AI is the engine
Put agents to work on the docs and tasks that drive your project: create, review, refine, harden, execute. Markdown-first, where your project's thinking lives.
the AI-native IDE for the modern engineer
chan
An IDE that moves at the speed of thought. Drive your projects in Markdown and put a fleet of AI agents to work: they create, review, refine, and harden your design docs and tasks, then execute, coordinating with each other right in the terminal. Your editor, your terminal, and your agents in one hybrid workspace.
Simple stroke. Powerful engine.
quickstart
From install to IDE in two commands
Install the standalone chan CLI, point it at any git repo
(or clone chan's own to try it), and the full IDE opens in your browser.
chan serve binds to loopback, prints a URL with a per-launch
bearer token, and opens your default browser. Prefer a native window and
remote attach? Install Chan Desktop.
$curl -fsSL https://chan.app/install.sh | sh
$git clone https://github.com/fiorix/chan
$chan serve ./chan
A fleet that works together
Run Claude, Codex, and Gemini side by side in the terminal and let them
coordinate with each other through Chan's cs tooling (poke,
broadcast, groups) and the MCP server. You conduct; they collaborate. No
in-app chatbot.
One hybrid workspace
Editor, terminal, Team Work, file browser, graph, and dashboard as tiling tabs and panes, each with command-line tooling.
Knows your workspace
Hybrid BM25 and embedding search, a live graph over links, tags, and mentions, and per-file and per-directory code reports (SLOC, COCOMO), built in.
markdown-first
Where your project's thinking lives
Write your design docs, specs, and tasks in Markdown, with a live
outline, cross-file [[wiki-links]], and an inspector that
surfaces backlinks and per-file code reports. The documents that drive
your work, ready for you and your agents.
team work
See the fleet at work
Compose a team of agents and watch them run side by side: Claude, Codex,
and Gemini in their own terminal sessions, coordinating through
cs and the MCP server while you conduct from one pane.
install
Desktop first, CLI when you want a server
The public install path starts with Chan Desktop for local editing. The
standalone chan binary remains available for terminal users,
remote shells, and explicit chan serve workflows.
local-first
Local by default, remote by choice
Local use needs no account. The HTTP server binds to loopback by default, and your files stay ordinary files under the workspace folder.
The tunnel is core to chan, not a hosted service. Opt in and the same
workspace is reachable from another device: Chan Desktop attaches an
inbound tunnel from a remote chan serve, or opens one
directly over HTTP/2. The gateway that fronts it ships in the repo for
you to self-host. Nothing leaves your machine until you ask it to.
support
Fund the work
Chan is independent software. Small tips help cover time spent on releases, packaging, and documentation.
