Grove

What is Grove?

Grove is a specialized development utility designed to bridge the gap between remote AI coding assistance (specifically Claude Code) and local development workflows. It provides a native, beautiful macOS experience for tracking, managing, and organizing your AI-assisted coding tasks. The core purpose of Grove is to ensure you can initiate, monitor, and manage sessions started with AI tools like Claude Code, even when you are away from your primary workstation, offering unparalleled flexibility for modern, distributed development.

By integrating session management with essential version control features like Git worktrees, Grove transforms how developers interact with their AI coding partners. It ensures that progress is tracked, context switching is seamless, and you maintain full control over your repositories, whether you are on your Mac or checking status from your phone. It s built for developers who leverage AI for productivity but require robust, local tooling to manage the resulting code.

Key Features

• Remote Claude Code Session Monitoring: Start and track the progress of your Claude Code sessions directly from the Grove application, allowing you to check status remotely from your phone.
• Native macOS Experience: A beautifully designed, native application built specifically for the Mac ecosystem, ensuring high performance and integration with the operating system.
• Git Worktree Management: Effortlessly create, switch between, and manage Git worktrees without interrupting active coding processes or running sessions. This feature keeps your local environment organized across multiple tasks.
• Cross-Device Accessibility: While the primary app is for Mac, the architecture supports remote monitoring, with an iOS app anticipated soon, enabling you to view progress and manage tasks from your phone.
• Secure Remote Access: Utilizes Tailscale Funnel to provide secure HTTPS access to your local server, eliminating the need for complex port forwarding or insecure external access methods.
• Transparent, One-Time Pricing: The server component is free and open-source. The desktop and mobile applications require only a single, one-time purchase, avoiding recurring subscription fees.

How to Use Grove

Getting started with Grove involves setting up a local server component that communicates with your AI coding environment and then connecting your client applications.

1. Install the Server: The first step is installing the open-source server component on your primary Mac machine. This is easily done via Homebrew: brew tap henrypldev/grove && brew install grove.
2. Secure Connection Setup: Configure secure remote access using Tailscale Funnel. This step establishes a secure HTTPS tunnel to your local server, allowing you to connect safely from external networks (like your phone).
3. Connect the App: Download the Grove application for your Mac (and eventually iOS/iPad). Once installed, connect the app to your locally running server using the secure connection established in step 2. You can then begin monitoring active Claude Code sessions, managing your repository worktrees, and tracking overall development progress.

This setup ensures that your development environment remains secure while granting you the flexibility to manage tasks from anywhere.

Use Cases

1. Hybrid Work Environments: Developers splitting time between the office and home can ensure their AI coding tasks initiated at one location are visible and manageable from the other, maintaining momentum without constant context switching.
2. On-the-Go Project Oversight: Project managers or lead developers can quickly check the status of complex AI-driven feature implementations on their mobile devices, providing timely feedback without needing to log into a full development environment.
3. Multi-Tasking with Large Repositories: When working on a large codebase requiring multiple feature branches or experiments, Grove s Git worktree management allows developers to rapidly context-switch between isolated tasks without complex Git commands or repository duplication.
4. Secure Remote Development Management: For users who prefer not to expose development ports publicly, Grove s reliance on Tailscale Funnel provides a secure, private channel for remote monitoring, ideal for sensitive or proprietary projects.
5. AI-Assisted Prototyping: Rapidly iterate on prototypes by launching multiple Claude Code sessions and using Grove to track which session is yielding the best results, keeping the entire process organized and visible.

FAQ

Q: Is Grove compatible with AI tools other than Claude Code? A: Grove is specifically built and optimized for managing Claude Code sessions. While the Git worktree management is universally useful, session monitoring functionality is tailored to the specific integration points of Claude Code.

Q: What is the pricing model for Grove? A: The server component and CLI are entirely free and open source. The desktop (Mac) and future mobile applications are available for a single, one-time purchase fee ($14.99 recommended for power users), with all future updates included. There are absolutely no recurring subscriptions.

Q: Do I need Tailscale installed to use Grove? A: Yes, Tailscale is required to establish the secure HTTPS connection (via Funnel) that allows you to monitor your server remotely from other devices, such as your phone. It ensures secure, zero-configuration access.

Q: What operating systems are supported? A: Currently, the primary application is a native experience for macOS. An iOS/iPadOS application is listed as 'Coming Soon,' expanding mobile capabilities.

Q: Can I manage more than two active sessions on the Free tier? A: The Free tier is limited to 2 active sessions. If you require more concurrent session tracking, you will need to upgrade to the Recommended tier, which offers unlimited sessions.