Pair Desk

The playtest desk, backlog and handoff you share with your coding agents.
You play the game, your agents write the code. Pair Desk is the table between you.
For Claude Code, Codex, opencode, Google Antigravity and Meta Muse Code, with any engine.

pair-desk.renner.dev · Install · Documentation · Changelog · Issues · MIT license

What it does

Agents forget everything between sessions, and they can't see your game. Pair Desk gives both sides one place to meet:

• Agents file checks ("verify the lava flows now end in rounded tips") with the game's own chat command that takes you to the spot.
• You press Send to game, the running game teleports you there, and you answer Passed or Still broken, with pasted screenshots.
• You and the game file reports (bugs, ideas, tasks). Agents read them and your verdicts at the start of their next session, and hear about new ones on their next prompt, or live.
• Every issue carries the agent's plan (steps ticked as commits land); each project keeps a versioned handoff (where work stopped, next step, traps) and a sized, prioritised backlog.
• Everything is live: what the game, an agent or another tab writes shows up within a second.

How it works

  you, in the browser                       your coding agents
  triage · backlog · handoff                Claude Code, Codex, opencode, Antigravity, Muse
  Passed / Still broken / Send to game      MCP tools, skills, session and prompt hooks
            │                                         │
            └──────────────┐           ┌──────────────┘
                           ▼           ▼
             Pair Desk (127.0.0.1:8765, Python 3.11+ standard library)
             one data folder: desk.sqlite and your screenshots
                           ▲
                           │  POST a report with the spot · poll for queued commands
                  your game's dev console

By default it is entirely local: one data folder with a SQLite file and your screenshots, a standard-library Python server, a plain HTML/JS web UI with no build step, no CDN and no telemetry. The server listens on 127.0.0.1 only. It works for several games at once and knows nothing about any particular engine: locations are your game's own console commands.

Optional Git project sharing synchronizes selected projects across PCs through a dedicated data branch in their existing repository. It uses Git authentication and stays disabled until explicitly configured.

Features

Checks with a place	Each check lists the game's console commands, one place each, with a label. Copy or Send to game per command; the desk shows when the game picked it up.
Plans before code	Agents write the plan on the issue before they start and tick steps as commits land. A check can't reach you while steps are open or without a location.
Verdicts only you give	Agents can't mark anything passed; the tools refuse it. Still broken moves the check back and reaches the agent before its next prompt.
Agents check first	auto_check is the agent's own queue (screenshots, logs, tests, builds). Only what needs your eyes moves to To check.
Handoff	One versioned document per project: state, where work stopped, verified, next step, traps. Every save is kept and diffable; session start shows the next step and traps.
Backlog	Open work by priority, then size, then area, in collapsible groups. Replaces the hand-kept TODO file.
Who hears the owner	A session-start summary, a prompt hook with your activity since the agent last looked, and a live channel into idle Claude Code sessions. One lead client per project; delegated jobs stay quiet.
Builds	A build script publishes the current build; waiting checks record the build they were handed over in, with Open folder and Run.
Merge and group	Merge duplicate reports with their history, group work under a parent with child progress, and get grouping proposals.
Search	Ranked full-text search over titles, details, bodies and comments, with stemming, phrases and a substring fallback for code names.
Keyboard first	j/k move, s sends to the game, p passed, f still broken. After Passed the next check opens.
Backup, transfer, sharing	A one-zip backup while it runs, verified restore, topic export and import with full history, and optional Git sharing across PCs.

Backlog: open work by priority, size and area	Handoff: versioned, with diffs, updated by agents

_{Pair Desk 1.13.0 with the sample desk from scripts/demo-desk.py, captured by scripts/ui-check.mjs.}

Install

One command sets it up for every installed agent tool:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/rennerdo30/pair-desk pair-desk install

No uv? Any of these does the same:

pipx run --spec git+https://github.com/rennerdo30/pair-desk pair-desk install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rennerdo30/pair-desk/main/install.sh | sh     # macOS, Linux

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rennerdo30/pair-desk/main/install.ps1 | iex             # Windows

You need Python 3.11 or newer. The installer finds which of claude, codex, opencode, agy and muse are on your PATH, shows the exact steps for each and asks before running them (--yes skips the questions, --dry-run only shows them; name tools to limit it, e.g. install claude codex). It touches only its own entries and backs up every config file it edits. Then it offers to link the git repo you are in to a desk project, and prints how to start the desk.

update and uninstall work the same way; uninstall removes only what install added and leaves the desk's data alone. What each tool gets, installing by hand, and the Codex, opencode, Antigravity and Muse Code details are in docs/install.md.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/rennerdo30/pair-desk && cd agent-pair-programming
python desk.py serve --open                 # the web UI at http://127.0.0.1:8765/

On macOS and Linux, bin/pair-desk runs the same thing with whichever of python3 or python is 3.11+; on Windows, bin\pair-desk.cmd, or double-click start-desk.cmd. Inside Claude Code with the plugin, /agent-pair-programming:serve starts the desk in the background.

