Zen

One Brain, many coding agents, on your own computer. Steer them from your phone.

Zen is a self-hosted control plane for coding agents. A Go daemon runs on your Linux or macOS machine next to your repositories, tmux and agent CLIs. An Android and iOS app connects to that daemon.

• Brain holds the context and owns the plan: it decomposes a goal, delegates scoped concerns, reviews the results and decides when Work is done.
• Workers are visible tmux Sessions running an agent CLI (Codex, Claude Code, Cursor Agent, Grok, Pi or OpenCode). Open any of them as structured Chat or as the live Terminal, and take over at any time.
• Work is durable. Work, Attempt, Wake, Review and append-only Event records live in the daemon and survive restarts. A process exiting or going quiet never marks Work done; only Brain or you can accept it.

Zen is in beta. See Status for what is stable, what is preview, and what is not shipped.

Quick start

Requirements: Linux (amd64/arm64), WSL or an Apple Silicon Mac, with tmux and at least one authenticated agent CLI on PATH.

# 1. Install the daemon (checksum-verified, no sudo, no telemetry)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/daoleno/zen/main/install.sh | sh

# 2. Check the host, then start on a trusted private network
zen doctor
zen --lan

# 3. In another terminal, run the exact `zen pair ...` command that zen printed

4. Install the app: the Android arm64 APK from Releases (see Android), or build iOS from source (see iOS).
5. Scan the pairing code, then open Brain or Sessions.

To reach the daemon from outside your LAN, use Tailscale (zen -addr "$(tailscale ip -4):9876"), or a Cloudflare Tunnel or reverse proxy with zen pair https://your-origin. See Connect and pair.

How it works

 Android / iOS app ──signed requests / WSS──▶ zen daemon (your machine)
                                              │
                        ┌─────────────────────┼──────────────────────┐
                        ▼                     ▼                      ▼
                   Brain host           Zen Workers            lifecycle store
               (an agent CLI with     (tmux Sessions:        (Work, Attempt, Wake,
                private workspace)     codex, claude, …)      Review, Events)

• Daemon (daemon/, Go). Owns state, pairing identity, tmux sessions, executor processes and stored provider credentials. It is the only application endpoint. The phone receives the conversation and files you open.
• App (app/, Expo / React Native). Android and iOS share one product. Exactly one server is current at a time; switching servers never mixes data.
• Brain. A long-lived agent Session with a private workspace under ~/.zen/brain/ (memory, profile, current focus, worklogs). It delegates with the same zen worker CLI you can use yourself.
• Workers and executors. An executor is an agent CLI definition. New Workers run on the default delegated executor (codex unless changed) unless you ask for another; zen worker spawn -executor sets it explicitly. A running Worker keeps its executor.
• Trust. The daemon has an Ed25519 identity. Devices enroll once with a short-lived pairing token, then every request is signed. There is no shared secret for normal traffic. Paired phones receive what you open; model providers receive what agents send them.

Details: Architecture, Brain lifecycle, Work lifecycle, Security and privacy.

Everyday commands

zen doctor                         # diagnose tmux, state, port and executors
zen pair [origin]                  # new one-time pairing code
zen devices list                   # paired phones
zen devices revoke -id <device-id>
zen update                         # verify and install the latest release

zen worker list --json             # visible Workers
zen worker spawn -name "Review docs" -executor claude -cwd ~/repo -prompt "Inspect docs"
zen worker capture -id <id> --json # transcript
zen worker receipt -id <id> --work-id <work>  # was an input accepted?
zen worker send -id <id> --work-id <work> -text "follow-up"
zen worker close -id <id>

zen brain executors --json         # Brain host and delegated executors
zen brain use <executor>           # switch the agent that runs Brain
zen brain set-delegated <executor> # change the default for new Workers, live
zen brain work list --json         # durable Work
zen brain work update -id <work> -status done

Configure executors

No configuration is required: built-in defaults cover codex, claude, agent (cursor-agent), grok, pi and opencode. One installed, authenticated CLI is enough. To customise:

cp executors.example.toml ~/.zen/executors.toml   # then restart zen

Warning

Several defaults bypass approval prompts so agents can work unattended: cursor-agent --force --sandbox disabled, grok --permission-mode bypassPermissions, and Brain-delegated Codex adds --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox. On machines with secrets or production access, use the safe profile in executors.example.toml. See Executors.

Model endpoints and API keys for Codex and Claude are set in the app under Settings > Providers. They are stored on the daemon, never shown back, and are separate from the Brain executor choice.

Status

Area	Status
Daemon on Linux amd64/arm64, WSL, Apple Silicon macOS	Beta, released
Android app (arm64 APK on Releases)	Beta, released
iOS app	Source build. A TestFlight preview is awaiting Apple review
Brain, Workers, durable Work lifecycle	Beta
Calendar scheduled actions, Telegram channel	Beta (Calendar, Telegram)
Zen Link relay	Optional source only. No hosted relay is operated. See Zen Link Relay
Remote Desktop	Implemented but hidden in the app. See Remote Desktop
Web client	Out of scope

Known release issues: docs/release-blockers.md.

Development

bun install                              # workspace deps (Bun 1.3)

# Daemon
bun run daemon:build                     # builds bin/zen
cd daemon && go test ./...
cd daemon && go run ./cmd/zen-dev        # hot-reloading dev daemon

# App
bun run app:start                        # Expo dev server
bun run app:android                      # needs Java 17
bun run app:ios
cd app && bun test && bunx tsc --noEmit

# Landing page (static, in site/)
bun run site:dev                         # prints the local preview URL

Layout: daemon/ Go daemon (cmd/zen, server, auth, brain, work, lifecycle, terminal, watcher); app/ Expo app (routes in app/app/, components, services, store); docs/ product and operator docs; site/ landing page; scripts/ build and release tooling.

The native terminal uses libghostty; see Android and iOS for build contracts. All documentation starts at docs/README.md.

Contributing

Read CONTRIBUTING.md and AGENTS.md. Keep changes small, run the relevant checks, and never commit pairing links, ~/.zen state, tunnel URLs or .env.local. Report vulnerabilities as described in SECURITY.md.

License

Apache License 2.0; see LICENSE and NOTICE. The Zen name and logos are covered by TRADEMARKS.md.