cc-copilot 0.16.0

Read-only shadow-memory sidecar for coding agents: faithful, evidence-cited recap + safety judgment + grounded chat.

CC-Copilot

CC-Copilot helps you stay aligned with AI coding agents.

Cockpit is the primary TUI experience: a live supervision layer for ongoing agentic work, shared context, and next decisions.

Ask questions across one session, selected sessions, or an entire project without injecting supervision chatter into the main Claude Code or Codex workflow.

Quick Start

cc-copilot cockpit

The first launch greets you with a one-time welcome screen to pick the model that powers recaps, chat, and since — Claude or Codex (uses the agent's own login, no API key) or an API provider (OpenAI / DeepSeek / OpenRouter, key captured inline). It only shows once; reopen it anytime with /init, or run cc-copilot init in a plain terminal (handy over SSH). The deterministic core (brief / check / observe) needs no model at all.

Inside Cockpit:

/sessions   choose one or more agent sessions (incl. your own live session)
/here       observe the session you're running inside of
/observe    attention queue and next human decision
/since      recap since you last looked (or 30m / 2h; --raw = cited delta)
/handoff    shareable Markdown handoff (brief + what changed)
/brief      deterministic recap with citations
/check      safety / off-track verdict
/diff       changes since last turn
/model      choose backend/model
/init       reopen the model picker (Claude / Codex / an API key)
/resume     resume a Cockpit Session

Install

One command, no clone — install it as an isolated tool:

uv tool install "cc-copilot[tui]"      # recommended (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/)
# or
pipx install "cc-copilot[tui]"

Then:

cc-copilot cockpit

Or run it without installing anything:

uvx --from "cc-copilot[tui]" cc-copilot cockpit

Requirements: Python 3.9+. The CLI core is dependency-free; the Cockpit TUI pulls in the optional [tui] extra (Textual) — drop it (cc-copilot instead of cc-copilot[tui]) if you only want the command-line briefs.

plain pip / from source

pip install "cc-copilot[tui]"                         # from PyPI
# from a clone (development):
pip install -e ".[tui]"

On fresh Debian/Ubuntu servers pipx/venv may need:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y python3-venv python3-pip pipx

Why CC-Copilot

Past copilots reduced the cognitive burden of understanding code.

Agentic coding creates a new burden: understanding what agents are doing over time. Long-running Claude Code, Codex, and multi-agent workflows produce continuous context, decisions, tool calls, errors, and partial progress.

CC-Copilot gives humans a separate supervision layer. You can inspect, ask, compare, and realign without interrupting the working agent or forcing yourself to reconstruct context manually.

What Makes It Different

1. Read-only supervision CC-Copilot observes agent transcripts and project context without editing files, issuing agent actions, or interfering with the working agent.

2. Separate Cockpit workflow Ask supervision questions outside the main agent conversation, so the agent's working context stays clean.

3. Evidence-grounded answers Answers are grounded in transcript lines, tool results, project facts, git state, and file evidence.

4. Multi-session awareness Follow one session, selected sessions, or an entire project from one interface.

5. Attention-first UI Cockpit surfaces status, risk, progress, and the next human decision instead of forcing you to read the whole transcript.

6. Model-flexible Use Codex, Claude, OpenAI-compatible APIs, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Ollama, Gemini, or custom CLI backends.

7. Terminal-native Keyboard-first TUI with mouse support, designed for side-window and CMUX-style workflows.

8. Resumable Cockpit Sessions Your supervision conversation is independent from the agent session and can be resumed later.

Usage

cc-copilot cockpit                 # open the TUI
cc-copilot sessions                # list project sessions
cc-copilot status                  # fleet board, neediest first
cc-copilot observe                 # attention queue
cc-copilot brief                   # deterministic recap
cc-copilot check                   # safety verdict
cc-copilot since                   # grounded LLM recap since you last looked
cc-copilot since 30m               # …or within a time window
cc-copilot since --raw             # the deterministic cited delta, no model call
cc-copilot handoff --out h.md      # shareable Markdown handoff
cc-copilot watch --notify          # desktop alert when the agent needs you
cc-copilot ask "what changed?"     # one-shot grounded Q&A
cc-copilot chat                    # plain terminal chat mode
cc-copilot resume                  # resumable Cockpit Sessions

Scope options:

cc-copilot cockpit                 # one agent session by default
cc-copilot cockpit --scope multi   # selected/all sessions in this project
cc-copilot cockpit --scope project # project-level evidence context

cc-copilot ask --scope multi --scope-sessions a1b2c3d4,b5c53c29 "compare these"
cc-copilot observe --scope project

Session discovery spans every coding agent with sessions on this machine:

${CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR:-~/.claude}/projects/<encoded-cwd>/<session>.jsonl   # Claude Code
${CODEX_HOME:-~/.codex}/sessions/YYYY/MM/DD/rollout-*.jsonl              # Codex

A project's sessions from both agents appear on one board, grouped by project cwd and tagged with their agent. Restrict the set with --agent claude, --agent codex, $CC_COPILOT_AGENTS, or [agents] enabled in the config.

