Chau7

Your coding agents are running. All of them. Across models, across windows, sometimes at 3 AM. Chau7 is the macOS terminal that notices they exist, tracks what they cost, and lets you steer from the outside. Named after a sock. We're not even sorry.

Release status: Chau7 for macOS is the Rust/GPUI app in apps/chau7-next. The former SwiftUI/AppKit app has been removed from this repository; it remains in git history and in prior release tags. Releases from v* tags publish the Rust production build. See the production release guide and parity status.

What it does

• See every agent. Detects 13+ AI tools automatically: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot, Aider, Cline, Continue, Goose, Devin, Mentat, Amazon Q, Amp. Knows when they finish, fail, or need approval. Zero config.
• Know what it costs. Per-run token counts, cost tracking, tool call distribution. Across providers, across models. All in one place.
• Steer from the outside. MCP tools over an owner-only local Unix socket. Read terminal output, send input, approve tool use, launch agents, stop them. Control from another terminal, a script, or your phone.
• Trust it. Everything stays on your machine. No analytics, no heartbeats, no "anonymous" usage data. API keys forwarded by the local proxy, never stored. Full privacy details.
• The terminal underneath. Rust from the terminal emulator to the GPUI interface, with GPU rendering through Metal. Context Token Optimization cuts ~40% off agent token usage. Tabs auto-group by git repo. Not Electron. Not a wrapper.

FAQ

Why is it named Chau7? Long story involving a sock, a French RPG audio comedy, and questionable life choices. The origin story explains everything. Or nothing. Depends on your tolerance for absurdity.

Why AGPL? Chau7 is free software. Use it on your machine, modify it, share it. If you offer a modified version as a service, share your changes too. That's the deal.

Does the proxy send my data anywhere? No. chau7-proxy runs locally. API keys pass through to the original provider. Nothing is stored, nothing is transmitted elsewhere. See SECURITY.md for the full picture.

Is it stable? It's a beta built by one person with a lot of AI agents helping. It works well enough that we use it every day. It crashes occasionally. We fix things fast.

Layout

apps/
  chau7-next/               # Chau7 for macOS: Rust/GPUI app (Cargo workspace)
  chau7-ios/                # Native iOS companion app
    Chau7Core/              #   Shared Swift package used by the iOS app and widget
crates/                     # Shared Rust workspace (own toolchain and lockfile)
  chau7_terminal/           #   Terminal emulator, used by the macOS and iOS apps
  chau7_optim/              #   Context Token Optimization engine
  chau7_md/                 #   Terminal markdown renderer
services/
  chau7-proxy/              # Go TLS proxy for API analytics
  chau7-relay/              # Cloudflare Workers relay
  chau7-remote/             # Go relay client for macOS
  chau7-issues/             # Bug-report intake worker
scripts/                    # Repo-level CI and build orchestration

• macOS app (Rust/GPUI), port history in docs/rust-port
• iOS app
• Rust terminal crate
• Analytics proxy
• Relay service
• Remote agent
• Remote protocol
• Scripts reference
• Documentation map

Install

brew tap aeptus/chau7
brew install --cask chau7

Or grab the DMG from the latest release. Release builds are Developer ID signed and notarized; a release published before the Rust switch contains the former Swift app.

Build

cd apps/chau7-next
cargo run                         # development build, runs as "Chau7 Next"
cargo test --workspace            # verify you didn't break anything
./scripts/bundle-macos.sh         # optimized "Chau7 Next.app" bundle in target/bundle

Local builds default to the side-by-side next channel (com.chau7.next, its own data folders). CHANNEL=production RELEASE_VERSION=<semver> BUILD_NUMBER=<n> ./scripts/bundle-macos.sh builds the production Chau7.app that releases ship. See the Chau7 Next README for build modes and data locations.

Requirements: macOS 13+, Xcode 26.6 and the tool baseline in mise.toml. The bundle script also builds the Go helpers (services/chau7-proxy, services/chau7-remote) and the shared crates/ tools when Go is installed. See contributor setup.

Local CI

mise install
mise exec -- pnpm install
mise exec -- pnpm setup:check

pre-commit runs pnpm quality:staged. pre-push runs pnpm quality:prepush, which scopes to the affected integration surface and upgrades to full validation for high-impact changes.

Rule #1

Document decisions near the code. Every subdirectory has a README explaining its contents. When someone reads a file, the why should be reachable without leaving the directory. If you're looking for the canonical doc entry points, see the documentation map.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. We read every PR. Yes, actually.

License

AGPL 3.0. Privacy. Third-party notices in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.