Quick Start
Start Hive, explore a demo workspace, run your coding agent, and learn how to return to work that keeps running.
If Hive is not installed yet, follow the installation guide. This walkthrough assumes the hive command is available in your terminal. If you built Hive from source, run ./hive from the repository instead.
Start a demo workspace
Run the demo command to start Hive’s daemon and launch four demo agents. Then open the multiplexer:
hive demohiveFor a source build, use ./hive demo and ./hive. Hive starts its daemon on demand whenever a command needs it, so a separate daemon setup is not required.
Explore the workspace
Hive works like a terminal multiplexer. You can use the mouse to focus panes, drag their borders to resize them, select text to copy, and scroll through pane history.
For keyboard controls, press the prefix Ctrl+B, then press an action key:
| After Ctrl+B | Action |
|---|---|
| % / “ | Split the pane right / down |
| ← ↓ ↑ → or h j k l | Move between panes; Space enters sticky navigation and r enters resize mode |
| z / x | Zoom the pane / close it |
| c | Create a tab |
| 1–9 | Switch to a tab |
| n / p | Next / previous tab |
| w | Find an agent or pane |
| O | Open the overview of agents and panes |
| [ | Enter copy mode; use / to search, v to select, and y to copy |
| ? | Show and filter the keybinding list |
| d | Detach from the workspace |
The full list is available in Keystrokes, or press Ctrl+B then ? inside Hive.
Run your coding agent
Start an agent in a pane as you would in a regular terminal. For example, if Claude Code is installed and authenticated on your machine, run:
claudeHive also works with Codex, OpenCode, and other CLI agents. Install and sign in to your chosen agent separately; Hive provides the persistent panes and workspace around it. See Agents for the current integration details.
Detach and return
Detach with Ctrl+B, then D. Your agents continue running after you leave the multiplexer. Run hive again to return to the workspace.
You can list running agent sessions and attach directly to one from another terminal:
hive ps listhive terminal attach <id>Press Ctrl+] to detach from an individual agent terminal. To stop the Hive runtime and all agents it manages, use hive stop; this is different from detaching.