Your first session

This page takes one task from start to finish. You type it, read its row, look in on the agent, answer the question it asks, and see it finish.

You need Irie installed, and Claude Code signed in.

Open Irie

In a terminal, the window where you type commands, run irie.

On the left is Irie’s list, 34 columns wide. On the right is the space where an agent’s screen appears; until you pick one, it shows the keys.

The task box at the bottom of the list is ready for typing. Its hint reads new task (Enter starts it).

Type a task

Type what you want done, in plain words, and press Enter. This task makes the agent ask you something first, so you’ll see a row turn red:

Write haiku about my city. Ask me which city first.

Irie starts a coding agent on the task, Claude Code unless you’ve changed it, and a row appears. The row is named after the task’s first five words: write-haiku-about-my-city.

The agent gets the task word for word. It works in a new, empty folder of its own, since the task names no project; Tasks, repos and worktrees shows how to work on yours.

For a new line inside a task, press Shift+Enter or Ctrl+J.

Read the row

Each row has a mark, a name and an age: how long ago its task started, such as now, 42s, 3m, 2h or 5d.

The mark says how the agent is doing. A new row shows ◌ while the agent starts, then ● while it works.

The line under the list tells you more about the row you’ve picked: the step its agent is on, such as Bash · go test ./..., or what it needs from you. Then come its full name and folder.

The counts at the top add up the rows: working, needing you, done, paused and frozen. Paused and frozen stay at 0 until Irie can pause and freeze agents. Planned

Look in

Pick the row with ↑ and ↓, then press Enter. The agent’s own screen moves into the space on the right, live, and what you type goes to the agent.

Press Ctrl+] to go back to the list. Space shows a row but keeps you in the list, and clicking a row does what Enter does.

One agent shows at a time. The others keep working out of sight.

Answer an agent that needs you

When the agent asks which city, its row turns red, and the line under the list reads something like asks: Which city do you live in? The agent picks its own words.

Pick the row, press Enter, and answer on the agent’s screen as you would without Irie. When the agent carries on, its row goes back to working.

If the agent asks in plain words and stops instead, its row shows done. Look in and answer it the same way.

Rows also turn red when an agent wants your go-ahead for a step, such as needs permission: Bash · rm -rf build, wants a plan approved, or hits a problem such as a usage limit. Each one, and what to do.

See it finish

When the agent finishes, its row shows a green ✓: done, and you haven’t looked yet. Once you show it, the mark turns to ○, idle.

The agent is still there, waiting. To give it more to do, show it and type.

To see done rows in red too, like rows that need you, set ui.red_on_done.

Close the window

Close the terminal window whenever you like: your agents keep working inside tmux. Run irie again, and they’re all where you left them.

There’s no key to quit Irie, and tmux’s own keys are switched off inside it. To stop every agent at once, see Remove it.