Aside: Fleetwide AI Chat
Aside is a macOS menu bar app that lets developers ask questions about their coding agents' work through a separate side chat, without interrupting the agents. It reads local transcripts from Codex, Claude Code, and Pi, providing a read-only second conversation layer, with local search and Ollama support.
A side chat for your coding agents
Ask about the work. Don't interrupt it.
Aside finds the Codex, Claude Code, and Pi threads already on your Mac. Pick one and ask a separate model what changed, why it chose that path, or what it needs next.
Download for Mac ↗Intel Mac
Preview for macOS · Signed and notarized
Aside
Needs you
Two threads are waiting.
X
Prepare the release“Can I restart the signed app now?”
now
C
Review the migration“Which rollback path should I use?”
4m
Ask across all agents…ChatGPT · fleet
Your agents already run in parallel.
Your attention doesn't.
The useful layer beside the work
Dashboards show status. Aside lets you ask why.
It does not launch agents, steer them, or merge their context. It reads the transcripts they already keep and gives you a second conversation about the work.
01
Search the work, not just the title
Find the thread from what happened inside it.
Search prompts, agent replies, commands, file paths, failures, and Aside side chats across Codex, Claude Code, and Pi—even older work. The index stays on your Mac.
Subagent work stays attached: Codex and Claude Code subagents fold beneath the task that spawned them, with a transcript and side chat of their own.
⌕ Railway auto-deploy
⌄atlas2 results
Prepare the releaseagent reply
Fix the deploymentcommand
›Older Threads12
02
Start with the one that needs you
Questions rise above activity.
Direct input requests and likely questions move to the top. When a live session starts waiting, Aside can send a Mac notification.
a
Asidenow
atlas needs youPrepare the release is waiting for your approval.
03
One session. One side chat.
The second conversation persists.
Every discovered session keeps its own conversation and model choice. Close Aside, switch projects, and continue where you stopped.
What needs me right now?Asked now
Why did this thread change the schema?Try this
What changed while I was away?Try this
Which session is failing tests?Try this
Observer, never operator
Read-only is a boundary, not a slogan.
Aside can read supported agent transcripts and ask an observer model about them. It cannot send a message to an agent, edit a project, or run a command.
01
Search and history stay on this Mac.
The searchable index, thread list, and every side chat are stored locally with user-only permissions. Search queries never leave your machine.
02
Cloud context is scoped.
A session chat sends only that session to the model you chose. Common credential patterns are redacted first.
03
Your login stays with the vendor.
Aside delegates replies to Codex or Claude Code. It never reads their OAuth tokens or imports API keys from your shell.
o
Need transcript context to stay entirely local?
Choose an installed Ollama model for that side chat.
A native Mac utility
Install once. Keep working.
Drag Aside to Applications and open it. It lives in your menu bar, stays out of the Dock, and downloads future signed updates inside the app.
Download for Mac ↗Intel Mac
Reads sessions from
X CodexC Claude Codeπ Pi
Open source · MIT
Aside is open source.
Aside reads local agent transcripts, so the code that does it is public. Read the source, build the app yourself, report an issue, or send a patch.
View the source on GitHub ↗
Before you install
Straight answers.
Does Aside control my coding agents? +
No. Aside is a read-only observer. It cannot message an agent, edit your project, or run commands.
Does everything stay local? +
Your thread and content-search indexes, plus side-chat history, do. When you choose a cloud model, Aside sends scoped, redacted transcript context to that provider. Choose Ollama to keep model context local.
Do I need separate API keys? +
No. Aside can use the ChatGPT account already connected through Codex or the Claude account connected through Claude Code. It does not copy their credentials.
Which agents are supported? +
Aside currently discovers Codex, Claude Code, and Pi transcripts stored on your Mac.
How do updates work? +
After the first signed install, Aside downloads future signed updates inside the app and asks you to restart when one is ready.
Aside for macOS
Know what needs you.
Then ask why.
Download for Mac ↗Intel Mac