The interface

The window at a glance

The window has five zones:

• the title bar, at the top: the project tabs and a few buttons;
• the sidebar, on the left: the agents of the project on screen, the project’s launch commands and its terminals;
• the main area, in the middle: the conversation of the chosen agent, or another view of the project (Kanban, editor, terminal, log of a launch command);
• the side panel, on the right, when it is open: the uncommitted files and the git history;
• the status bar, at the bottom: the active agents, the quotas, today’s cost and the branch.

The window opens at 1440 × 900 and never goes below 1000 × 600. Escouade remembers its size and position from one launch to the next.

Short messages (a confirmation, an error) appear at the bottom right, above the status bar, and go away by themselves: after 3.5 seconds, 7 seconds for an error, 12 for a message that carries a button.

Closing the window does not quit Escouade and does not stop the agents: the window goes away to the notification area (the menu bar on macOS). A click on the icon, “Show” in its menu, or starting Escouade a second time brings it back. “Quit” in the icon’s menu stops the application; if files in the editor are not saved, the window comes back first and asks “Quit Escouade?” (“Quit anyway” button). The icon’s tooltip says how many agents are waiting for an answer.

The title bar and the project tabs

From left to right: the logo, the “Overview” button, one tab per project followed by the + button (“Add a project”), then “Editor” (when a project is on screen) and “Stats”. On Windows and Linux, Escouade draws the window buttons itself (“Minimize”, “Maximize” or “Restore”, “Close”). The empty parts of the bar move the window.

A project tab

A tab shows a square in the project’s color, its name, then signs that only appear when they apply:

A tab’s tooltip also gives the path of the project’s folder.

• A click shows the project. Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 show project n.
• Drag a tab to change the order of the projects; the order is kept.
• A right click, or a middle click, opens the project’s menu:

The bar’s buttons

• “Overview” (Ctrl+Shift+A) shows the agents of all projects on one page; the same button, or the same shortcut, closes it. See keeping track of agents.
• “Editor” opens the editor on the project’s folder (“Browse and edit the project’s files”). See the editor.
• “Stats” shows the usage statistics. See statistics.

The sidebar

Agents and Kanban

At the top, a two-button switch: “Agents” shows an agent’s conversation, “Kanban” the project’s board of tickets. When tickets are waiting for your test, a badge on “Kanban” gives their number (“N to review”). See the Kanban.

The list of agents

The “Agents” header carries the number of agents in the project and the “+ New agent” button (Ctrl+N). The ▾ arrow to its right opens “New agent on a branch…”. With no agent, the list says “No agents.” with a “Create an agent” button.

Each agent is a card:

• its name (double-click to rename it in place: Enter confirms, Esc cancels), a waves icon when remote control is on (blue once connected), and its status;
• what the agent says it is doing, when it said so through the MCP server;
• its model, the time it has worked and, if it has a worktree, its branch (⎇ …);
• its tokens, its cost (preceded by “≈” while a turn is running: it is then an estimate) and the number of its changed files (“N files”);
• a “Plan 2/7” mini bar when the agent follows a plan (see plan progress);
• for a ticket’s agent, a tag ▸ DEM-3 · loop 1/5, or ▸ DEM-3 · to review.

A click on a card shows the agent. Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab go to the project’s next or previous agent, skipping archived ones.

The statuses and their colors

In place of the status, the card can say “Setting up…” (the agent’s worktree is being prepared) or “Resumes” followed by a time (the agent, stopped by the usage limit, then resumes by itself), in amber.

A card whose agent asked a question, finished or failed while it was not on screen blinks, in amber, green or red, until you open it. Ctrl+J goes to the next agent that is waiting for your answer or needs a look.

An agent’s menu

A right click on a card opens its menu:

Archived agents are under “Archived (N)”, a title you unfold with a click; their card only shows the name and the cost.

Launch

The “Launch” section lists the project’s launch commands (development server, watchers…) with their state. ▶ runs a command, ⟳ restarts it, ■ stops it; “Run all” and “Stop all” act on all of them. A click on a command shows its log in the main area. The gear opens “Launch commands…”; with no command, “Configure” opens their settings and “✦ Suggest commands” lets Claude suggest some. See running the project.

