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What Argus supports

Features

Simulators, embedded browser, terminals, run commands, git workflow, VS Code editor, permissions, and organisations.

A catalogue of what Argus supports today. Each section names the surface area, what's included, and which configuration controls it.

iOS simulators

  • Boot any installed iOS Simulator runtime per-session.
  • Mirrored live in the Runtime.
  • Agents (and you) can tap, swipe, scroll, type, press hardware buttons, rotate, and trigger system gestures.
  • Per-session isolation — parallel sessions never interfere.

Enable iOS in .argus.json with "platforms": ["ios", …].

Android emulators

  • Boot any installed AVD per-session.
  • Mirrored live in the Runtime.
  • Tap, swipe, type, hardware keys.
  • Per-session isolation, like iOS.

Enable Android in .argus.json with "platforms": ["android", …].

Embedded Chromium browser

  • Chromium running inside Argus.
  • Per-session: the browser navigates to the session's allocated URL.
  • Agents can click, type, scroll, fill forms, and run JavaScript.
  • DevTools available on demand, per-session.

Enable the web platform with "platforms": ["web", …] and configure browser_url (e.g. "http://localhost:{PORT}").

Terminals

  • Real terminals, per-session, started in the session's worktree.
  • Configurable in .argus.json under terminals[] — declare a name, starting directory, and any auto-launch commands.
  • Both the agent and you can drive the same terminal.

Run commands

  • Long-running processes declared in .argus.json under run[] — typically your dev server, watcher, or build.
  • Each run command has a title, a shell command, and optional flags:
    • restartOnRerun — kill and restart on every relaunch.
    • cwd — run in a subdirectory of the worktree.
    • requires — declare dependencies on other run commands by title; any that aren't running are auto-started first.
    • prerequisites — block start until a check command passes.
  • Output is streamed live into the Runtime with ANSI colour and link detection.

See Project settings → Run commands for the full schema.

Git workflow

A real git workflow lives inside Argus:

  • Branches — create, switch, delete; sessions branch from your configured base branch automatically.
  • Worktrees — one per session; managed for you.
  • Diff viewer — file- and hunk-level, side-by-side or inline.
  • Hunk-level staging — accept individual hunks, reject others, and refine before committing.
  • Commit & amend — commit from the UI.
  • Stash — list, apply, drop.
  • Merge & rebase — Argus runs them for you and surfaces conflicts with an inline resolver.
  • Pull request — open a draft PR directly from the session.

VS Code editor

  • A real, embedded VS Code instance.
  • Extensions, multi-file edits, project-wide search, IntelliSense, the command palette — all functional.
  • The editor opens the session's worktree, so what you see is what the agent has been changing.

Permissions

  • Every tool call an agent makes asks for approval if it isn't already allow-listed.
  • Inline approval — the agent isn't halted; the prompt appears beside the tool call and the agent waits for your response.
  • "Always allow" patterns persist for the rest of the session (or until you revoke them).
  • Default permission mode is configurable in App settings: default, acceptEdits, bypassPermissions, plan.

Orchestration tree

  • Visualises agents that have spawned subagents to delegate work.
  • Live: subagent status updates in real time as they run.
  • Per-agent model swapping — change the model on a running agent mid-conversation.
  • Persisted history — long-running conversations are saved to disk and can be resumed across app restarts.

Organisations

  • Group multiple repos that ship as one product (e.g. mobile app + backend + marketing site).
  • An org host session is a neutral cross-repo agent — it can spawn child sessions inside specific member repos to coordinate changes.
  • Each member repo's agent receives organisation context: what the org does, what the sibling repos are for, and how to delegate to them.

Organisations are configured in App settings.

Onboarding

  • Tools picker — choose which device-tooling tools you want active (recording, control, debug, inspector). Turning a tool off hides its UI surfaces and disables its IPC handlers so Argus stays focused on what you use. Skippable — every tool can be toggled later in Settings → Tools.
  • Preflight — checks git, claude, and the prerequisites for the tools you picked, with one-click hints to fix anything missing. A user who picked zero tools sees only the four core checks (claude_cli, claude_auth, git_cli, git_identity).
  • .argus.json generation — Argus inspects your project and either writes a sensible default (Quick generate) or asks the claude CLI for a tailored config (Generate with Claude). Both modes show the proposed file for review before writing.

Tools

Argus's device tooling ships as opt-in tools so the base install stays lean. Each tool's assets — native bridge binaries, the conductor CLI tree, the scrcpy server — ship bundled with the app. Updating Argus updates the tool assets atomically; there are no separate tool versions or update prompts.

Tool What it adds
Device recording iOS Simulator + Android emulator screen capture in the runtime panel.
Device UI inspector View hierarchy, accessibility, and layout overlays on whatever device is connected. Builds on recording.
Device control Drive devices via conductor — taps, keyboard, deep links, navigation.
Device debug Live device log streams and one-shot probes in the Debug panel. Builds on control.

Toggle tools under Settings → Tools. A project that doesn't use any device tooling can mask tools off for the whole team via .argus.json#tools.disabled — see Project settings.

Auto-update

Argus checks for updates in the background and prompts you to relaunch when one is ready. Three release channels are available — latest (stable), beta (release candidates), and alpha (pre-releases from any branch). Stable users see only stable builds; switch channels under Settings → Advanced → Update channel (internal testers only — alpha and beta builds can break your install).

What Argus deliberately does not do

  • No cloud sync. Sessions, worktrees, and conversations live on your machine.
  • No mandatory account. You sign into the claude CLI; Argus has no account of its own.
  • Telemetry is off by default. Opt in once during onboarding (or any time from App settings). When on, Argus sends anonymous, feature-level events to PostHog along with standard SDK properties (browser/OS/screen/timezone). The raw IP is discarded post-ingestion, but city-level GeoIP is still derived from it before discard. No session replay, no DOM autocapture, no prompts, no file contents, no project names — full audit in Telemetry.
  • No proprietary editor. Argus embeds VS Code; your existing extensions and muscle memory carry over.