The problem
Once agents work in parallel, the unit of work stops being a chat. One branch can have a Claude chat that wrote the feature, a Codex thread that reviewed it and a cloud session that fixed a test. Both apps list chats by folder or by date, so the pieces of one piece of work are scattered across two sidebars, and the PR that ties them together lives in GitHub.
- There's no single place that says "this branch: PR #42, checks failed, two chats, one of them waiting for you".
- Merged work lingers in the chat list, next to work that still needs a review.
- Worktrees pile up on disk after their branches are merged.
How Pairbar solves it
- Group by TasksChoose Tasks in the view menu (Group by, on the right of the bar under the search field), in Settings → Chats & sidebar → Group by, or type View: Tasks in ⌘K. Pairbar remembers it.
- Read the sectionsNeeds you (a chat is waiting for your answer or approval), Working (a chat is running), Ready to review (nothing running, and the branch has work or an open PR), Done (PR merged or closed, or you marked it done). Chats on
mainor another main branch get one group per project, under On main. - Check the PR on the rowEach task shows which apps have chats in it (☁︎ for cloud ones), its PR number in GitHub's colours and its checks: ✓ passed, ✕ failed, 🕘 running. Click › to unfold it and see the failing checks by name and every chat in the task.
- Open a suggestion's planA small chip on the row (Fix, Review, Finish, Archive) opens a plan: "Here's what Pairbar will do. Nothing changes until you approve." It lists every step, with the prompt it will type in full.
- Approve or DeclineApprove (⌘↩) runs the steps in order and then says what happened, with Undo where it can be undone. Decline closes it and nothing happens.
- Tidy up in one goWhen two or more tasks are merged or stale, the banner offers Fix all safe…: one plan with a checkbox per task that only marks tasks done and archives them in Pairbar.
What makes a task
| Chats | Are |
|---|---|
| on the same branch of the same repository | one task, whichever app they're in, local or cloud (a cloud chat's repository is matched to your checkout by name) |
| in the same worktree folder | one task, whatever branch they report (Codex worktrees are often on a detached HEAD) |
on main, master, develop, dev, staging or trunk, or on no branch | not a task: one group per project |
Suggestions and what Approve does
| When | Suggestion | On Approve |
|---|---|---|
| its PR's checks failed | Ask Claude (or Codex) to fix the failing checks | a new chat in the task's worktree or branch with a prompt naming the PR and the failed checks. A Claude chat opens with the prompt typed in; for Codex the composer opens. Nothing is sent until you press Send |
| a review is requested, or it's ready to review | Get a second opinion from the other app | Codex starts a read-only review at once; Claude opens a new chat with the review prompt typed in |
| its PR is merged | Mark done and archive | your done mark and archiving; removing the worktree only if you tick it (Undo brings the task back and adds the worktree back) |
| no activity for 7 days and no PR | Archive it, or Nudge: open the latest chat | archives it (Undo unarchives), or opens its newest chat |
| a chat needs you | Open the waiting chat | just jumps to it |
Removing a worktree is never ticked for you. Pairbar refuses it while the worktree has uncommitted changes, checks again right before, never forces it and never deletes the branch. See the plan.
Filters, sorting and search
- Stage chips (All, Needs you, Working, Ready, Done), Apps (Claude, Codex, both) and Project, each with the count it would show. A task is always shown whole: filtering on Claude keeps its Codex chats in it.
- Sort by recently active, needs attention first, PR status, name or oldest; group by lifecycle or by project; choose when a task counts as stale (3, 7, 14 or 30 days).
- Search matches a task's title, project or branch, or any of its chats.
Where PR status comes from
Claude records the PRs its chats open. For everything else Pairbar runs your GitHub CLI (gh pr list --head <branch>) in the task's folder in the background and keeps the answer for 10 minutes (2 minutes for tasks in Working and Ready to review). Without gh, there are no checks. Main branches are never looked up.
Without Pairbar
Without Pairbar, you piece the same picture together from git, GitHub and each app's own list:
| Tool | What it gives you |
|---|---|
git worktree list | every worktree of a repository and the branch each has checked out |
git branch -vv | local branches with their upstream and how far ahead or behind they are |
gh pr status | your PRs and the current branch's, with check and review state |
gh pr list --head <branch> | the PR for one branch, the same lookup Pairbar makes |
| Each app's chat list | chats by folder or date; you match them to branches yourself |
Frequently asked questions
- Does Pairbar act on a task without asking?
- No. Every suggestion opens a plan that lists exactly what will happen, and nothing changes until you press Approve. Decline changes nothing.
- Can a task contain chats from both Claude and Codex?
- Yes. Chats on the same branch of the same repository, or in the same worktree, form one task whichever app they're in, including cloud chats matched to your checkout by repository name.
- Will Pairbar delete my worktree or branch?
- Only the worktree, and only if you tick Remove the worktree in a merged task's plan. It refuses while the worktree has uncommitted changes, never forces it and never deletes the branch, so Undo can add the worktree back.
- Do I need the GitHub CLI?
- For PR checks and for PRs Claude didn't record, yes: Pairbar uses your installed and logged-in
gh. Without it, tasks still group your chats, just without checks. - Does archiving a task delete its chats?
- No. Archiving only hides the task in the Tasks view. Its chats stay in the other groupings, and nothing is deleted.
Related
- DocsTasksChats grouped by the branch or worktree they work on, across Claude, Codex and the cloud: needs you, working, ready to review, done, with each task's PR and checks
- GlossaryWorktree taskOne piece of coding work on its own branch in a separate git worktree, so AI agents can work on it without touching your main checkout.
- Use caseSee pull request status and CI checks next to each Claude Code and Codex chatA colour-coded PR icon per chat, plus a hover card with commits ahead and behind, diff size, uncommitted changes, PR checks and review decision.
- Use caseStart a Claude Code or Codex chat on a new branch in its own git worktreePairbar's composer starts a chat in any repo, on any branch or in a new worktree, with model, effort, mode, agent and local or cloud set up front.
- Use caseRun the Claude and Codex desktop apps side by side, with one sidebar, as one windowThe basket docks Claude and Codex with one sidebar: Side by side, Stacked or Focus, a draggable divider, and the whole group moving as one window.
Try Pairbar free for 7 days
One sidebar for the Claude and Codex desktop apps. Everything on for 7 days, no card needed; then $49/year ($39 first year with LAUNCH), $9/month or $129 lifetime (first 200 buyers). macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon.