A native Mac app for agent CLIs like Claude Code and Codex.

Kiln runs agent CLIs as a proper desktop app instead of another terminal tab. Sessions live in a sidebar, approvals pop up as real dialogs, and the whole thing feels like the rest of your Mac. Built in SwiftUI. macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel.

I wanted the feel of a native editor — command palette, keyboard shortcuts, a sidebar — without giving up the CLI workflow underneath. So Kiln wraps the agent CLI, keeps a session per project, and adds the stuff that's awkward to do in a terminal: per-session tunnels, remote control from another device, real video/image previews, clean export.

It's still early. I use it every day; you might want to wait.

• Sessions per project, code and chat split into two sidebars.
• Command palette (⌘K), Quick Open (⌘P), global message search (⇧⌘F).
• Built-in editor with inline agent edit diffs (accept / revert), breadcrumbs, and keyboard shortcuts.
• Git-aware file tree — per-file status markers, directory roll-up, branch pill in the workdir header, "Show Diff vs HEAD" on any modified file, and "Ask About This File" right from the context menu.
• Workdir activity chip above the composer — shows what the active agent's tools touched since HEAD, click a row for the diff. Event-driven, no polling.
• Claude sessions keep working when you move their workdir — the underlying CLI conversation file is migrated into the new project dir so context carries across the move. Codex sessions currently start fresh after a workdir change.
• ~60 local slash commands for git, repo inspection, clipboard/export, and quick session ops — typed right in the composer.
• Cmd+Opt+1..9 to jump to the Nth visible session in the current tab.
• 16 languages in Settings with full UI translations — English, German, Chinese, French, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Dutch, Hindi, Arabic, Polish, Turkish, Swedish.
• Per-session Cloudflare tunnels for remote control from your phone.
• Real approval dialogs for Claude sessions instead of terminal prompts.
• Dock icon that live-tints to your accent color and follows dark mode.
• Sparkle auto-updates.

Clone and build:

git clone https://github.com/raya-ac/kiln
cd kiln
swift build -c release
open .build/release/Kiln

That gets you the raw binary. To produce a real Kiln.app bundle (the kind Finder recognises, with auto-updates wired up):

./scripts/make-app-bundle.sh 1.9.1 arm64      # Apple Silicon
./scripts/make-app-bundle.sh 1.9.1 x86_64     # Intel
open dist/arm64/Kiln.app

Either works fine for trying it out.

Push a tag like v1.9.1 and GitHub Actions will:

1. Build separate Apple Silicon and Intel .app bundles.
2. Code-sign and notarise them (if you've added the Apple secrets).
3. Sign both zips with Sparkle's EdDSA key.
4. Regenerate appcast.xml — Sparkle reads the binary of each zip and stamps the correct architecture on the feed item, so each Mac pulls the build that matches it.
5. Commit the new appcast.xml back to main and publish a GitHub release with both zips attached.

Inside the app, Kiln → Check for Updates… hits that appcast. Scheduled checks run once a day.

If you're forking this, you'll need a few secrets on your repo at Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions.

For Sparkle (required for auto-updates to actually verify):

Generate the pair once:

curl -LO https://github.com/sparkle-project/Sparkle/releases/download/2.6.4/Sparkle-2.6.4.tar.xz
tar -xJf Sparkle-2.6.4.tar.xz
./bin/generate_keys       # adds private key to your Keychain; prints the public half
./bin/generate_keys -x    # prints the private key — base64 it for the GH secret

For Apple code-signing and notarisation (optional — leave blank and the workflow skips these steps, but users will see a Gatekeeper warning on first launch):

Sources/
  App/          entry point, AppDelegate
  Views/        SwiftUI views — sidebar, chat, settings
  Services/     AppStore, Claude/Codex backends, remote control, tunnels, updater
  Models/       domain types
scripts/        make-app-bundle.sh + entitlements
.github/        CI + release workflows

Common commands are wrapped in a Makefile:

make           # lists everything
make run       # debug build + open the binary
make bundle VERSION=1.9.1 ARCH=arm64
make lint      # swift-format --lint
make format    # swift-format --in-place
make logo      # re-render the brand mark
make ci-local  # run everything CI runs, locally

It's a personal project but PRs are welcome. Build with swift build, run with open .build/debug/Kiln (or the release variant), and the CI workflow will catch the obvious stuff. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the shape of a good patch and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md for how we behave in issues and PRs.

Security issues: please don't file them as public issues — see SECURITY.md.

MIT.