Terminals

The “Terminals” section lists the project’s open terminals. The + button (“New terminal”) offers the shells detected on the machine, and Ctrl+T opens one right away. A click on a terminal shows it in the main area, the × closes it, and a terminal whose shell stopped is marked “exited”. See terminals.

The foot of the sidebar

The foot recalls the project’s folder, its git branch and the count of its changed files: ~N modified, +N added, −N deleted (or “No git repository”). The “Browse” button opens the editor on the project’s folder.

The header and the conversation

The header of an agent’s conversation shows, from left to right:

Under the header, the conversation shows your messages, Claude’s replies in markdown, its foldable reasoning, its tool calls as compact rows you can unfold, the cards for questions and permissions, and a line or a card at the end of each turn. When the agent follows a plan, a “Plan” banner sits between the header and the messages: see plan progress. A long conversation only shows its latest 80 items: “Show the previous N messages” adds more. If new messages arrive while you read higher up, the “↓ New messages” button takes you back down. Ctrl+K searches the conversations.

The message field is at the bottom: its “Model”, “Effort” and “Mode” menus, the paperclip, “Send”, and “■ Stop” during a turn. An archived agent shows “Agent archived.” instead, with a “Restore” button. An agent in error says so (“The agent stopped.”): a new message restarts Claude on the same session. See the conversation and agents.

The side panel

The side panel has two tabs: “Uncommitted”, followed by the number of files, and “History”.

Uncommitted

• The “This agent” and “Whole project” selector chooses the scope of the list. Under it, a line says where the files come from: the agent’s worktree (“isolated from the other agents”), its edits, or all the project’s agents.
• Each row is a file: its letter (M, A or D), its name, its folder, its added and removed lines, and for “Whole project” the agent’s name. The </> button of a row opens the file in the editor. A right click offers “Open in editor” then, according to the file’s letter, “Discard changes…” (M) or “Delete the file…” (A), always after a confirmation, or “Restore the file” (D).
• At the bottom: “Show diff”, “Commit…” (“Commit all…” for “Whole project”) and, for an agent in a worktree, “Merge … → …” and “Integrate …”.

The list only shows 500 files; the diff and the commit take all of them. See Git and commits.

History

The “History” tab shows the git graph of the whole repository, with the agent’s branch highlighted. A click on a commit opens its diff; a right click offers actions on branches. See branches.

The two layouts

You choose with the two buttons to the right of the header, “Classic layout” and “Conversation and files side by side”, or with Ctrl+Shift+L. Escouade keeps your choice from one launch to the next.

When the conversation is narrow, which happens in the side-by-side layout, the header first drops “Tokens” and “Duration” as well as the text of its buttons, then “Cost” and “Files”. The cards of the sidebar show the same figures.

The status bar

From left to right:

See quotas and cost and branches.

The settings

Ctrl+, or the ⚙ button of the status bar opens the settings window: the tabs on the left, the content on the right. A modified tab is marked; “Save” saves all the tabs at once, and “Cancel” (or Esc) closes the window without saving. The “Claude accounts” tab is the exception: it saves at each change. The “Projects”, “Kanban” and “Integrations” tabs set one project at a time, chosen at the top; “Project settings…” in a project tab’s menu opens the window on that project.

On macOS

• Native title bar. macOS draws the window buttons itself (red, yellow, green) at the left of the title bar, before the tabs; Escouade doesn’t show its own. The red button puts the window away in the menu bar, as on Windows and Linux, and ⌘Q or “Quit Escouade” stops the application.
• ⌘ instead of Ctrl. Every shortcut of this page uses ⌘ (⌘N, ⌘,, ⌘K, ⇧⌘L…), except Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab, because ⌘Tab switches applications. In terminals, ⌘C and ⌘V copy and paste, and the Ctrl keys go to the shell.
• Menu bar. Escouade has its macOS menus: its own (“About Escouade”, “Hide Escouade”, “Quit Escouade”…), “Edit”, “View”, “Window” and “Help”, in the interface language.
• Notifications. The Dock icon bounces when an agent needs you, where the taskbar flashes on Windows. See notifications.