1. Create a project for your game: New project… in the project menu, or python desk.py new-project --slug mygame --name MyGame --prefix MG (issues become MG-1, MG-2, …).
2. Link your game repo so agents working there find the project: put {"project": "mygame"} in a .pair-desk.json at the repo root, or run python desk.py link --project mygame --path /path/to/mygame.
3. Work. Your agents read the desk at session start (the plugin's hook does it), write a plan before they code, and file a check with a location command when something is ready for you. You open the check, press Send to game (or copy the command), look, and answer.
4. Optional: teach your game to file reports and pick up commands (see Your game), so a key press in the game files a bug with a screenshot and the exact spot.

Want to look around first? python scripts/demo-desk.py --data /tmp/pd-demo writes a desk with sample data; open it with python desk.py --data /tmp/pd-demo serve --open.

Your game

Teach the game two small calls and the loop closes. A key press POSTs a report with a screenshot and the chat command that brings a player back to the spot. While the dev console is on, the game polls GET /api/projects/{slug}/commands/next?client=<name> about every 2 seconds and runs what it gets as if it were typed into chat; each command is delivered once and expires after 10 minutes. When the desk isn't running the requests fail to connect: back off quietly and never block play.

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8765/api/projects/mygame/issues -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "title": "Stuck in the rock near the harbor", "kind": "bug", "source": "game", "author": "game",
  "location": {"command": "/goto 1240 12 -380 yaw 90", "x": 1240, "y": 12, "z": -380, "yaw": 90, "place": "Harbor", "time": "17:30"},
  "attachments": [{"filename": "f12.png", "mime": "image/png", "data_base64": "iVBORw0KGgo..."}]}'

The full protocol (one place per command, seeds for generated worlds) and every endpoint are in docs/api.md.

Security model

• Loopback only. serve binds 127.0.0.1. Requests from other addresses, with a non-loopback Host header, or from a web page on another origin get 403, which also blocks DNS rebinding and cross-site requests from sites you visit. Writes are also refused from an opaque null origin (a sandboxed frame) and from requests the browser marks cross-site.
• Opening a build's folder or running it works only on the path the desk stored, only from this machine, and only from the desk's own page: it carries a token the server writes into the page it serves, which no other page can read. Run starts the executable without a shell or arguments.
• No accounts, no authentication. Anything that runs on your computer can use the desk; that is the local trust boundary. Optional Git sharing uses the repository's authentication and permissions; repository readers can read shared desk contents and writers can change them.
• --lan is for trusted networks only. python desk.py serve --lan listens on all interfaces (e.g. to use the desk from your phone). It still has no authentication: anyone on that network can read, change and delete your issues and screenshots and queue commands for your game. Stop it when you are done.
• The HTTP API never reads files from disk; only the local CLI and MCP tools attach files by path (images and PDFs, checked by content). HTML in markdown is escaped and the UI runs under a strict Content Security Policy. Agents cannot mark anything passed: only you give that verdict.

See SECURITY.md for details and how to report a vulnerability.

Documentation

Installing	What install does per tool, installing by hand, the Claude Code plugin (MCP tools, skills, hooks, channel), linking a repo, Codex, opencode, Antigravity and Muse Code
Web UI	Every part of the desk in the browser, keyboard shortcuts, automatic verification
Game integration and HTTP API	Filing reports, Send to game, one place per command, every endpoint
CLI	Running the server, and every command for agents and scripts
Data, search and backup	The data folder, search ranking, backup and restore, topic transfer, the data model, migrations
Git project sharing	Sharing projects across PCs through a data branch
Topic transfer	Exporting and importing selected topics
Development	Tests, smoke checks, benchmarks and the source layout
Website	The project homepage in website/

License

MIT. Changes are listed in CHANGELOG.md.

Claude Code, Codex, opencode, Google Antigravity, Meta Muse Code, GitHub and the other product names mentioned here are trademarks of their respective owners. Pair Desk is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by any of them; the names only say which tools it works with.