README.md

July 3, 2026 · View on GitHub

The IDE for the agent era

IDEs were built for humans who type code. Overdeck is built for humans who direct it — not with prompts, with loops. One agent or twenty, hands-on or hands-off: spawn agents on real issues, watch every diff land live, steer mid-task, and let a built-in specialist pipeline review, test, and merge the work — while you decide exactly how much of the loop runs without you.

Quick Start

npx @overdeck/core

No install step required. npx @overdeck/core starts Command Deck and opens the dashboard in your browser. Use overdeck or pan after npm install -g @overdeck/core. The packaged desktop app is published separately as @overdeck/desktop.

Dashboard runs at https://pan.localhost (or http://localhost:3011 if you skip HTTPS setup).

See the full documentation for detailed setup, configuration, and usage guides.

Loops, Not Prompts

The industry has caught on to what agent-native developers already knew: the unit of AI-assisted work isn't the prompt, it's the loop — act, verify, correct, go again. Models write better prompts than we do now; the scarce skill is designing the loop that keeps agents pointed at the goal, and the verifier that decides whether the work is actually done.

Overdeck is loop machinery, three loops deep:

Loop	Timescale	What runs
Inner — the agent	seconds–minutes	The harness loop: write code, run it, read the result, try again
Middle — the pipeline	minutes–hours	The verifier wrapped around every agent: four-lens review convoy, quality gates, tests, browser UAT, per-bead inspection, and a merge train that keeps main green
Outer — the Flywheel	continuous	The loop that prompts the loops: pulls the next issue from the backlog, drives it end-to-end, files what it finds along the way, and goes again

The Flywheel is the part most tools don't have. It doesn't run tasks — it runs revolutions: every pass around the loop either ships the work or surfaces a defect that gets filed and fixed. It's the loop that improves the loop, and it's how most of Overdeck itself gets built.

The Autonomy Dial

How much of the loop runs without you is your choice, per issue, per day — not a property of the tool:

Mode	You do	Overdeck does
Pair	Watch diffs land live, steer the agent in the composer, swap models mid-task	Runs the inner loop with checkpoints and live cost tracking
Pipeline	Write the issue, click Merge at the end	Runs the inner and middle loops: plan, implement, review convoy, tests, UAT, merge train
Flywheel	Review the morning recap	Runs all three loops across the backlog, in parallel

Most sessions live somewhere between — you pair on the gnarly issue while the pipeline ships three routine ones behind you.

Command Deck

Command Deck is the live development surface where you and your agents work together. It's built around three zones that update in real time — no refresh buttons, no polling. Every event animates in as it happens.

Zone	What You See
Issue Header	Issue identity, pipeline stage, live cost tracking, activity sparkline, quality gate rollup
Agent Context	Selected agent's role, status, current tool, thinking/waiting state, round history, per-session costs
Conversation + Composer	Full conversation timeline with composer, or a tabbed dashboard when viewing the issue itself

What You Can Do

Live diffs as agents code — every file change appears inline as the agent works. Open the diff panel to review changes turn by turn, or hit "vs main" to see the full picture without waiting for a PR.
Talk to your agents — type in the composer to steer an agent mid-task. Correct its approach, point it at the right file, tell it to rethink — pair-programming, not babysitting.
Hot-swap models — agent struggling? Open the model picker and switch from Sonnet to Opus (or Kimi, GPT, Gemini) without losing the conversation. Right model for each phase.
Branch to explore — fork any conversation to try an alternative approach. Keep the original intact, compare both, merge the one you like.
Automatic checkpoints — Command Deck snapshots agent state as work progresses. If an agent goes sideways, roll back to any earlier checkpoint instead of starting over.
Ship without switching tabs — when the code looks right, the specialist pipeline picks it up. Automated review, tests, and merge. No CI dashboard to babysit.

13 Dashboard Views

Project tree, activity feed, kanban board, agent status, cost analytics, convoy status, specialist handoffs, real-time activity log, performance metrics, skill library, health diagnostics, God View (cross-project), and settings.

Why Overdeck?

You stay in the loop without being in the way. Watch agents code, review their diffs live, send a message when they drift. You're pair-programming, not babysitting a terminal.
The right model for every phase. A frontier model plans the architecture, faster models write the code and handle mechanical steps. Overdeck routes automatically — or you override with two clicks when you know better.
Context that outlasts the conversation. PRDs, plans, checkpoints, beads, and skills carry forward across sessions. Agents pick up where the last one left off, not from a blank slate.
One skill format, every tool. Write a SKILL.md once and it works across Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and Gemini CLI. 70+ ship out of the box.
A pipeline that ships while you move on. When the implementation looks right, hand it to the specialist pipeline — a four-lens review convoy, automated tests, browser UAT, and a merge train that keeps main green. You click Merge when you're satisfied, or keep working on the next issue.
Built by itself. Overdeck is developed with Overdeck: its own agents plan, implement, review, test, and merge most of its changes. Every rough edge in the pipeline gets hit by us before it gets hit by you.

