Run several Claude Code and Codex agents in parallel without losing track

The problem

Running agents in parallel is where the time savings are: one chat fixes a flaky test, another reviews a PR, a third updates docs. The cost is attention. With five chats going, you need to know which one is blocked on you, which is still busy, and whether two of them are editing the same working tree.

• A chat waiting on a permission prompt makes no progress until you notice it.
• "Working" isn't enough: you want to know whether it's running tests or rewriting a file.
• Two agents in the same checkout can overwrite each other's uncommitted changes.

How Pairbar solves it

1. Start each job in its own worktree
   Press ✎ (or + on a project's group header). In the composer, pick the Folder, then the Worktree chip: the chat starts on a new branch in a separate worktree, named after what you typed, so your current checkout isn't touched. Choose Claude | Codex, model and effort, and press ↩.
2. Answer whoever needs you first
   Chats waiting for an answer or a permission always sit at the top in Needs you, with an orange ? on their icon (and the question on a second line with Density set to Detailed). Handle those, and the rest keep working.
3. Read the working line
   A green dot marks a working chat; with Density set to Detailed, its second line says what it's doing, such as "Bash · git status" or "Edit · Store.swift". Shell commands show only the program and subcommand, never arguments.
4. Check the subagents
   The 👥 chip (for example 👥 3) counts subagents working inside a chat: Claude Code's Task-tool subagents and Codex's spawned threads. Click it to see each one's job, agent type, what it's doing, and how long it ran.
5. Jump between them
   ⌃1–9 opens the nth chat on screen. When you switch to a chat from the other app, Pairbar moves that app's window into the same spot.
6. Step away
   In another app, a banner (with an optional sound) tells you when a chat finishes or needs you, and the menu-bar icon shows how many need you. Press ⌃⌥K from any app to see what needs you, what's working and what just finished, and open one.

Shortcuts

A layout that suits parallel work

• While the pointer is over the list, rows don't reorder, so you don't click the wrong chat when a status changes.
• A collapsed group still shows its most urgent chats with a coloured count and text, such as 3 need you or 2 working.
• Resting on a row shows the branch, commits ahead and behind, diff size and uncommitted changes, which is a quick way to see how far each agent has got.
• A subagent waiting for you makes its parent chat show Needs you.
• To nudge a chat without opening it, ⋯ → Send message… (M) queues a message on a Codex thread even mid-turn, or continues a Claude session in the background when it isn't working.

Without Pairbar

Popular ways to run agents in parallel without Pairbar:

• Terminal tabs or tmux panes, one claude or codex per pane. Flexible and scriptable; you scan the panes yourself to spot a waiting prompt.
• git worktree add by hand for each job, then start an agent in each folder. This is exactly what Pairbar's Worktree chip does for you.
• The desktop apps' own sidebars, which show their own chats and status. Fine with one app; with both, you're checking two lists.
• Dedicated session managers that create worktrees and run agents in their own terminals (see our comparisons).