real PTY login shell — tmux, vim, fzf, lazygit, and your existing dotfiles all work unchanged. What Forkbench adds on top is a structured environment for running multiple AI coding agents in parallel: a per-Thread task board, a secrets vault that keeps API keys out of agent prompts, a notebook system for persistent context, and a web/mobile interface called Talk for remote access. It is positioned as a replacement for iTerm2 or Ghostty specifically for developers whose primary use case is running AI agents.

How Threads and the Task Board Work

The central organizing concept is the Thread — one unit of work containing terminal tabs, a folder, granted notes, granted secrets, and a durable task board. Key mechanics:

• Boards are persistent: closing a pane, quitting the app, or rebooting leaves tasks, progress notes, and blockers exactly where they were.
• Agent-agnostic task claiming: nothing on a task records which agent wrote it, so a task Claude started can be claimed by a Codex pane later without re-explanation.
• Human-in-the-loop verification: an agent can report a task finished, but it only counts as done when the user accepts it. Agents cannot verify their own work.
• Lease-based claiming: if an agent crashes or its pane closes, the claim releases and the task returns to the pool with progress notes intact.
• Cross-Mac boards: pair multiple Macs to one account and agents on different machines claim from the same backlog.

Vault: Secrets Agents Use but Never See

Vault is Forkbench's credential management system. API keys, tokens, and passwords are stored on the Mac and injected into commands at runtime via forkbench-secret exec, so the value never enters the agent's prompt, command line, or transcript. Specific behaviors:

• Assign a key a destination and the agent never receives the value at all; without a destination, the value still stays out of the prompt but the spawned program can read it (described by Forkbench as "a seatbelt rather than a guarantee").
• Touch ID can be required on every use, or a standing grant can be set for the duration of a work session.
• Keys sync across paired Macs sealed under keys Forkbench does not hold; removing a Mac immediately revokes what it had.

Notebooks and Talk

Notebooks are a persistent, end-to-end encrypted store of briefs, conventions, and decisions. Notes are written once in Markdown, filed by notebook, and granted per Thread at read or read-write level. They sync across all signed-in Macs under keys the server cannot read.

Talk is the remote access layer: a web interface that attaches to a conversation already open on the user's Mac, allowing the user to check on any Thread from a browser or answer a blocked agent from a phone. The conversation is relayed through Forkbench's servers while live and deleted a few minutes after the pane goes quiet; notes and Vault keys never pass through.

Setup Path and Compatibility

Installation is a standard macOS drag-to-Applications flow from a signed .dmg — no Homebrew, no setup scripts. The app self-updates. Supported agents include Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Aider, Cursor, Antigravity CLI, and any custom script runnable in a terminal. One-click integrations for named agents are available from Settings → Integrations. The fb CLI command is available inside every Forkbench tab for driving the Thread board from the command line, and forkbench . opens any directory in Forkbench from an external terminal.

Update: v1.7.27

The homepage lists the current build as v1.7.27 on macOS 13+. The changelog is available at forkbench.com/changelog. The product is actively shipping, with Talk described as "new" on the pricing page, indicating recent feature additions. The team plan and enterprise tier are also listed as current offerings alongside the free and Pro tiers.