README.md

April 6, 2026 · View on GitHub

Watchfire

Better context. Better code.

AI coding agents work best when they have the right context. Watchfire lets you define your project structure, break work into well-scoped tasks, and orchestrate agents that execute with full awareness of your codebase, constraints, and goals. It manages context automatically — so agents stay on track and produce code you'd actually ship.

Install

macOS

Homebrew (recommended):

brew tap watchfire-io/tap
brew install --cask watchfire-io/tap/watchfire   # Desktop app (GUI + CLI)
brew install watchfire-io/tap/watchfire          # CLI & daemon only

Script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/watchfire-io/watchfire/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/watchfire-io/watchfire/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Homebrew also works on Linux:

brew tap watchfire-io/tap && brew install watchfire-io/tap/watchfire

Windows

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/watchfire-io/watchfire/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

How It Works

Key Features

🎯 Context Management

Define your project once. Watchfire feeds agents the right specs, constraints, and codebase context — no copy-pasting prompts.

📋 Structured Workflow

Break big projects into tasks with clear specs. Agents tackle them in order, each in an isolated git worktree branch.

🚀 Scale with Confidence

Run agents across multiple projects in parallel. Monitor live terminal output, review results, and merge — from TUI or GUI.

Context flows into agents

Agent Modes

Mode	Description
Chat	Interactive session with the coding agent
Task	Execute a specific task from the task list
Start All	Run all ready tasks sequentially
Wildfire	Autonomous loop: execute tasks, refine drafts, generate new tasks
Generate Definition	Auto-generate a project definition from your codebase
Generate Tasks	Auto-generate tasks from the project definition

Build from Source

# Build & install
make install-tools   # Dev tools (golangci-lint, air, protoc plugins)
make build           # Build daemon + CLI
make install         # Install to /usr/local/bin

# Use it
cd your-project
watchfire init       # Initialize a project
watchfire task add   # Add tasks
watchfire            # Launch the TUI

Components

Component	Binary	Description
Daemon	`watchfired`	Orchestration, PTY management, git workflows, gRPC server, system tray
CLI/TUI	`watchfire`	Project-scoped CLI commands + interactive TUI mode
GUI	`Watchfire.app`	Electron multi-project client

Development

make dev-daemon   # Daemon with hot reload
make dev-tui      # Build and run TUI
make dev-gui      # Electron GUI dev mode
make test         # Tests with race detector
make lint         # Linting
make proto        # Regenerate protobuf code