By default, commands report on the most recent session other than the current one, so running CC-Copilot from inside a live agent session watches the agent you want to supervise. To watch your own current session instead, use --here (e.g. cc-copilot cockpit --here) or /here inside the cockpit — it is also always listed in /sessions as "your live session", even across projects. See docs/cross-model-adapters.md.

Cockpit

Cockpit is the main product surface.

It gives you:

• Status header for project, evidence range, Cockpit Session, backend, and risk.
• Live activity strip from the observed session(s).
• Attention queue and next human decision via /observe.
• Grounded chat over one session, selected sessions, or project evidence.
• Context HUD showing estimated input context, output estimate, and evidence split across raw transcript, project facts, chat, memory, and summary index.
• Background alerts when the agent stalls, errors, or goes off track.
• Checkbox session picker with [ ] / [x] multi-select.
• Resumable Cockpit Sessions via /resume.

Keyboard is primary; mouse works too. Click anywhere to return focus to the composer. Enter sends, Ctrl+J inserts a newline, / opens command suggestions, and Ctrl+P opens the command palette. Shift+↑ / Shift+↓ resize the activity timeline (the chat fills the rest); the height is remembered across launches.

While You Were Away

The hardest part of supervising long-running agents is re-entry: you stepped away, the agent kept working, and now you have to reconstruct what happened.

• since answers "what changed since I last looked" — by default a short LLM recap narrated from the deterministic, cited diff of new asks, agent messages, commands, failures, changed files, and any status/safety transition (the model sees only that cited delta and keeps its [L…] citations; --raw or no backend gives the deterministic delta itself). cc-copilot remembers where you last looked (a small marker under $CC_COPILOT_STATE_DIR, never under ~/.claude/~/.codex); the cockpit stamps it when you leave and greets you with "⟳ N new since you last looked" when you return. Or scope by time: since 30m, since 2h.
• handoff turns the current state into a shareable Markdown document — the brief plus an optional "while you were away" section — to paste into a ticket or hand to a teammate. Every line keeps its [L…] citation.
• watch --notify pings you (desktop notification, terminal-bell fallback) only when a session crosses into needing you — a fresh intervene verdict, a slide into stalled, or a new failure — so you can step away without missing the moment it actually needs a human.

All three are LLM-free and work across Claude Code and Codex sessions.

Evidence Context

v0.7 introduced the Evidence Context Engine.

For model-backed ask, chat, and Cockpit answers, CC-Copilot now retrieves primary evidence first:

• raw assistant messages
• raw human prompts
• tool calls and tool results
• cited line windows
• recent transcript tail
• selected multi-session records
• read-only project facts
• git/file evidence
• Cockpit conversation memory

Summaries still exist, but they are navigation aids and UI surfaces, not the only source of truth. See docs/evidence-context-engine.md.

Models

cc-copilot backends
cc-copilot cockpit --backend codex
cc-copilot cockpit --backend claude
cc-copilot ask "what matters next?" --backend openai --model gpt-4o

Supported backend families:

backend	authentication	notes
codex	your codex login	default; local agent CLI
claude	your Claude Code login	claude -p; no API key
gemini / llm	the CLI's own config	if installed on PATH
deepseek	DEEPSEEK_API_KEY	deepseek-v4-flash default (-chat is deprecated 2026-07-24)
openai	OPENAI_API_KEY	gpt-5.4 default
openrouter	OPENROUTER_API_KEY	any OpenRouter model
moonshot	MOONSHOT_API_KEY	Kimi (kimi-k2.6)
zai	ZAI_API_KEY	GLM (glm-5.1)
qwen	DASHSCOPE_API_KEY	Qwen via DashScope; mainland endpoint via DASHSCOPE_API_BASE
groq	GROQ_API_KEY	fast open-weights hosting
xai	XAI_API_KEY	Grok (grok-4.3)
gemini-api	GEMINI_API_KEY	Google's OpenAI-compat endpoint (≠ the gemini CLI)
ollama	none	local server at http://localhost:11434
custom	CC_COPILOT_API_BASE or CC_COPILOT_LLM_CMD	proxy/API/CLI escape hatch

Each API provider ships a small curated model list (see cc-copilot backends --models): the /model picker offers them two-level — backend, then model — and typed fast-paths work too: /model deepseek-v4-pro (model only), /model deepseek:deepseek-v4-pro (both at once), or any free-form id.

