Install

c9watch comes in two forms: a desktop app with a full GUI dashboard, and a standalone CLI for scriptable session management.

Desktop app (macOS)

Quick install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/minchenlee/c9watch/main/install.sh | bash

This script downloads the latest .dmg from GitHub Releases, installs c9watch.app to /Applications, and symlinks the CLI to ~/.local/bin/c9watch. Both the desktop dashboard and CLI commands (c9watch list, c9watch view, etc.) work out of the box.

Download manually

Grab the latest .dmg from the Releases page. Open the .dmg and drag c9watch to your Applications folder.

To also use the CLI, symlink the bundled binary:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
ln -s /Applications/c9watch.app/Contents/MacOS/c9watch ~/.local/bin/c9watch

On first launch, macOS may show a security warning because the app is not notarized by Apple. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click “Open Anyway”.

CLI only (macOS & Linux)

The CLI is a standalone Rust binary with no GUI dependencies. It lets coding agents (or you) query and manage Claude Code sessions from the command line with JSON output.

Quick install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/minchenlee/c9watch/main/install-cli.sh | bash

Installs to ~/.local/bin by default. Use | bash -s -- --global to install to /usr/local/bin instead.

Manual download

Download the c9watch-cli-* tarball for your platform from GitHub Releases, extract it, and place the c9watch binary on your $PATH.

Available targets: aarch64-apple-darwin, x86_64-apple-darwin, x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.

Build from source

If you want to build c9watch yourself or contribute to development, you can build from source.

Prerequisites

Rust — install via curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
Node.js (v18+) — install via nvm or the official installer (desktop app only)
Tauri CLI — install via cargo install tauri-cli (desktop app only)

Desktop app

git clone https://github.com/minchenlee/c9watch.git
cd c9watch
npm install
npm run tauri build

The built .app will be in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/macos/. You can drag it to your Applications folder or run it directly.

CLI only

No Node.js or Tauri CLI needed:

git clone https://github.com/minchenlee/c9watch.git
cd c9watch/src-tauri
cargo build --release --no-default-features --features cli

The binary will be at target/release/c9watch.

Development mode

For local development with hot-reload:

npm install
npm run tauri dev

This starts both the Vite dev server (hot-reload for the Svelte frontend) and the Tauri Rust backend. Changes to .svelte files are reflected instantly. Rust changes trigger a recompile.

Demo mode

Press Cmd+D to toggle demo mode, which loads simulated sessions with animated status transitions. Useful for exploring the UI without running real Claude Code sessions.

Auto-updates

c9watch checks for updates automatically using the Tauri updater plugin. When a new version is available, you’ll see an update notification in the app.

System requirements

OS: macOS 12 (Monterey) or later
Architecture: Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) and Intel
Claude Code: Must be installed and running separately — c9watch monitors it, doesn’t include it