Getting started
From a fresh install to two agents working side by side in separate worktrees — in about fifteen minutes.
This guide assumes PaneScale is installed. If not, start with Install.
Before you begin
You need at least one supported coding CLI that is installed and signed in. If you can start claude or codex in a normal terminal and it greets you, you’re ready. PaneScale never asks for your provider passwords or API keys — it uses whatever account the CLI is already signed in to.
You also want Git on your PATH. PaneScale works without it, but worktrees, checkpoints, Point & Fix and the autopilot are built on Git.
| Check | How |
|---|---|
| A CLI is installed | claude --version or codex --version in a normal terminal |
| The CLI is signed in | Start it once; it should not ask you to log in |
| Git is available | git --version |
| Your Git identity is set | git config --global user.email prints an address |
1. Open a project
A workspace is a folder you allow agents to work in — usually the root of a repository.
- Start PaneScale. It opens in Code mode (Ctrl+Alt+2).
- Click Open project folder in the middle of the empty grid, or + next to Workspaces in the left sidebar.
- Pick your project. It appears in the sidebar and becomes the active workspace.
You can open as many projects as you like. Each one keeps its own grid, its own layout and its own pane sizes; click a project in the sidebar to switch.
2. Start your first pane
Click Pane in the toolbar — or any empty cell — to open the pane picker. It lists:
- Agents that PaneScale found on your computer, with their version and, if you added any, an account profile to use,
- Terminals — plain shells such as PowerShell 7, Windows PowerShell, Command Prompt and Git Bash,
- Not installed agents, with a button that copies their install command.
Pick an agent. The pane appears immediately; if no ready session was waiting, the header says starting for a moment and anything you type is handed over as soon as the CLI is ready.
Type a prompt as you would in any terminal. Everything you know about the CLI still works — PaneScale doesn’t change how the agent behaves.
3. Read the pane header
The header tells you everything about a session at a glance:
| Part | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Agent logo | Which CLI runs here |
| Name | Claude 1 at first — after your first task it becomes something like Fix the login redirect. See session names |
| Doing now | The latest task, title or command, in lighter text |
| Status | A dot and a word: starting, working, waits for you, done, ready … See status |
| Effort | For Claude Code: the current effort level, switchable live |
| Bypass | Shown when the pane runs without permission prompts |
| Account / Worktree | Which account profile the pane uses, or Worktree when it runs in its own lane |
4. Add a second agent in its own worktree
Open the picker again and turn on Isolated worktree at the bottom before you pick the agent. PaneScale creates a Git worktree with its own branch from your current commit, so the second agent can change files without touching the first one’s work. The pane header shows Worktree and a branch icon appears next to the session in the sidebar.
Give both agents a task. Watch the status: when one turns waits for you, it gets a yellow frame, the title bar bell shows a badge, and the Dashboard in the side panel lists it under Needs you. Click it there to jump straight to the pane.
5. Look back, and undo if needed
Interactive panes are your own sessions, so their safety net is the worktree: nothing reaches your branch until you merge it. When an agent works for you — a turn in Agent mode or Chat that may edit files, a task on the board, an autopilot result you adopt, a Point & Fix change — PaneScale takes a checkpoint first. Each of those shows Changes and Rewind step. See Undo & checkpoints.
6. Finish a worktree
When a worktree’s work is done, close the pane — or choose Finish worktree… in the pane menu. PaneScale shows the diff and asks what to do:
- Keep — commit the changes on the worktree’s branch. Nothing is merged or pushed.
- Merge — bring the changes into your current branch by cherry-pick, fast-forward or as an uncommitted patch, after a signed one-time approval.
- Discard — remove the worktree and its branch.
- Later — leave everything as it is.
Nothing is merged, pushed or deleted without that decision.
7. Glance at your limits
Bottom left, above your account, PaneScale shows how much of your Claude and Codex subscription windows is left and when they reset. Hover it for a forecast, click it for the full Usage & limits page.
Next steps
- Learn the keyboard shortcuts — five of them cover most of the day.
- Set daily budgets before you run agents for longer.
- Hand a whole queue to the Overnight Autopilot.
- Point at a broken button in your running app with Point & Fix.