I've been building a Mac app called Tandem Terminal.
https://tandem-terminal.com
I actually created this initially because it was painful to pair-program w/ claude [in a remote org], with non-technical people who wanted to vibe code. One of the painful loops was, trying to configure their environment -> send the slack message over of the cmd to run -> tell them there's a typo -> retry that loop -> send cmds to diagnose the issue -> and what would normally be a 20 minute exercise ends up being a multi-day process. Anyway feel free to check it out, thank you!
What it does
Tandem lets you share a terminal session with other people. Not a screen recording of one — everyone is attached to the same shell. You type, they see it. They type, you see it. Same prompt, same scrollback, same running processes.
You start a session, send someone a link, and they open it in any browser. Nothing to install on their end, no account. Guests arrive read-only and you grant typing per person, revocable at any moment. I'll be working on a host linux / windows app eventually.
I built it because pair-debugging over screen share meant reading commands out loud while the other person typed them wrong.
Voice control
Tap the right Command key, say "find every file bigger than a hundred megs under here", and it writes the command at your prompt. It does not run it — the command sits there for you to read, edit, or delete, and Return stays yours to press. There's also a plain dictation mode that types exactly what you said, useful for a REPL or a chat box.
Other details
- macOS 13 or later. Universal — Apple silicon and Intel.
- Native Swift and SwiftUI. The download is 4.9 MB.
- Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a double-click, no right-click → Open, no Terminal commands.
- Free. No account, no subscription, nothing to sign up for.
Security
- Two gates on joining: a 24-character token in the link, and a passcode that is never in the link. Guests see nothing until the passcode passes. Three wrong tries drops the connection; ten locks joining until you re-open it.
- Terminal output and keystrokes are AES-GCM encrypted end to end between host and guests. The key travels in the link's URL fragment, which browsers never send to a server, so the relay that connects you routes ciphertext it can't read.
- What is not end-to-end encrypted: chat messages and the passcode travel as control frames the relay can see, and voice audio goes to the services above. I'd rather say that than let you assume otherwise.
- The listener binds to loopback only. No inbound port is opened, no firewall change, and guests never see each other's addresses.
- You can point the app at your own relay with the TANDEM_RELAY environment variable if you'd rather not use mine.
- Kick and ban with a note explaining why, plus an activity log of joins, refusals and permission changes.
- It sends anonymous usage counts (launches, sessions hosted or joined, voice used) through Firebase. No terminal output, no transcripts, no chat, no links. One switch in Settings turns it off.
Sessions are capped at 100 guests.
Check it out here!
https://tandem-terminal.com
https://tandem-terminal.com
I actually created this initially because it was painful to pair-program w/ claude [in a remote org], with non-technical people who wanted to vibe code. One of the painful loops was, trying to configure their environment -> send the slack message over of the cmd to run -> tell them there's a typo -> retry that loop -> send cmds to diagnose the issue -> and what would normally be a 20 minute exercise ends up being a multi-day process. Anyway feel free to check it out, thank you!
What it does
Tandem lets you share a terminal session with other people. Not a screen recording of one — everyone is attached to the same shell. You type, they see it. They type, you see it. Same prompt, same scrollback, same running processes.
You start a session, send someone a link, and they open it in any browser. Nothing to install on their end, no account. Guests arrive read-only and you grant typing per person, revocable at any moment. I'll be working on a host linux / windows app eventually.
I built it because pair-debugging over screen share meant reading commands out loud while the other person typed them wrong.
Voice control
Tap the right Command key, say "find every file bigger than a hundred megs under here", and it writes the command at your prompt. It does not run it — the command sits there for you to read, edit, or delete, and Return stays yours to press. There's also a plain dictation mode that types exactly what you said, useful for a REPL or a chat box.
Other details
- macOS 13 or later. Universal — Apple silicon and Intel.
- Native Swift and SwiftUI. The download is 4.9 MB.
- Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a double-click, no right-click → Open, no Terminal commands.
- Free. No account, no subscription, nothing to sign up for.
Security
- Two gates on joining: a 24-character token in the link, and a passcode that is never in the link. Guests see nothing until the passcode passes. Three wrong tries drops the connection; ten locks joining until you re-open it.
- Terminal output and keystrokes are AES-GCM encrypted end to end between host and guests. The key travels in the link's URL fragment, which browsers never send to a server, so the relay that connects you routes ciphertext it can't read.
- What is not end-to-end encrypted: chat messages and the passcode travel as control frames the relay can see, and voice audio goes to the services above. I'd rather say that than let you assume otherwise.
- The listener binds to loopback only. No inbound port is opened, no firewall change, and guests never see each other's addresses.
- You can point the app at your own relay with the TANDEM_RELAY environment variable if you'd rather not use mine.
- Kick and ban with a note explaining why, plus an activity log of joins, refusals and permission changes.
- It sends anonymous usage counts (launches, sessions hosted or joined, voice used) through Firebase. No terminal output, no transcripts, no chat, no links. One switch in Settings turns it off.
Sessions are capped at 100 guests.
Check it out here!
https://tandem-terminal.com
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