Loxel
GitHub

Introduction

Loxel is an IDE for directing AI agents across parallel workstreams. It combines git management, code review, a built-in coding agent, terminals, a markdown editor with embedded data widgets, an Excalidraw canvas, a browser panel, and TypeScript intelligence — all in a single interface built around fast context switching. If you’re running multiple agents at once, each on its own branch, each mid-task, loxel gives you the visibility and layout flexibility to keep everything moving.

Parallel workstreams

The core workflow: create a worktree per task, hand it to an agent, switch to something else while it runs. Loxel treats the worktree as the unit of focus — each one has its own panel layout, open files, and agent sessions. Switch worktrees with and your previous context is waiting exactly as you left it.

Running three or four agents in parallel requires visibility into what each one is doing, review tooling that survives repeated rewrites, and context switching that doesn’t cost you 30 seconds of layout reconstruction. That’s the problem loxel is built to solve.

Planning and visibility

Loxel ships with two planning tools that live in the same layout as your code and terminals.

The Excalidraw canvas () gives you a drawing surface for architecture diagrams, flow sketches, and rough planning. No separate app, no copy-pasting screenshots — just another panel.

The markdown editor () supports embedded data widgets via the :::localdb directive. Insert a Table, Kanban, Calendar, Gantt, Graph, or Form view directly in any document — task tracking, decision logs, sprint boards. These widgets are backed by a per-project SQLite database and update in real time across open editors. Add one via the block menu: Data > Database Widget.

Drafts live outside the repo until you’re ready to commit them. Drag a file from the Detached section into any project folder and loxel moves it into the repo, no editor disruption.

Flexible layout

Loxel’s panel system lets you place any panel wherever it fits your workflow — side by side, stacked, in its own group. That goes for agents too.

The built-in coding agent has a dedicated timeline UI: user messages, assistant responses, reasoning blocks, tool calls, and plan steps all visible at once. It connects to OpenRouter; configure it with OPENROUTER_API_KEY.

If you prefer a TUI agent — Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, or anything else that runs in a terminal — open one in a loxel terminal with and run it there. Both workflows coexist. Put a coding agent panel next to your editor, or run two TUI agents in split terminals. Layout is yours to configure.

Press to open a full browser panel. It’s a Chromium webview running inside loxel — use it to view your local dev server, browse GitHub, or read a tutorial. Works like any other panel: drag it next to a coding agent, split it below your editor, or pop it into its own group. From a loxel terminal, loxel https://example.com opens any URL directly in this panel.

Git and code review

The git panel shows an interactive commit graph with multi-select, branch filtering, author filtering, and date presets. Stage individual hunks, cherry-pick, reset with confirmation, and manage branches — all without leaving the IDE.

Code review is built in. Start a named review session, add comments anchored to specific lines of a diff, and loxel tracks those comments as the code changes — relocating them when code moves, marking them outdated when the lines change. Comments survive repeated agent iterations, which is exactly when you need them to.

Install and launch

Download the latest release and run the installer. Launch Loxel from your Applications folder (macOS) or app launcher.

Once Loxel is running, the loxel CLI is available inside any loxel terminal — it connects to the running instance using the LOXEL_PORT environment variable that loxel injects automatically:

loxel src/app.ts          # open a file in the active window
loxel https://example.com # open a URL in the browser panel

Note: The loxel CLI is not yet added to your system PATH by the installer, so it only works from inside a loxel terminal for now. To follow progress on bundling the CLI and PATH setup, see issue #885.

Note: macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux (x64) are currently supported. For Windows support, see issue #886.

What’s in the docs