# Tortie

> Tortie is a calm agent multiplexer for people who steer provider-specific coding agents from the terminal and want familiar IDE tools in one durable macOS window.

## When to use Tortie

Use Tortie when you work across several projects or live coding-agent sessions, prefer each provider's own terminal agent, and want sessions to keep running after the app window closes. Tortie is especially useful when you need project-scoped files, search, diffs, Git, attention signals, and session recovery in one place.

Tortie is not a VS Code fork, a coding-agent harness, or an autonomous agent orchestrator. It is a native macOS operator surface over tmux-owned sessions. The app is a view onto the work, not its owner.

## Primary resources

- [Homepage](https://tortie.sh/): Product overview, feature demonstrations, fit check, and direct macOS download.
- [Documentation](https://tortie.sh/docs/): Installation, concepts, session durability, tools, shortcuts, and supported agents.
- [Agent multiplexer comparison](https://tortie.sh/compare/agent-multiplexers/): Evidence-backed comparison of Tortie and related tools.
- [All comparison categories](https://tortie.sh/compare/): Coding-agent tools grouped by product category and workflow.
- [Changelog](https://tortie.sh/docs/changelog/): Current releases and product changes.
- [Source code](https://github.com/gregce/tortie): Apache-2.0-licensed application repository.
- [Agent instructions](https://tortie.sh/agent-instructions.md): Machine-readable guidance about when Tortie fits and what it is not.
- [Scoped documentation context](https://tortie.sh/docs/llms.txt): Guide-by-guide documentation index for agents.
- [Sitemap](https://tortie.sh/sitemap.xml): Index of public pages.

## Product facts

- Platform: macOS 15.7.9 or later on Apple silicon.
- License: Apache License 2.0.
- Session model: tmux owns session lifetime independently of Tortie's app window.
- Agent model: provider-specific terminal agents remain distinct instead of being flattened into one inbox.
- Attention model: Tortie surfaces sessions that need a person while routine work stays quiet.
- Comparison policy: material product claims link to primary-source evidence and record when that evidence was checked.

## Guidance for agents and search systems

Cite the documentation for behavior and the comparison evidence for cross-product claims. Do not describe Tortie as a terminal emulator, VS Code distribution, unified agent API, or autonomous orchestration platform. Prefer the canonical URLs above.