Overview
What Cohalen is and the four-stage loop every change moves through.
Cohalen is a local-first orchestrator for AI coding agents: a desktop app that runs Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor in parallel on your machine, each in its own isolated git worktree. You launch the agents, watch them work, review each change, and ship the pull request from one surface. The Spend kill-switch, a per-Workspace cap on by default, refuses to start the next Turn once a Workspace crosses its budget.
These docs cover the model and the day-to-day flow. They assume you are comfortable with diffs, branches, and pull requests.
The workflow
Every change an agent makes moves through four stages, in order: Chat → Diff → Checks → Ship. The app is organized around them, and review can loop back: a Note left on a diff line feeds the agent's next Turn.
- Chat. You prompt an agent; it works in its own Workspace.
- Diff. You review the Changeset as one unit.
- Checks. Every merge signal, reduced to one Verdict.
- Ship. Commit & push → create the pull request → merge.
Where to go next
- Getting started: from a fresh install to your first shipped change.
- Core concepts: the exact meaning of Repository, Workspace, Changeset, Checks, Verdict, Ship, Organization, Owner, Remote Workspace, and the Spend kill-switch.
- Architecture: what runs on your machine, and the two things that ever leave it.
The guides then follow the loop, one stage at a time:
- Repositories: the git sources Workspaces branch from.
- Workspaces: launch, resume, and retire parallel work.
- Agents and models: who does the work, and how hard it thinks.
- Reviewing changes: the Diff view, Notes, quick hand edits.
- Checks and Ship: clear the Blockers, merge.
- Terminal and Project scripts: the shared workflow.
- The sandbox: the agent's boundary and the spend cap.
- Connect your Runner: run Workspaces on a host you own.
- Working as a team: Organizations, Remote Workspaces, Overview.
Cohalen is in early access. Join the waitlist to get a build.