---
title: "Overview"
description: "What agent-manager is, what a session is, and where everything lives."
canonical: "https://agent-manager.dev/docs/"
last-updated: "2026-10-07"
section: "Documentation"
source: "agent-manager"
---

# Overview

agent-manager is a Go TUI that runs on top of tmux. Every agent you start is a real tmux session, so the manager is a window onto them rather than something they live inside. Quit it and they keep working.

![The session list: twenty-odd agent sessions grouped under backend, its api subgroup, frontend and infra, each with a colour-coded live status, a real Claude Code transcript in the preview on the right, and machine gauges at the bottom left.](/assets/screenshot-sessions.png)

_Twenty-three sessions, four projects, one nested subgroup. The preview is a real Claude Code pane._

## The first run

There is no config to write and no daemon to start. Install it, then:

```bash
agent-manager
```

Everything you can change lives in Settings (`s`): the keys, the editor, the theme and the rest. Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex, Grok Build, Gemini CLI, Antigravity CLI, Pi, Command Code, Hermes Agent, Muse Code and Oh My Pi are built in, rules included, so there is nothing to describe before the first spawn.

| Key | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| n | New session: name, tool, the model, effort and profile the tool offers, directory, an optional starting prompt, and a group. |
| g | New group. |
| space | Prompt the selected agent, or spawn one in the selected group. |
| ? | Every key, without leaving the app. |

The mouse works too. A click focuses a session, a double click folds a group, the wheel moves the cursor, a row drags by its `⠿` handle, `[…]` opens a row's actions, and the divider between the list and the preview drags. The full-screen layout selects on a click and focuses on a double click.

## Where the sessions live

Agent sessions run on a private tmux server named `agentmgr`, in the `am_*` namespace, so they never mix with the tmux you run yourself and a `kill-server` on your own socket leaves them alone. To reach one from a plain shell, name that server:

```bash
tmux -L agentmgr ls
tmux -L agentmgr attach -t am_<id>
```

> **Inside a session** `ctrl+q` detaches back to the manager when the terminal leaves it available; `ctrl+\` is an alternate. `ctrl+r` opens review and `F3` opens the session's directory in your editor. These bindings are scoped to managed sessions, so they pass straight through everywhere else.

## Where to go next

| Page | What it covers |
| --- | --- |
| [Install](/docs/install/) | Homebrew, the install script, the AUR, mise, Go, or a binary. |
| [Status](/docs/status/) | Why a row is orange, and where that verdict comes from. |
| [Quick prompt](/docs/prompt/) | Answering a blocked agent without attaching to it. |
| [Review mode](/docs/review/) | Whole-file diffs whose line comments go back to the agent. |
| [Configuration](/docs/config/) | Settings, the key tables, the eleven built-in CLIs, and the themes. |