Alera

Run every CLI coding agent in parallel, each in its own Git worktree, from one native app.

Website · Docs · Download · Blog · Roadmap · Releases

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Alera is a desktop workbench for CLI coding agents. Every agent that runs in a terminal, from Claude Code and Codex to Amp, Cursor, and OpenCode, gets a real terminal in its own Git worktree, and Alera keeps track of which one is working, which one is done, and which one is waiting for you.

It is built with Flutter and Rust for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with no Electron and no bundled browser. A Rust runtime owns every terminal, so agents keep running when you close the window, and the Android companion can answer one from anywhere.

_{Rendered frame by frame from the interactive demo on alera.build, which redraws both apps from their own tokens, icons, and copy. It is not a screen recording, and the agent sessions are staged samples.}

curl -fsSL https://alera.build/install.sh | sh          # Linux: Ubuntu 24.04+, Debian 13+, Fedora
brew tap leynier/tap && brew install --cask alera       # macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon

On Windows, scoop install leynier/alera after scoop bucket add leynier https://github.com/leynier/scoop-bucket, or choco install alera. Every channel, the manual downloads, and the Android APK are on the download page.

Contents: Why Alera · See It Work · How It Works · Supported Agents · What You Get · Install · Documentation · Developing · Releases And Updates · Community

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Why Alera

Most AI IDEs wrap one chat backend in an Electron shell: slow to start, heavy on memory, tied to one provider, and busy with one task at a time. Alera takes the other bet.

• Bring your own agent. Alera is terminal-first. Every CLI agent runs in a real PTY, the way it was built to run. There is no chat layer of ours in between and no provider lock-in.
• Run many at once. Each task gets its own Git worktree, tabs, and terminals, so Claude, Codex, Amp, and the rest work in parallel without touching each other's files.
• See who needs you. Opt-in status hooks tell Alera when an agent is working, waiting for input, blocked, or done. The sidebar, the tab, the tray badge, and your phone all show it.
• Sessions outlive the window. Close the window and Alera keeps running in the tray with your agents. Quit it and it asks before stopping terminals that still have work, so you can leave the runtime open and come back to the same terminals, scrollback, and layout.
• Native, not a web page. Flutter for the interface, Rust for terminals, processes, and Git, and a maintained fork of the xterm2 emulator for parsing and drawing terminal output. No Electron, no embedded Chromium, no Node runtime.
• Know what it costs. The status bar shows each provider's remaining quota and a Resource Manager that attributes CPU and memory to every project, workspace, and terminal.

See It Work

Start From A Prompt. Describe a task once. Alera names the workspace, creates it on the project folder or in its own Git worktree, and starts the agent there.	Agents In Parallel. Split the pane and start a second agent beside the first, in the same worktree.
Answer From Your Phone. The paired Android phone gets the push. One tap opens the same terminal, live.	Review And Ship. Stage, let AI Assist write the commit message, publish the branch, and open the pull request with its checks.

How It Works

flowchart LR
    desktop["Desktop app<br/><small>Flutter · macOS, Windows, Linux</small>"]
    phone["Android companion"]

    subgraph machine["your machine"]
        runtime["Alera runtime<br/><small>Rust sidecar · PTYs, sessions, agent states, orchestration</small>"]
        agents[("CLI agents<br/><small>one Git worktree each</small>")]
    end

    remote["SSH host<br/><small>satellite runtime</small>"]

    desktop -->|"local socket"| runtime
    phone -->|"direct, Tailscale, or encrypted relay"| runtime
    runtime -->|"real PTYs"| agents
    runtime -->|"one SSH link per host"| remote

Loading

1. Register a project. Add a local folder or clone a Git repository. Open as many workspaces on it as you need, and give each one its own worktree when the project uses Git.
2. Open a workspace per task. Each workspace can be its own Git worktree: one branch, one task. Describe it in a prompt and Alera names it and starts the agent.
3. Run agents side by side. Launch any CLI in real terminals, split them, and follow who is working and who needs you from the sidebar or your phone.