Answers stream as the model produces them (claude: token deltas; the HTTP backends: SSE; codex: whole message + exact usage), and when the backend reports exact token usage it replaces the HUD's ~ estimate — including the turn's real cost for claude. CC_COPILOT_STREAM=0 opts out of streaming.

Set defaults once — the guided way (pick a model, capture an API key):

cc-copilot init           # interactive wizard (also runs on the first cockpit launch)

Or scaffold/inspect the file directly:

cc-copilot config --init  # write a commented starter ~/.cc-copilot.toml
cc-copilot config         # show the effective backend

Example ~/.cc-copilot.toml:

backend = "codex"
# model = "..."

[history]
enabled = true

Precedence: explicit flags > environment variables > config file > built-in default.

Read-Only Contract

CC-Copilot is an observer.

It reads:

• agent transcripts
• session metadata
• read-only project facts
• git status
• cited file excerpts
• saved Cockpit conversation state

It does not:

• mutate the observed agent session
• edit project files
• run tools on behalf of the observed agent
• write under ~/.claude
• inject supervision chatter into Claude Code or Codex

Deterministic commands work without an LLM:

cc-copilot brief
cc-copilot observe
cc-copilot check
cc-copilot status

Interactive /diff is available inside Cockpit and cc-copilot chat.

LLM-backed answers receive bounded cited evidence context, not tool access or ambient repo access.

Cockpit Sessions

A Cockpit Session is separate from an agent session.

It stores:

• your supervision Q&A
• backend/model selection
• project cwd
• selected evidence sessions
• durable compacted memory for older Q&A

Changing evidence with /sessions changes what the current Cockpit reads; it does not switch to another Cockpit Session.

Saved state lives under:

${CC_COPILOT_STATE_DIR:-~/.local/state/cc-copilot}

Directories are 0700, files are 0600. Disable persistence with:

cc-copilot cockpit --no-persist

or:

[history]
enabled = false

How It Works

sources/        agent adapters: discover sessions + parse a transcript
  base.py         the AgentSource contract + registry/dispatch
  claude.py       Claude Code (~/.claude/projects/**)
  codex.py        Codex (~/.codex/sessions/**/rollout-*.jsonl)
transcript.py   the normalized record model Claude Code parses into
state.py        fold records into deterministic session state
assess.py       classify stalls, failures, retry loops, and safety signals
brief.py        render deterministic cited recaps
since.py        "what changed since you last looked" (cited diff)
lastlook.py     remember where the human last looked (per session)
handoff.py      a shareable Markdown handoff artifact
notify.py       conservative away-alerts (desktop / terminal)
observe.py      rank attention and next human decision
scope.py        collect session, multi-session, and project evidence
context.py      retrieve raw evidence for model-backed answers
store.py        persist resumable Cockpit Sessions and compacted memory
backends.py     call Codex, Claude, OpenAI-compatible APIs, Ollama, etc.
tui.py          Cockpit, the Textual TUI

Agent specifics live entirely in sources/. Each adapter supplies just two things — discovery and parse — and emits the same normalized records, so state, assessment, briefing, context, and cockpit are agent-agnostic. One cockpit can watch Claude Code and Codex sessions side by side, grouped by project. Adding another agent (Gemini CLI, Aider, …) is a new sources/ adapter, not a rewrite.

Development

git clone https://github.com/Audiofool934/cc-copilot.git
cd cc-copilot
pip install -e ".[tui]"          # editable install with the Cockpit extra

python3 -m unittest discover     # stdlib-only test suite
cc-copilot cockpit

Core tests are stdlib-only. Textual is optional and lazy-imported by Cockpit. Releases publish to PyPI automatically on a v* tag — see docs/RELEASING.md.

Roadmap

• Homebrew tap + a curl | sh one-line installer
• deeper project evidence retrieval and file ranking
• additional transcript parsers beyond Claude Code
• hook-driven push alerts for unattended runs

Rust migration is tracked separately in docs/rust-migration.md.

Philosophy

The main agent conversation should stay focused on doing the work.

Supervision is a different job: inspect what happened, compare evidence, ask what matters, preserve decisions, and decide whether to intervene. Mixing that into the working agent thread creates noise and changes the very context you are trying to observe.

CC-Copilot keeps supervision outside the main workflow. Cockpit is where the human can regain situational awareness without contaminating the agent's own conversation.