DocsData & servers

Agents in the terminal

Run Claude Code, Codex, Cursor CLI or Grok in a pane, a different agent in each split.

Coding agents are command-line programs, and the Terminal starts them in one click. Put Claude Code in one pane and Codex in the next, give each its folder, and let them work on your Bookshop project side by side. Apiboo does not install or sign in to these tools for you; it finds them on your computer and starts them.

The built-in agents

Agent	Command it runs	Resumes a conversation with	Attach Apiboo MCP
Claude Code	`claude`	`claude --continue`	Yes
Codex	`codex`	`codex resume --last`	Yes
Cursor CLI	`cursor-agent`	`cursor-agent resume`	No
Grok	`grok`	–	No

Each shows its brand icon in menus, pane headers and tabs. Your own programs can be added as profiles (see Profiles).

Start an agent

From the + menu next to the tabs, under Agents:

Action	Result
Click an agent	Opens it in a new tab.
`Alt`+click	Opens it in a split to the right of the focused pane.
`Alt`+`Shift`+click	Opens it in a split below the focused pane.
Hover an agent	Shows two buttons, Open in a split on the right and Open in a split below.

Enter on a highlighted agent works like a click, with Alt or Alt+Shift as above.

You can also start one from:

the start screen, which offers the first installed agent as a one-click button;
Split with… on any pane, to put a different agent next to it (see Split with…);
a saved layout that contains agents (see Saved layouts).

The + menu: Claude Code and Codex installed, Cursor CLI "Not installed" with its install hint open, then the Shells and SSH connection…

Install detection and the install hint

Apiboo checks which agents are installed and shows the result next to each:

no mark: installed, ready to start;
a small spinner: still checking; clicking starts it anyway;
Not installed ›: the program was not found.

Click an agent marked Not installed and, instead of a failed start, the install hint opens under it:

It says why, for example "cursor-agent was not found on your PATH."
Under Install it with is the install command for your system, with a Copy button, and sometimes a second way ("or …").
Docs opens the agent's own install page.
Install it in any terminal, then click Re-check.

Apiboo never runs the installer for you. The install commands it suggests:

Agent	Windows	macOS and Linux	Or
Claude Code	`irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 \| iex`	`curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh \| bash`	`npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code`
Codex	`npm install -g @openai/codex`	`npm install -g @openai/codex`	`brew install codex`
Cursor CLI	`irm 'https://cursor.com/install?win32=true' \| iex`	`curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS \| bash`	–
Grok	`irm https://x.ai/cli/install.ps1 \| iex`	`curl -fsSL https://x.ai/cli/install.sh \| bash`	`npm i -g @xai-official/grok`

The check is kept until you ask again: Re-check in the + menu, in the install hint or in the settings runs it anew. If a pane tries to start a program that is missing, the pane itself shows the same hint; after Re-check finds the program, the pane starts by itself.

Profiles

A profile is a program the + menu can open in one click. The four agents are built-in profiles; you can add your own, for example a dev server or a database CLI.

Open Settings → Extensions → Terminal → Profiles, or Manage profiles… at the bottom of the + menu. Each profile shows its command and whether it is installed ("Installed · " and the path, or Not installed). Per profile you can:

Hide from the + menu / Show in the + menu (built-ins only; the eye icon);
Edit it;
Delete profile (your own profiles only).

Add profile creates a new one, and Re-check checks the install state again.

The profile editor

Field	What it does
Name	The name in menus and pane headers. Fixed for built-ins.
Command	The program to run, for example `npx`, or a path picked with Browse…. Apiboo shows "Found at …" or "… was not found on your PATH." Fixed for built-ins.
Arguments	One argument per line. Each line is passed exactly as written, with no shell parsing.
Working directory	Where the program starts (see below).
Environment variables	Name and value pairs for the program, each with an on/off switch.
Attach Apiboo MCP	Whether the agent gets Apiboo's MCP tools (see Attach Apiboo MCP).

For a built-in agent you can change the arguments, the working directory, the environment variables and the MCP switch; its name and command stay fixed.

On Windows, an agent installed through npm starts through a .cmd file. Apiboo refuses to start it when an argument contains a character that cmd.exe would reinterpret (" & | < > ^ % ! ( )) and says so in the pane.

The profile editor for a custom "Bookshop dev server" profile: npm with the arguments run and dev, a fixed folder C:\dev\bookshop, and one environment variable

Where a profile starts

Working directory in the profile editor has four options:

Option	Where the program starts
Current pane's folder, else the default folder	In a split: the folder of the pane it splits. In a new tab: the Terminal's default folder if set, otherwise the current pane's folder. The default.
Home folder	Always your home folder.
A fixed folder	Always the folder you enter or pick with Browse….
Ask every time	Apiboo asks for a folder each time; cancelling starts nothing.

Home folder, A fixed folder and Ask every time override the Terminal's default folder. A saved layout never asks: a pane reopens in the folder the layout remembered. See The working directory for the default folder.

Attach Apiboo MCP

Claude Code and Codex can use Apiboo's MCP tools from inside a pane, so the agent can read your boards, documents and requests while it works.

The switch Attach Apiboo MCP is in the agent's profile. It is on by default for Claude Code and Codex.
The pane gets its own token, with your current MCP grants. It lives only in memory, goes only to that pane's program, and ends when the pane ends. Your own MCP token is never shown or passed on.
The MCP server must be running. In the pane header, MCP means the tools are attached. MCP off means the server was off and the agent started without them; click it to open the MCP settings. Apiboo never turns the server on by itself.
In the pane, Apiboo appears as the MCP server apiboo_app, so it does not clash with an apiboo entry you may already have configured yourself.
For a custom profile, pick the style your CLI understands: Claude-style (--mcp-config) or Codex-style (-c mcp_servers…), or Off.
Cursor CLI and Grok cannot be attached. Cursor CLI reads MCP servers only from its own mcp.json, which Apiboo does not edit, and Grok's MCP configuration is not confirmed.

What the agent may do is decided by your grants in Settings → MCP server. See MCP Server and How MCP helps an AI agent.

Several agents side by side

A typical setup for the Bookshop API:

Click Claude Code in the + menu. It opens in a new tab, in your default folder if you set one.
Click Split right in its header and pick Codex in Split right with…. Codex starts in the same folder.
Click Split down on the Codex pane and pick a shell for npm run dev.
Choose Layouts → Save layout…, name it "Bookshop agents" and keep Resume agent conversations when opened ticked.

Next time, open "Bookshop agents" from the start screen: Claude Code and Codex continue their last conversations, and the shell starts fresh. Broadcast input warns you when an agent would receive your keystrokes (see Broadcast input).