The desktop app and the phone are windows onto the runtime, which is why sessions survive closing the window. A remote host runs its own runtime, so terminals, files, search, and Git for a workspace there run where the code lives. See docs/architecture.md for the full picture.

Supported Agents

Alera works with any CLI agent. These ship with first-class support today: icons, launch profiles, resume, and live states through opt-in status hooks.

Claude Code  Codex  Amp  Antigravity  OpenCode  Cursor  GitHub Copilot  Pi  Grok Build  fx

Anything else that runs in a terminal (Gemini CLI, Goose, Kimi, Crush, Aider, your own scripts) works as a plain terminal. See CLI Agents.

What You Get

Area	What ships today	Docs
Projects and worktrees	Projects from local folders or cloned repositories. Workspaces on the project folder or in their own Git worktree, created by hand from a source branch or an existing one, or from a prompt that names the workspace and starts the agent. Sections, pins, tags, sleep, and archive.	New Workspace · Worktrees · alera.toml
Terminals	Tabs and splits of real PTYs owned by the Rust runtime, terminal search, themes, and sessions that persist across app restarts.	Terminals And Panes · Keyboard Shortcuts
Agent states	Working, waiting, blocked, and done for every agent run, in the sidebar, the tab, the tray badge, and on the phone. Agent profiles with a starting prompt, and resume of an agent's own conversation.	Agent States · Agent Profiles
Files and search	Explorer, search and replace across the workspace, Quick Open (Mod+P), the Command Palette (Mod+Shift+P), and previews for Markdown, PDF, Mermaid, and images.	Files, Search, And Previews
Source control	Staged and unstaged changes as a tree or a flat list, unified diffs per file or for all changes, image diffs before and after, stage, commit, amend, stash, and discard, a history graph, and AI Assist commit messages.	Source Control
Pull requests	Create, edit, comment, and merge on GitHub, GitLab, and Azure DevOps, with checks grouped by status, GitHub stacks, linked issues, and Watch and Fix handing failures back to an agent.	Pull Requests And Checks
Coordination	Orchestration between agents with coordinator runs, task ownership, decision gates, and messaging, plus scheduled automations.	Orchestration · Run Board · Automations
Remote and mobile	Workspaces on SSH hosts, the Android companion with push when an agent needs you, and optional accounts.	Remote Hosts · Mobile Companion · Accounts
Usage	Remaining quota for Claude Code and CCS profiles, Codex, Kimi Code, Grok Build, Cursor, Antigravity, MiniMax, Z.ai, and OpenCode Go and Zen, and the Resource Manager.	Quotas And Resources
Dictation	Dictate into terminals, prompts, commit messages, and pull request fields with local Whisper models, an OpenAI-compatible transcription API, or a Codex subscription.	AI Assist And Dictation

Everything account-related is optional: every local feature works without signing in. The roadmap lists what is shipped, partial, and planned.

Install

Linux

Alera installs from a signed package repository so GTK and related system libraries resolve through your package manager. The same command installs and updates:

curl -fsSL https://alera.build/install.sh | sh

The script detects apt or dnf, verifies the repository signing key against a fingerprint pinned inside the script, configures the repository, and installs the package. Pass --dry-run to see what it would do, or --repo-only to configure the repository without installing.

Requires x86_64 and Ubuntu 24.04 or newer, Debian 13 or newer, or Fedora. openSUSE is not supported yet: the published RPM declares Fedora dependency names that openSUSE provides under different names.

To add the repository by hand instead, see the manual setup on the download page. The signing key is published at https://updates.alera.build/linux/alera-archive-keyring.asc with fingerprint 5DE97E7CFE234A1C5869EC54708DA940734CF23A.

