Heeler

A native iOS companion app for herdr — an agent-first terminal runtime.

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Heeler is an agent console: a native dashboard of every coding agent running on your machines, sorted by who needs you. Open an Agent to read and steer its live terminal, draft with the full iOS keyboard in a native Composer, and Send the complete message once — all over plain SSH.

Screenshots

Agent Console	Direct Input + Terminal keyboard	Live terminal

Changes	File diff	Terminals

Skills	Hosts	Live Activity

View iPad screenshots

Features

• Console — every Agent on every machine in one status-sorted list (Blocked first), filterable by Host, updated live.
• Attach — the Agent's real terminal rendered by libghostty: native scrollback, momentum touch scrolling that also drives full-screen TUIs, long-press selection, takeover of a stale terminal owner, and quietly collected web links to open later.
• Composer — draft locally with the full iOS keyboard (autocorrect, IME, dictation), then Send once; the tools keyboard adds Agent control keys, Agent Skills, reusable Snippets, and terminal appearance.
• Terminal — open a plain shell in the Agent's directory, with Text and Keys modes and one reused tab per Workspace.
• Attachments — stage a photo or a file up to 64 MiB onto the Host over SFTP and insert its path into the draft.
• QR pairing — scan a Pairing Code to add a machine; keys are generated on device, private keys stay in the Keychain, and the code pins the host key fingerprint.
• Notifications + Live Activities — end-to-end encrypted pushes when an Agent goes Blocked or Done, and a lock-screen / Dynamic Island banner tracking Agents in real time; the relay can never read the content (PRIVACY.md).
• Worktrees — start an Agent on a clean checkout of the workspace's repo.
• Appearance — System, Light, or Dark; 30 terminal themes with separate Light and Dark slots; bundled JetBrains Mono and IBM Plex Mono; pinch to zoom.
• Jump Host — reach unroutable machines through an SSH jump, with keys verified at both hops.

How it connects

On macOS and Linux Hosts, Heeler speaks herdr's JSON API over SSH: each request opens a direct-streamlocal channel onto herdr.sock, one long-lived channel carries the event stream, and interactive terminals run herdr agent attach --takeover on an SSH PTY. The only prerequisites are SSH access and a running herdr — no server changes, no extra packages. The SSH server must allow stream-local forwarding (the OpenSSH default); onboarding calls it out when it's disabled.

Native Windows Hosts (herdr >= 0.9.3) connect over SSH and are added manually.

For Tailscale, ZeroTier, or EasyTier access, follow the Overlay Network setup guides. They cover macOS installation, Tailscale without a VPN on the Mac, Heeler configuration, and connection checks. Heeler joins these networks inside the app without an iOS VPN configuration; you need a Heeler version with Settings > Overlay Networks.

View the Heeler setup screenshots for Tailscale, ZeroTier, and both EasyTier modes.

Unroutable machines can sit behind an SSH Jump Host:

• Set up remote access step by step
• Architecture, security boundaries, and the VPS runbook

A Host can have several routes, such as its LAN address at home and an overlay network or Jump Host elsewhere: Reach a Host on several routes.

Installation

Install Heeler from the App Store or TestFlight.

• macOS / Linux: Install herdr, enable SSH, then follow the pairing steps below.
• Native Windows: Follow the Windows setup guide.

Adding a machine

On a macOS or Linux machine running herdr (Node >= 20, herdr >= 0.7.5, OpenSSH server on — macOS: System Settings > General > Sharing > Remote Login):

herdr plugin install ZingerLittleBee/Heeler/plugin --ref main --yes
herdr plugin action invoke heeler.pair

Scan the Pairing Code QR it shows and the machine is added as a Host — the code carries the addresses, the host key fingerprint, and SSH key enrollment. The same plugin delivers the encrypted notifications once you enable them for the Host in the app.

Opening an Agent from another app

Another app can open an Agent in Heeler with a link:

heeler://agent?host=my-mac&session=work&pane=w1%3Ap1

• host names a saved Host on that session: its address, or its name when no Host on the session has that address. Case is ignored.
• session is the herdr session name. Leave it out, or pass default, for the default session.
• pane is herdr's pane id. Leave it out to open the Console.

Percent-encode each value, with %20 for a space: a + stays a plus sign, so form encoding (such as JavaScript's URLSearchParams) misses a name like Build Box. When no saved Host on that session matches, or more than one does, the link opens the Console.

Stack

• SwiftUI, iOS 18+, iPhone and iPad. iPad support is restored in 0.1.8 with Magic Keyboard shortcuts, multiwindow, and drag and drop.
• The repository-local Packages/HeelerSSH (libssh2 + OpenSSL) for SSH
• libghostty-spm for terminal emulation and Metal rendering

See docs/adr/ for why — the transport story in particular is not obvious.

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for layout, build/test, and conventions.

Status

Released on the App Store. It is not yet available in every country or region; where it is missing, the TestFlight build stays available. Built for personal use first and shaped by daily driving, so expect rough edges and fast iteration. Not affiliated with the herdr project.