Show HN: Baton – A desktop app for developing with AI agents
agents claude gemini
| Source: HN | Original article
A new open‑source tool called **Baton** landed on Hacker News on Tuesday, promising to tidy the chaos that many developers face when juggling multiple AI‑driven coding assistants. The desktop application lets users launch Claude Code, Gemini, Codex and other terminal‑based agents side‑by‑side, each in its own Git‑isolated worktree. By keeping every agent’s changes in a separate branch‑like sandbox, Baton eliminates merge conflicts and lets developers switch between tasks without opening a dozen IDE windows.
The launch builds on the momentum of earlier community projects such as the real‑time dashboard for Claude Code teams we covered on 1 April 2026. While that dashboard visualised agent activity, Baton goes a step further by providing a unified control plane for the agents themselves. The app runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and its UI aggregates console output, file diffs and Git status in a single pane, turning what was previously a patchwork of terminal tabs into a coherent workflow.
Why it matters is twofold. First, as AI coding agents become mainstream—evidenced by recent releases of Claude Code and Codex CLI integrations—developers need reliable orchestration to avoid the “agent‑overload” problem that can slow down shipping. Second, Baton’s worktree‑based isolation mirrors best‑practice Git workflows, reducing the risk of accidental code overwrites and making rollbacks straightforward. If the tool gains traction, it could set a de‑facto standard for multi‑agent development environments, nudging IDE vendors to embed similar capabilities.
What to watch next includes Baton’s roadmap for native plug‑ins with Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs, as well as potential enterprise extensions that add role‑based access controls and audit logs. Security analysts will also be keen to see how the app handles credential storage for agents that need API keys. Early adopters are already posting benchmarks on Product Hunt, so the coming weeks should reveal whether Baton can move from a niche utility to a staple in the AI‑augmented developer toolkit.
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