On a distribution with no package of ours, download alera-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz from GitHub Releases and extract it somewhere you own, such as ~/.local/share/alera. Install GTK 3, json-glib, libsecret, SQLite, OpenSSL, the Vulkan loader, Ayatana AppIndicator, and ALSA through your own package manager first, since a tarball declares no dependencies.

macOS

brew tap leynier/tap
brew install --cask alera

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or newer. The cask clears the quarantine attribute after installing, because the macOS build is not notarized yet. Or download alera-<version>-macos.tar.gz from GitHub Releases and move Alera.app to /Applications.

Windows

scoop bucket add leynier https://github.com/leynier/scoop-bucket
scoop install leynier/alera

choco install alera

Requires 64-bit Windows. Or download alera-<version>-windows.zip from GitHub Releases and extract it anywhere.

Android

The companion is one arm64 APK for 64-bit Android phones, published as alera-<version>-android.apk on the mobile releases. Pair it from Settings → Mobile Devices on the desktop; see Mobile Companion.

Updating

Alera checks for a release every 15 minutes while its window is visible. How an update is applied depends on who owns the installation:

• Direct downloads on macOS and Windows update themselves after verifying the signed manifest and the artifact's SHA-256.
• A Linux tarball replaces its own directory, but only after Alera proves it can write there.
• Homebrew and Scoop update through that package manager: Settings → Updates runs its upgrade after Alera closes, then reopens the app.
• Linux packages and Chocolatey need elevated permissions, so Settings → Updates shows the upgrade command to copy, or to run with Run Update in a terminal inside Alera, where you can answer a prompt such as the sudo password.

Local development builds never update themselves.

Code Signing Policy

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

SignPath.io runs the signing service and the SignPath Foundation issues the certificate to open source projects at no cost.

Alera is maintained by one person, who fills every role: Leynier Gutiérrez González is the sole committer, reviewer, and approver of signing requests. Data handling is described in the Privacy Policy.

Current status: Linux packages are distributed through a repository whose metadata is signed with the key above. Windows and macOS builds are not signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen reports an unknown publisher and macOS Gatekeeper asks you to allow the app explicitly. Windows signing through SignPath begins once the certificate is issued.

Run From Source

Alera is a Flutter desktop app. Use Flutter 3.47.2 or newer with Dart 3.13.2 or newer; CI is pinned to Flutter 3.47.2. You also need a working Rust toolchain (rustup), Zig 0.16.0, Git, and the native compiler toolchain for your desktop platform. The Rust workspace under rust/ provides both the terminal-host sidecar (alera-cli) and the native layer (alera_native, compiled into the app through flutter_rust_bridge). Zig builds the vendored ghostty_vte terminal engine from its submodule.

Linux source builds also need system development packages: install the Ubuntu and Debian prerequisites first.

git clone https://github.com/leynier/alera.git
cd alera
make init-submodules
flutter pub get

# Pick your platform:
flutter run -d macos
flutter run -d windows
flutter run -d linux

On Windows, install Visual Studio 2022 with the Desktop development with C++ workload and a Windows 10 or 11 SDK, Flutter 3.47.2 or newer, Git for Windows, and Rustup, then run the idempotent setup from PowerShell. It verifies the toolchain, enables Git long paths, installs Zig and LLVM through Scoop or WinGet when asked, repairs the required submodules, resolves packages, and runs the native-asset preflight:

pwsh -File tool/development/setup_windows.ps1 -InstallMissingTools
flutter run -d windows

Use -CheckOnly to diagnose a machine without changing it. The first Ghostty build can compile for several minutes without output; later builds reuse the native-asset cache.

A local build runs as Alera Dev (dev.leynier.alera.dev) so it can live next to an installed release without sharing user data; set ALERA_FLAVOR=release to build the release identity. The repository makefile has the debug workflows (make help lists them), and make frb-generate regenerates the flutter_rust_bridge bindings after a change to rust/src/api.

