Yes. Pane is open-source under the AGPL-3.0 license. There is no paid tier, no usage limits, and no account required.

Any CLI agent works — if it runs in a terminal, it runs in Pane. Built-in support (dedicated tab, token tracking, session resume) is available for Claude Code and OpenAI Codex CLI. See the Quick Starts section for setup guides.

No. Pane is an agent manager, not an IDE. It orchestrates agents working in git worktrees alongside your existing editor. Open the same project in VS Code, Zed, or Neovim — Pane and your editor coexist on the same files.

Session history is stored in ~/.pane/pane.db (SQLite). Application config (settings, shortcuts, project list) is stored in the OS-standard config path:

• macOS — ~/Library/Application Support/Pane/
• Windows — %APPDATA%\Pane\
• Linux — ~/.config/Pane/

Nothing leaves your machine. Pane makes no outbound requests except to GitHub’s API to fetch the latest release version for update checks.

Go to Settings → Updates → Check Now. If an update is available, click Download and Install.

Alternatively, re-run the install script from the Download page — it installs over the existing version.

Yes. Toggle Use Worktrees off in the New Pane dialog. The agent runs in your main working tree instead of an isolated branch. Useful for repos where worktree setup is impractical (large monorepos with complex setups).

Pane requires git to be installed and available on your PATH. Install git from git-scm.com , then restart Pane. On macOS, xcode-select --install also provides git.

The agent binary isn’t on the PATH Pane sees. Go to Settings → Advanced → Additional PATH and add the directory containing your agent binary (e.g., /usr/local/bin or ~/.local/bin). Restart Pane after saving.

Stale worktree references can block new worktree creation. Run this in your repo root:

git worktree prune

Then retry creating the pane. If the error persists, check that you have write access to the directory and that the branch name doesn’t already exist.

Pane binaries are not yet universally code-signed.

• macOS — Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway next to the Pane entry. One-time step.
• Windows — Click More info → Run anyway on the SmartScreen prompt.

Code signing is in progress. See Known Issues below.

Restart Pane. Sessions and project config are preserved — nothing is lost. If the freeze recurs on a specific project, check the terminal for errors before restarting.

If the issue is reproducible, open a bug report at github.com/dcouple/Pane/issues  with steps to reproduce.

Pane uses Tailscale for zero-config remote connections. Check if Tailscale is installed:

tailscale version

Install Tailscale: tailscale.com/download . After installing, run tailscale up to authenticate. Then retry the remote setup in Pane.

Check the Tailscale link between machines:

tailscale status
tailscale ping <hostname>

If the connection is relayed (DERP) instead of direct, ensure UDP port 41641 is open on both sides. Pane auto-reconnects after brief network drops. If a session freezes for more than 30 seconds, click the session in the sidebar to force a reconnect.

The daemon defaults to port 42137. If another process holds that port:

lsof -i :42137        # macOS / Linux
netstat -ano | findstr 42137   # Windows

Kill the conflicting process or change the port in Settings > Remote Pane, or use --listen-port during setup.

When Tailscale is unavailable, forward the daemon port over SSH:

ssh -N -L 42137:127.0.0.1:42137 user@your-host

Leave that terminal open, then connect the saved profile in Pane. The profile will reach the daemon through the forwarded port.

Remote sessions route permission prompts to the client that owns the session. If prompts do not appear:

1. Make sure the Pane window is focused.
2. Check the connection status dot in the sidebar (green = connected).
3. Enable verbose logging in Settings > General and check the logs for “permission” events.

If the owning client is disconnected, prompts queue until it reconnects. Unanswered prompts are auto-denied after five minutes.

Measure the round trip to the remote host:

tailscale ping <hostname>

Target latency is under 50 ms for responsive streaming. If latency is high, prefer direct connections over relay (DERP), reduce terminal scrollback in Settings, and close unused remote sessions to free bandwidth.