A daemon is a program that runs in the background on your machine. You don't see it, you don't interact with it directly. It just sits there, doing its job quietly, and wakes up when something needs it.
the simple version
Think of a daemon like a night security guard at an office. You don't see them, but they're always there, handling things. If someone buzzes the door, the guard opens it. If an alarm goes off, the guard responds. A daemon works the same way for your computer.
Your computer is already running plenty of daemons right now. The thing that keeps your Wi-Fi connected? That's a daemon. The thing that syncs your files to Dropbox? Daemon. The thing that checks for software updates in the background? Also a daemon.
why pane uses a daemon
When you use Pane locally, you don't need to think about this at all. Pane handles everything when the app is open.
The daemon matters when you use Remote Pane. Say you have a powerful desktop at home and you want to control your agents from your laptop at a coffee shop, or from your phone. The daemon is what keeps your sessions running on the desktop while you control them from wherever you are.
Without a daemon, closing the app would kill all your running agents. With one, everything keeps going in the background.
daemon vs server vs service
term
what it means
daemon
Any program that runs in the background. The broadest term.
server
A program that listens for requests from other programs or machines. All servers are daemons, but not all daemons are servers.
service
A daemon that the operating system manages for you. It starts automatically on boot and restarts if it crashes.
related docs
- Remote VM Setup — set up Pane's daemon on a remote machine
A daemon is a program that runs in the background on your computer. You don't interact with it directly. It just sits there, doing its job, waiting for something to ask it to do work. Your computer is already running dozens of them right now.
The name comes from Greek mythology. A daemon was a helpful spirit that worked behind the scenes. In computing, it means the same thing: a background helper. It's not related to the word 'demon'.
Pane's daemon handles your sessions, terminals, and agent processes on the machine where your code lives. When you use Remote Pane to connect from another device, the daemon is what keeps everything running on the host while you control it from your laptop, phone, or tablet.
No. For local use, Pane handles everything automatically. For Remote Pane, the setup command configures the daemon for you. You only need to know the word 'daemon' exists so the docs make sense.
Similar, but not exactly. A server usually listens for network requests from other machines. A daemon is any background process, even one that only talks to programs on the same machine. Pane's daemon can work both ways: locally, or as a remote server when you set up Remote Pane.
For local Pane use, the daemon runs while Pane is open. For Remote Pane, you can set it up as a background service that stays running even when you close the app, so your remote sessions stay available.
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
