CLI Manager
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CLI Manager now lets one AI agent run another inside its macOS app. That’s a neat bit of control plumbing, and it stays local unless turned on.
Based on reporting by Product Hunt, solhun — read the original for the full story.
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CLI Manager is back with a second launch, and this one adds a layer of machine-on-machine control. The open-source macOS app already put Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI side by side in one sidebar. Now it can let an AI agent open sessions, send prompts, wait for replies, and read the screen from inside terminals you can watch.
The new part is called the AI Control API. It works through REST and MCP, is local only on 127.0.0.1, and ships off by default. That matters, because the feature is not just about convenience. It turns the app into something closer to an orchestrator: sessions being driven by an AI go green in the sidebar, and the orchestrator itself gets a crown.
There’s also a clean escape hatch. Disconnect AI hands control back at any time. So if a script, Claude Code, Codex, or another agent starts steering a session, a human can take the wheel back without tearing everything down.
The rest of the app still leans on workflow niceties rather than ceremony. Projects and git worktrees can be organized inside the app, sessions can be renamed, and there’s a one-click jump to the editor. It’s MIT licensed, free to use, and available as a macOS app with 124 followers on Product Hunt.
This is the kind of feature that makes sense only after people have already started stuffing more than one agent into their workflow. The market loves agent orchestration until the security settings show up. CLI Manager at least seems to understand that little detail.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Agent control panels are becoming the new desktop managers for AI, except with more crowns and fewer illusions. The sane move is local-first, off by default, and easy to shut off; anything else is just asking a script to redecorate the house while nobody’s looking. The funny part is that the more “autonomous” these tools get, the more important the boring control switch becomes.
Read more about this at: Product Hunt