aider with parallel worktrees on windows, mac, linux
Pane is a desktop agent manager built for developers who run terminal agents. Launch Aider in one session, Claude Code in another, and a third Aider session on a separate branch — each in its own worktree, no manual git plumbing required.
Windows SmartScreen warningDirect downloads can show a SmartScreen warning while Pane is unsigned. Pane is fully open source, so you can audit the code and build from source yourself.1. Click More info2. Click Run anyway3. Continue the installerThe PowerShell install downloads the official release directly and avoids most browser download friction.npm global install
Aider is an open-source CLI coding agent with around 45,000 GitHub stars. It is model-agnostic — works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, Ollama, and most other LLM providers — and auto-commits every change it makes. The official site is aider.chat.
Aider is popular with git-native engineers who value traceability: every agent action shows up as a conventional commit on the branch. Its multi-mode interface (/code, /architect, /ask) lets you scope how much authority the agent has. The Aider-AI/aider repository is Apache 2.0 licensed and actively maintained.
I run Aider in Pane for fast local-LLM iterations on a side branch while Claude Code handles heavier refactors in another pane — the auto-commit trail makes it easy to diff what each session actually did.
worktrees without the git plumbing
Aider auto-commits as it works. That is useful on one branch. When you want three Aider sessions working on three separate issues, you need three clean checkouts. Pane manages the worktrees so you do not have to run git worktree add, track the paths, and clean up afterward. Each session starts on an isolated branch and Aider commits land exactly where they should.
parallel sessions, not parallel tabs
Terminal tabs get unwieldy fast when each session has its own Aider context, diff, and review loop. Pane keeps sessions named and navigable — each one has its output, its branch state, and its review surface together. Switch between them without losing your place.
windows, mac, linux — same workflow
Aider works on all three platforms. Pane does too — natively, not via WSL wrappers or tmux shims. If you have been running Aider in a Windows terminal and managing branches by hand, Pane gives you the same worktree-based parallel workflow you would get on macOS without the friction of porting a shell script.
when one aider session is enough
If you run Aider on one branch at a time and a single terminal covers it, you do not need Pane. It adds the most value when you are already running Aider sessions in parallel or want to mix Aider with other agents — Claude Code, Codex, or a local Ollama model — and need each session isolated from the others.
Last verified against Aider's current release. Written by Parsa Khazaeepoul, co-founder of Pane.
frequently asked questions
Yes. Pane is a native Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop app. Aider runs inside a Pane terminal the same way it runs in any shell — pip install aider-chat, then launch it. No WSL required, though Pane works inside WSL too if that is your preference.
Yes. Each Pane session gets its own terminal. Start three Aider instances on three different branches and they run side by side without sharing state.
No. Aider commits to its own branch in its own worktree. Pane does not intercept git operations — it manages the workspace around the terminal, not the git history inside it.
Aider works best when each session has a clean branch to commit to. Pane's worktree management gives each Aider session an isolated checkout without you running git worktree add by hand.
Yes. Aider supports Ollama and other local model providers through its --model flag. Pane does not touch the model configuration — set up Aider as you normally would and launch it inside a Pane terminal.
Yes. Put Aider in one pane and Claude Code in another. They each get a separate worktree, so they do not conflict. This is one of the more useful setups: Aider for fast local-LLM iterations, Claude Code for heavier rewrites.
Yes. Aider's /code, /architect, and /ask modes all work normally inside a Pane terminal. Pane is a terminal host, not a shell wrapper — it does not modify Aider's input or output.
Pane is also AGPL-3.0. Aider is Apache 2.0. There is no license conflict — you are running two separate programs that communicate only through the terminal.
No. Pane works with any CLI tool without agent-side configuration. Install Aider normally, start a Pane session, type aider in the terminal. That is the entire integration.
If you are working on one branch at a time and a single terminal is manageable, you do not need Pane. Pane adds value when you want to run multiple Aider sessions in parallel, or mix Aider with other agents, and need each session to stay isolated.
Pane is a desktop app that hosts terminal sessions, closer to a workspace manager than a raw emulator. You can keep your existing terminal emulator for other uses. Pane is where agent sessions live.
