Paseo: An Open-Source Unified Interface for Coding Agents

Paseo provides a unified interface for managing multiple coding agents

Paseo is an open-source project designed to act as a single interface for various coding agents, including Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode, and Pi. It allows developers to run these agents in parallel on their own machines, enabling them to ship code from a desktop, a mobile device, or a command-line interface (CLI).

Core Capabilities

  • Self-Hosted Architecture: Agents run locally on the user's machine, granting them full access to the local development environment, configurations, and tools.
  • Multi-Provider Support: Users can switch between providers such as Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, OpenCode, and Pi within a single interface, selecting the most appropriate model for a specific task.
  • Cross-Device Accessibility: The system is accessible via iOS, Android, desktop (Electron), web, and CLI. A local daemon manages the agents, and clients connect to this daemon via a QR code or network configuration.
  • Voice Control: The interface includes a voice mode for dictating tasks or discussing problems hands-free.
  • Privacy-First Design: The project explicitly avoids telemetry, tracking, and forced log-ins.

Technical Architecture and Deployment

The Daemon and Client Model

Paseo operates using a local server called the "daemon" that orchestrates the agent processes. Clients—including the mobile app, desktop app, and CLI—connect to this daemon to send commands and receive output.

For remote connectivity, Paseo supports a relay system. Users can self-host a relay in Go (via paseo-relay) and configure the daemon with TLS for secure connections, typically using a WebSocket proxy like Nginx.

Development Monorepo

The project is organized as a monorepo with the following packages:

  • packages/server: The Paseo daemon, handling agent process orchestration, WebSocket API, and MCP server.
  • packages/app: An Expo-based client for iOS, Android, and web.
  • packages/desktop: An Electron-based desktop application.
  • packages/cli: The paseo CLI for managing daemon and agent workflows.
  • packages/relay: A package for remote connectivity.
  • packages/website: The marketing site and documentation.

Agent Orchestration via Skills

Paseo introduces "Skills" to allow agents to orchestrate other agents. By adding skills via npx skills add getpaseo/paseo, users can utilize specific commands within agent conversations:

  • /paseo-handoff: Transfers work from one agent to another (e.g., planning with Claude and implementing with Codex).
  • /paseo-loop: Loops an agent against specific acceptance criteria, optionally using a verifier.
  • /paseo-advisor: Spawns a single agent to act as an advisor for a second opinion without delegating the work.
  • /paseo-committee: Forms a committee of two contrasting agents to perform root cause analysis and produce a plan.

Community Insights and Technical Discussion

Community feedback from Hacker News highlights both the utility of the project and areas for potential improvement.

Workflow and Usability

Some users praised the project for focusing on usability and providing a "beautiful" interface, while others argued that the design is "unopinionated" and based on standard Tailwind CSS. There is a strong interest in the "ship on the go" capability, though some users questioned the necessity of shipping code from a mobile device.

Technical Suggestions

Technical contributors suggested several enhancements to improve the agent experience:

"One thing I was considering as a value-add was that this type of interface enables... support for MDX output or even embedded MCP UI apps in the middle of a chat. Typical CLI agents don't support that but a UI that lets your code embed Excalidraw diagrams and graphs could be great."

Another user raised concerns regarding token efficiency and context management:

"In coding-agent loops the full system prompt + tool specs re-send on every step... Auto-summarizing older trajectory into a state vector saved 40-60% input tokens in workloads I've looked at — could be a useful daemon-side concern."

Alternative Approaches

Users mentioned alternative tools such as OpenChamber, Conductor, and Superconductor, as well as using Gitea's interface by tagging agents in issues to manage pull requests.

Sources