Documentation

Start	Get started · Install
Workbench	Projects and workspaces · New workspace · Worktrees · alera.toml · Terminals and panes · Files, search, and previews · Keyboard shortcuts
Agents	CLI agents · Agent profiles · Agent states and attention · AI Assist and dictation
Review	Source control · Pull requests and checks
Coordinate	Orchestration · Run board and workflows · Automations
Remote and mobile	Mobile companion · Remote access · Remote hosts · Accounts, push, and sync
Operate	Quotas and resources · Alera CLI · Troubleshooting
Architecture	docs/architecture.md · docs/remote-hosts-hub.md · docs/orchestration.md · docs/agent-status-hooks.md · docs/performance.md
Contributing	AGENTS.md · .github/CONTRIBUTING.md · docs/testing.md · docs/ui-styleguide.md · docs/landing-demo.md
Trust	docs/release-trust.md · SECURITY.md · Privacy Policy

Repository Layout

Path	What it is
lib	The Flutter desktop app: app bootstrap and theme, features by domain, design_system components, shared infrastructure
rust	The Cargo workspace: alera_native (the desktop app's native layer), alera-core (rules the app and the runtime share), alera-cli (the alera runtime and CLI), alera_mobile_native (on-device dictation for the phone), and alera-xtask (makefile tooling)
mobile	The Android companion app
packages	Dart packages shared by the desktop and mobile apps
third_party	Forked and vendored dependencies, including the terminal engine
macos, windows, linux	The native runner for each desktop platform: window, tray, and the build hooks that compile the runtime
landing	The Astro website: alera.build, the docs, the blog, and the product demo
cloud, edge, infra/production	The optional account and push service, the Cloudflare Worker in front of it, and its OpenTofu resources
skills	Agent skills Alera installs for the alera CLI and orchestration
tool	CI, release, and development scripts
docs	Contributor documentation

Developing

Start with AGENTS.md, which holds the rules every change follows, and .github/CONTRIBUTING.md for local setup. The common checks:

flutter analyze
flutter test --coverage --exclude-tags golden
make rust-test

Use flutter test --tags golden for visual regression tests and flutter test integration_test -d macos for desktop end-to-end coverage; docs/testing.md has the full workflow. The website builds from landing/ with bun run check.

Alera builds in two flavors selected by ALERA_FLAVOR:

Flavor	Bundle ID	Display name	Notes
dev	dev.leynier.alera.dev	Alera Dev	Default for local builds. Auto-update disabled.
release	dev.leynier.alera	Alera	Used by CI and public release artifacts.

User data lives in ~/Library/Application Support/<bundle id> on macOS, $XDG_DATA_HOME/<bundle id> (default ~/.local/share) on Linux, and %APPDATA%\dev.leynier\<display name> on Windows. lib/src/core/build_flavor.dart holds the canonical strings.

Releases And Updates

Release cuts are maintainer-run through GitHub Actions, and publish drafts first, verify every asset and update manifest, and only then go public. Update indexes use schema v3: each platform's release.json is signed with Ed25519 and commits to the artifact's SHA-256, which the app verifies before installing anything.

• Stable index: https://updates.alera.build/updates/stable/app-archive.json
• Release-candidate index: https://updates.alera.build/updates/rc/app-archive.json
• Stable Linux packages come from the signed APT and RPM repositories under https://updates.alera.build/linux/
• GitHub Releases remain the manual download surface

See docs/release-trust.md for signing, the Linux repositories, and manifest verification.

Acknowledgements

Alera stands on brilliant work in the agentic development and terminal space:

• Orca: the primary inspiration for worktree-oriented, multi-agent product thinking
• Ghostty: the bar for fast, high-quality terminals
• xterm2 and xterm.js: the terminal emulator Alera draws with, through a maintained fork, and the reference for terminal compatibility
• Flutter: the foundation of the cross-platform desktop and mobile apps
• Drift and desktop_updater: local persistence and desktop update plumbing

Reference projects under reference_projects/ are reading material for agentic development patterns; Alera does not depend on any of them at runtime.

Community

• Open an issue for a bug or a feature request, and star the repository to follow along.
• Report vulnerabilities privately as described in SECURITY.md.
• Read the Code of Conduct before taking part.

License

MIT.