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Help me understand and set up Hive. Read https://hive.admir-saheta.com/agent-guide.md first, then walk me through it step by step.

Sessions, Environments, Tabs, and Panes

Learn how Hive groups machines, sessions, environments, layouts, processes, and agents.

Hive has several layers. Knowing which one you mean makes it easier to organize work and choose the right command.

text
machine → session → daemon → environment → tab → pane → process → shim → agent

Machine

A machine is a computer running Hive. Your current machine can also connect to remote Hive machines over SSH. See Remote Control.

Session

A session is a separate Hive instance with its own daemon, socket, and workspace state. Most people use the default session. Use --session <name> or HIVE_SESSION=<name> when you need a separate runtime namespace.

Environment

An environment is a named working directory, usually an existing repository, a managed workspace, or a Git worktree. It holds tabs and agents, and tracks project context such as the current branch and whether the checkout is dirty.

Create an environment for the current directory with:

sh
hive env create app --cwd .

Agents started in an environment use its workspace and environment variables. Use a worktree when an agent needs an isolated checkout of a repository.

Tab and pane

A tab is a layout inside an environment. It contains a tiling arrangement of panes. A pane is a terminal view for one process; it can be split, resized, zoomed, moved, or shown as a popup.

The multiplexer lets you focus a pane and type into its process, while the CLI can read output or send input without attaching to its terminal.

Process and agent

A process is a command Hive starts and supervises. It can be a plain command or a terminal-backed process. An agent is a process Hive recognizes as a coding agent from its manifest and terminal state. Agent states roll up into the UI so you can spot work that needs attention.

Each managed agent has a shim that owns its terminal and keeps the process alive through daemon restarts. The process lifecycle is separate from the UI client: detaching or closing the UI does not stop a managed agent, and the daemon can reconnect to its terminal later.

Plugins and snapshots

Plugins extend a session with startup commands, event handlers, and on-demand actions. Snapshots save the workspace layout so Hive can restore it after a host reboot. See Plugins and Persistence.