The manual

Short guides in reading order: install and verify the app, spawn your first session, then drive the grid: twelve cells to a deck, fifty sessions in all. Written against what the app does today.

Set up

Get the app on your Mac and spawn the first session.

Install What Helmsman needs from your Mac, and how the signed app lands in your Applications folder. Verify your download Check the signature, the notarization, and the checksum of the app yourself. First run From an empty grid to your first live Claude Code session, in five short steps.

Drive the grid

The daily loop: twelve cells, one window, your attention.

The session grid Up to twelve live sessions per deck, fifty in all. Four across and three down, all on screen at once. Focus and steer The working rhythm: scan the grid, focus the cell that needs you, steer, step back. Keyboard shortcuts Move between cells without the mouse. What is locked today and what lands at launch.

When stuck

Fast answers when a cell misbehaves.

Troubleshooting The handful of things most likely to trip you up, and how to clear each one.

Go deeper

Wider context: the ways to run many sessions, compared.

Ways to run multiple Claude Code sessions Terminal tabs, tmux, git worktrees, VS Code, and dedicated apps, compared honestly for running several Claude Code sessions on macOS. Supervise parallel coding agents A working method for watching many Claude Code sessions at once: scan for the cell that needs you, steer it, step back. Parallel Claude Code with git worktrees How to give each Claude Code session its own working copy with git worktrees, and what worktrees do not isolate.

Reference

The words Helmsman uses, defined.

Glossary The vocabulary of Helmsman, defined: the grid, cells, steering, the fleet, and the rest.

Not answered here? Email hello@helmsman.sh, or see what changed in the changelog.