How It Works

 Issue         PRD           Agent         Review        Test          Merge
┌──────┐    ┌──────┐    ┌──────────┐    ┌──────┐    ┌──────┐    ┌──────────┐
│ Task │ ─► │ Plan │ ─► │ Write    │ ─► │ Code │ ─► │ Run  │ ─► │ Merge    │
│ from │    │ with │    │ code in  │    │ rev. │    │ test │    │ train    │
│ any  │    │vBRIEF│    │ isolated │    │ conv-│    │ +    │    │ keeps    │
│track-│    │ beads│    │ worktree │    │ oy ×4│    │ UAT  │    │ main     │
│ er   │    │      │    │          │    │      │    │      │    │ green    │
└──────┘    └──────┘    └──────────┘    └──────┘    └──────┘    └──────────┘
 GitHub
 Linear      Every stage is model-routed — frontier models plan and review,
 GitLab      fast models grind — and every stage can be overridden per agent.
 Rally

You can drive any stage from the dashboard, the CLI, or a webhook. Engage as much or as little as you want — from hands-on pair programming with a single agent to launching a fully autonomous pipeline across dozens of issues.

Key Features

Feature	Description
Command Deck	A live workspace where you watch agents code, review diffs inline, send messages, and manage everything from one surface
Fix-All Flywheel	The outermost loop — an autonomous orchestrator that runs revolutions across the backlog: plan, implement, verify, merge, file what it finds, go again
Inline Diff Review	See what changed file-by-file as the agent works, compare any turn against main — no waiting for a PR to review code
Model Hot-Swap	Switch an agent between providers mid-conversation. Six providers, automatic routing, or manual override
Multi-Harness	Agents run on Claude Code or Pi, with Codex support for GPT work agents — pick per role, per spawn
Conversation Forking	Branch a conversation to try a different approach. Keep the original, compare both, go with what works
Automatic Checkpoints	Agent state is snapshotted as it progresses — roll back to any earlier point if something goes wrong
Visual Plans	Work plans render as interactive DAGs so you can see dependencies, track acceptance criteria, and know what's done
Specialist Pipeline	Review convoy (correctness, security, performance, requirements), tests, per-bead inspection, browser UAT, and merge — you just click Merge
Merge Trains	Approved work queues onto main in order, each rebase re-verified, so a busy day of merges never breaks the build
Failsafe Controls	Pause gates, troubled-agent backoff, boot-scoped no-resume, and a global freeze — autonomy you can always stop
Cloister	Lifecycle manager that routes models, detects stuck agents, tracks costs, and orchestrates specialist handoffs
PRD-Driven Workflow	A frontier model writes a detailed plan before any code is written — agents can't start without one
70+ Universal Skills	Pre-built skills synced on every `overdeck up` — one SKILL.md works across Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and Gemini CLI
Context Layers	One set of rules rendered for every harness — universal, per-project, and per-machine context that agents actually receive
Multi-Tracker Support	GitHub Issues, Linear, GitLab, Rally — all visible in one unified kanban board
Workspaces	Isolated git worktrees per issue with optional Docker environments, local or remote via Fly.io
Convoys	Run parallel agents on related issues with automatic result synthesis
Cost Tracking	Per-issue, per-stage token costs with model attribution and daily rollups
TLDR Code Analysis	Token-efficient codebase understanding (500-1,200 tokens/file vs 10-25k) so agents stay within context

Architecture at a Glance

Overdeck started as a CLI and grew into Command Deck, a desktop-class development environment. The CLI, the GUI, and any script that can make an HTTP request all drive the same REST surface — spawn an agent from a kanban card, a terminal, or a webhook without switching tools. Under the hood: an Effect.js + TypeScript server, a React frontend over typed WebSocket RPC, SQLite for state, and Electron as the shell. Launch with npx @overdeck/core; keep pan for headless and CI, or use @overdeck/desktop for the packaged desktop app.

Screenshots


Command Deck — project tree, activity timeline, specialist pipeline	Cloister Deacon, specialist agents, and issue agent management

Tracker integration and capability-based model routing

Supported Tools

Tool	Support
Claude Code	Full support — agent runtime, hooks, skills
Pi	Alternative multi-provider agent harness
Codex	Skills sync and OpenAI subscription login for GPT work agents
Cursor	Skills sync
Gemini CLI	Skills sync
Google Antigravity	Skills sync

Requirements

Required

Node.js 22+
Git (for worktree-based workspaces)
Docker (for Traefik and workspace containers)
tmux (for agent sessions)
GitHub CLI (gh) or GitLab CLI (glab) for Git operations
ttyd - Auto-installed by pan install

Optional

mkcert - For HTTPS certificates (recommended)
Linear API key - For Linear issue tracking
Beads CLI - Auto-installed by pan install

Maturity

Overdeck is actively used in production to develop itself and multiple other projects. Most of the code in this repository was planned, written, reviewed, tested, and merged by Overdeck's own pipeline.

2,200+ issues filed against this repo; hundreds shipped end-to-end through the pipeline
70+ skills shipped and synced across tools
4 tracker integrations (GitHub, Linear, GitLab, Rally)
6 AI providers with capability-based model routing
5 specialist roles in the automated quality pipeline

Documentation

Full documentation at docs.overdeck.ai

Document	Description
Quick Start	Installation and setup
Core Concepts	Architecture and key concepts
CLI Reference	All available commands
Features	Deep dive into key features
Guides	Step-by-step guides