Section 1

1.Overview

Parallel agents — each one gets its own PTY, running zerostack --parallel under the hood
Live status tracking — see at a glance who’s working [~], done [✓], dead [X], or waiting [ ], with per-agent timers
Drop into any agent — hit Enter to see its full terminal output, keystrokes pass straight through
Status signals — listens for start/stop over Unix sockets, so timers stay accurate across headless loop iterations
Git worktree per agent — branch-per-task workflow, spawned with a single keypress
Projects — group agents by directory, jump between headers with PageUp/PageDown
lazygit & shell — open lazygit or $SHELL in the agent worktree without leaving the TUI
Desktop notifications — finished agents and git conflicts notify you even when you look away

multistack banner — Figure 1 — multistack, running parallel zerostack agents.

Section 2

2.Other Projects

From the same author — the agent that multistack manages:

zerostack → Minimal AI coding agent for the terminal, written in Rust Sandboxed execution · granular permissions · MCP support · session rewind

Section 3

3.Live Status

Every agent reports its lifecycle over a Unix socket — the list stays accurate even while agents iterate headlessly:

Indicator	State	Meaning
`[ ]`	waiting	Spawned, no work observed yet
`[~]`	working	Agent is running — the timer accrues
`[✓]`	finished	Agent completed — desktop notification fired
`[X]`	dead	Process exited
`[!]`	git-conflict	Needs your attention — resolve the git conflict

Timers freeze the moment an agent stops or conflicts, so the displayed time is time actually worked. Press Esc twice to quit while conflicts are pending.

Section 4

4.Keybindings

Agent list (normal mode)

Key	Action
`n`	Spawn new agent — prompts for a name, creates a git worktree
`N`	Spawn new agent in parallel mode — no prompt, jumps straight to TTY
`m`	Spawn bare agent — no worktree, no `--parallel`, jumps to TTY
`p`	Add project — opens directory picker
`l`	Remove project and all its agents
`h`	Open `lazygit` in the project (or agent worktree) directory
`s`	Open `$SHELL` in the project (or agent worktree) directory
`r`	Rename selected agent
`d`	Delete (kill) selected agent
`Enter`	Drop into the selected agent’s TTY
`↑` / `↓`	Move selection
`PgUp` / `PgDn`	Jump to previous / next project header
`q` / `Esc`	Quit (Esc twice if agents have git conflicts)

TTY view (agent / lazygit / shell)

Esc — Return to agent list

all other keys — Forwarded to the underlying process

Prompt (new agent / rename / new project)

Enter — Confirm

Esc — Cancel

Backspace — Delete last character

printable chars — Append to input

Directory picker

Enter — Add selected directory as a project

Esc — Cancel, return to agent list

/ — Filter directories (type to narrow, Esc to clear)

all other keys — Navigate the file tree

Section 5

5.Documentation

README.md — Installation, keybindings, and requirements
ARCHITECTURE.md — Project architecture and design decisions
STATUS_SIGNAL.md — Agent↔UI status socket protocol

Section 6

6.Quick Start

# Homebrew (recommended — zerostack installed automatically)
brew tap gi-dellav/tap
brew trust gi-dellav/tap   # required for Homebrew 6.0.0+
brew install multistack

# Launch the TUI
multistack

# p — add your project, n — spawn an agent,
# Enter — drop into its TTY, Esc — back to the list

You need zerostack on your PATH, plus a recent Rust toolchain.

Section 7

7.Requirements

Linux / BSD / macOS — uses Unix domain sockets and PTYs
zerostack v1.5+ — built with the status-signals feature (default from v1.5)
Rust 1.85+ — 2024 edition

Section 8

8.License

GPL-3.0-only