Getting Started with SpaceSpider

SpaceSpider is a desktop app that turns a single window into a grid of real terminal panes, with one AI coding CLI pinned to each pane. Instead of juggling tmux, VS Code tabs, and four separate PowerShell windows, you open a "space" scoped to a project directory and watch Claude Code, Codex, Qwen Code, and Kimi CLI work in parallel on the same codebase.

This guide walks you from zero to your first running grid in about ten minutes. It assumes you have a project folder already, a working Node.js installation, and at least one AI CLI you want to drive.

What SpaceSpider actually is

SpaceSpider is built on Tauri 2, so the shell is a native Rust binary with a thin React 19 frontend rendered through the system WebView. The terminals are not web emulations layered on an SSH bridge. Each pane hosts a real operating-system PTY session through portable-pty, which means ConPTY on Windows 10 and 11 and a standard Unix PTY on Linux and macOS.

That matters because it means every CLI you already use works without patches. Readline, raw input, ANSI colors, progress bars, $EDITOR popping open vim, and interactive auth prompts all behave exactly as they do in your normal terminal.

The UI adds three things on top:

• A space: a named directory you care about, which acts as the working directory for every pane inside it.
• A grid: a fixed layout of 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, or 9 panes filling the entire window.
• A CLI per pane: one of Claude Code, Codex, Qwen Code, Kimi, or a plain shell.

Prerequisites

Before you install, get the following in place. You do not need all of them, but you need at least one AI CLI or you will end up staring at empty shells.

• Operating system: Windows 10 22H2 or 11, macOS 12 or newer, or a modern Linux distro with WebKitGTK 4.1.
• Node.js 20 LTS or newer if you plan to install AI CLIs via npm.
• Git on your PATH so AI agents can commit.
• At least one supported AI CLI installed globally.

Install the AI CLIs you plan to use. Run whichever of these you need:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
npm install -g @openai/codex
npm install -g @qwen-code/qwen-code
npm install -g @moonshot/kimi-cli

SpaceSpider auto-detects every CLI on your PATH when you open the pane picker, so you can install them before or after installing the app itself.

Install SpaceSpider

Pick the installer for your operating system. Detailed per-platform notes live in the install section:

• Install on Windows covers the MSI and MSIX installers, SmartScreen, and ConPTY requirements.
• Install on macOS covers the signed DMG, Gatekeeper, and Apple Silicon builds.
• Install on Linux covers the AppImage, the .deb package, and WebKitGTK dependencies.

All three builds are produced from the same source tree. The installer is signed so that auto-updates can verify the next release against the publisher certificate.

Create your first space in four steps

Once SpaceSpider is installed and at least one AI CLI responds to --version on your shell, you are ready to light up a grid.

1. Launch SpaceSpider and click New Space on the home view.
2. Pick a directory (the folder for a real project), and give the space a short name.
3. Choose a grid layout. Start with 2 panes if you are new; you can always recreate the space later.
4. Assign a CLI to each pane. Tiles with a green dot are already installed.

When you hit Create, the app drops you into the grid view. Every pane spawns its assigned command with the space directory as its current working directory, so pwd in any pane returns your project root.

The full walkthrough lives in Create your first space, including screenshots of the wizard and tips on naming conventions.

Why a grid of AI agents beats a single chat

Running several AI CLIs side by side is not a gimmick. Each tool has a different strength, and the faster you can compare outputs, the faster you ship.

• Put Claude Code in the top-left pane for deep refactors and architectural reasoning.
• Put Codex in the top-right pane for tight, test-driven iterations.
• Put Qwen Code in the bottom-left pane for long-context reads of large files.
• Put Kimi CLI in the bottom-right pane for cost-sensitive cleanup tasks.

Because all four share the same working directory, you can let one agent edit files and ask another to review the diff in the next pane. That workflow is difficult to reproduce in a single chat window and painful to wire up in tmux.

Anatomy of the main window

The home view is a card grid of every space you have ever created. Each card shows the space name, its directory path, the grid size, and the CLIs it is configured for. Clicking a card reopens that space and respawns the panes with the same layout.

Inside a space you get a minimal top bar with the space name, a back button to the home view, and a menu for resizing the grid. The rest of the window is the terminal grid. There is no sidebar, no file tree, and no chat pane to steal focus from the CLIs themselves.

Spaces are persisted to spaces.json via tauri-plugin-store, so they survive app restarts, system reboots, and updates.

Commands you will run most often

Most of SpaceSpider is clicking, but a handful of keyboard shortcuts will save you real time.

• Ctrl+Tab / Cmd+Tab inside the grid: cycle focus between panes.
• Ctrl+Shift+T: open the CLI picker for the focused pane to swap its command.
• Ctrl+Shift+R: restart the focused pane with the same CLI.
• Ctrl+L: clear the focused pane's scrollback.

The full table is in Keyboard shortcuts.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a subscription to use SpaceSpider?

SpaceSpider itself is a desktop app you install once. AI CLIs running inside panes use their own billing, whether that is an Anthropic API key, a ChatGPT Plus seat for Codex, or a DashScope key for Qwen.

Can I run more than 9 panes?

Not today. The grid supports presets of 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 9 panes. That upper bound is deliberate, because past nine panes you cannot read any of them. If you need more, open a second space in a new window.

Does it work offline?

The app itself launches offline. The CLIs running inside it are the ones that need the network, and that depends on their providers.

Will it conflict with tmux or Windows Terminal?

No. SpaceSpider spawns its own PTY sessions independent of any multiplexer already running. You can absolutely run tmux inside a SpaceSpider pane if you want nesting, though in practice the grid removes the need.

Is my code sent anywhere?

SpaceSpider does not upload your source. Anything an AI CLI reads or sends is governed by that CLI's own policy and the key you configured for it.

Related reading

Related reading

• Create Your First Space
• Grid Layouts: 1 to 9 Panes Explained
• Install on Windows