c9s

README

c9s

Terminal dashboard for Claude Code -- like k9s, but for your AI sessions.

Beta -- c9s is in early development and still needs validation. Feel free to use it! It reads local files only -- it never accesses your Claude account, never stores credentials, and adds zero cost to your Claude usage. Feedback and contributions are welcome!

Why c9s?

If you use Claude Code daily, you know the problem: dozens of sessions scattered across projects, no easy way to see what's running, what's waiting for input, or what you left off yesterday. Context switching between sessions means hunting through terminals, remembering session IDs, and losing track of what's where.

I tried agent-deck, ntm, and other tools for managing Claude Code sessions. They're powerful, but way more complex than what my workflow needed. I wanted something like k9s -- simple, keyboard-driven, zero setup. Launch one command, see all your sessions, jump between them instantly. That's it.

c9s gives you a single dashboard for every session on your machine. See at a glance which ones are actively processing, which need your attention, and which are ready to resume. Switch between sessions in a keystroke. No more lost context, no more forgotten sessions.

It reads directly from ~/.claude/. No API calls, no network, no daemon. One binary + tmux.

Features

• Zero setup -- reads directly from ~/.claude/, no configuration needed
• All sessions in one view -- across every project directory
• tmux integration -- open/resume sessions in tmux windows, switch seamlessly
• Live status -- see which sessions are processing, waiting for input, or done
• Session backup & restore -- back up session JSONL files, auto-restore archived sessions
• Effort picker -- choose effort level (low/medium/high/max) when creating new sessions
• Preview panel -- toggle a detail panel showing tokens, messages, first prompt, and more
• In-app config editor -- press c to customize keybindings, colors, and refresh interval
• Search & filter -- find sessions by name, project, or ID
• Group by project or status -- cycle grouping modes with Tab
• Token usage -- see total tokens per session
• Rename sessions -- give sessions meaningful names
• Fully configurable -- colors, keybindings, refresh interval via ~/.c9s/config.json

Install

Homebrew

brew install stefanoguerrini/tap/c9s

Go install

go install github.com/stefanoguerrini/c9s@latest

From source

git clone https://github.com/stefanoguerrini/c9s
cd c9s
go build -o c9s .

Quick start

c9s

That's it. c9s auto-creates a tmux session, launches the dashboard, and you're ready to go. If a c9s session already exists, it re-attaches to it.

Want to try it without real sessions? Run c9s --demo to see the dashboard with sample data.

Keybindings

Dashboard

Key	Action
j/k or Up/Down	Navigate sessions
Enter	Open/resume selected session
n	New Claude session (in selected project dir)
N	New session with effort picker (low/medium/high/max)
x	Close managed tmux window
R	Rename session
b	Back up session JSONL file
/	Search sessions
Esc	Clear search filter
Tab	Cycle grouping: none / project / status
p	Toggle preview panel
t	Toggle token column
c	Open config editor
q / Ctrl+c	Quit (kills tmux session)

Inside a Claude session window

Key	Action
Ctrl+d	Return to dashboard
Ctrl+n	Next session window
Ctrl+p	Previous session window

These navigation keys are configurable via the config editor or ~/.c9s/config.json.

When Claude exits, the window automatically returns to the dashboard.

Session status

c9s shows the lifecycle state of each session:

Status	Meaning
active	Session JSONL modified in the last 5 minutes
idle	Claude process running but not recently active
resumable	Session file exists on disk, can be resumed
archived	Only in history, no file on disk

For sessions opened through c9s, you also see real-time pane status:

Pane status	Meaning
processing	Claude is actively generating output
waiting	Claude needs your input (tool approval, question)
done	Task completed, at the main prompt

Configuration

c9s stores its config at ~/.c9s/config.json. You can edit it directly or use the built-in config editor (press c on the dashboard).

Configurable settings:

• Refresh interval -- how often the dashboard polls for updates (1-10 seconds)
• Navigation keys -- tmux keybindings for dashboard/next/prev session (default: Ctrl+d, Ctrl+n, Ctrl+p)
• Color theme -- switch between default and custom, then tweak individual colors
• All colors -- title, header, status indicators, preview panel, tmux status bar

Example config:

{
  "theme": "default",
  "refresh_seconds": 3,
  "keys": {
    "dashboard": "C-d",
    "next_session": "C-n",
    "prev_session": "C-p"
  }
}

How it works

c9s reads Claude Code's local data files:

• ~/.claude/history.jsonl -- discovers all sessions and projects
• ~/.claude/projects/<path>/sessions-index.json -- session titles, summaries
• ~/.claude/projects/<path>/<session>.jsonl -- token usage, file mtime for status

No API calls. No network access. Everything is local.

Process detection uses ps + lsof to find running Claude processes and match them to sessions. File mtimes are cached to keep the dashboard fast.

Requirements

• macOS or Linux (tmux doesn't run natively on Windows)
• tmux -- installed automatically when using Homebrew, otherwise brew install tmux or apt install tmux
• Go 1.24+ (only needed to build from source)

Related projects

• agent-deck -- a more feature-rich multi-agent dashboard
• ntm -- tmux session manager for orchestrating multiple AI coding agents in parallel

License

MIT