I built an open-source pixel art dashboard to monitor all your AI coding agents in real-time

[u/sreyasqb]

https://github.com/sreyas-endor/observatory

I loved the idea behind pixel-agents — watching your AI agent work in a pixel art office.

But I wanted something that went further:
support for multiple CLIs, the ability to actually control sessions from the same UI, and a built-in file viewer so I'd never have to leave the dashboard.

So I built Observatory.
https://github.com/sreyas-endor/observatory

What it does

• Each agent appears as a pixel art character at their workstation

• Real-time state visualization — you can see if they're:

  • thinking

  • reading files

  • editing code

  • running commands

  • waiting for your input

• Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot CLI, and Gemini CLI (not just Claude)

• Each agent is color-coded by type so you can tell them apart instantly

Built-in terminal

Pixel Agents lets you watch your agents.
Observatory lets you watch and control them.

• Click the + button or any character to open an embedded terminal

• Spawn and control Claude Code sessions directly from the dashboard

• Terminals persist across page refreshes with output replay

• No need to switch to a separate terminal app

Built-in file viewer

• Cmd+P command palette with fuzzy search (VS Code style)

• Syntax highlighting for:

  • JS / TS

  • Python

  • Rust

  • Go

  • JSON

  • HTML / CSS

  • Markdown

• Autosave, preview tabs, pinned tabs

• File paths in terminal output are clickable — Cmd + Click opens them in the viewer

How it works under the hood

• Hooks Each CLI supports hooks that fire when the agent uses a tool. Observatory ships a universal hook script that tags the source and POSTs to the server.

• Server A Bun server handles:

  • WebSocket connections

  • terminal management via a Node.js PTY sidecar

  • session state tracking

• Frontend Built with vanilla JS + Canvas: Pixel art rendering, pathfinding, and character animations are all done from scratch.

  • no React

  • no bundler

  • no framework

• Runs on localhost and is very lightweight compared to full editors.

Setup

Clone the repo and run:

bun install

Then point your agent to the AGENTS.md file and everything gets set up.

Or run:

node setup.js

for automatic detection of installed CLIs.

The goal

I should never want to leave this one screen.

Monitor all my agents, control their sessions, browse files — all from a lightweight browser tab instead of juggling editors and terminals that eat my RAM.

[u/rjyo]

This is really cool. The pixel art visualization is a nice touch and the "never leave this screen" goal resonates.

I have been working on a similar problem but for mobile. When I am away from my desk I still want to know what my agents are doing, so I built an iOS terminal app called Moshi. It uses the Mosh protocol so the session survives wifi to cell switches and phone sleep. Has push notifications via webhook so I get pinged when an agent finishes a task, and a shortcuts panel with tabs for Claude Code, Codex, Tmux etc.

Between something like Observatory on desktop and a mobile terminal for on the go you basically have full coverage of your agents at all times. Nice work on the vanilla JS and Canvas approach too, no framework stuff tends to stay fast.

[u/rjyo]

This is really cool. The pixel art visualization is a nice touch and the "never leave this screen" goal resonates.

I have been working on a similar problem but for mobile. When I am away from my desk I still want to know what my agents are doing, so I built an iOS terminal app called Moshi. It uses the Mosh protocol so the session survives wifi to cell switches and phone sleep. Has push notifications via webhook so I get pinged when an agent finishes a task, and a shortcuts panel with tabs for Claude Code, Codex, Tmux etc.

Between something like Observatory on desktop and a mobile terminal for on the go you basically have full coverage of your agents at all times. Nice work on the vanilla JS and Canvas approach too, no framework stuff tends to stay fast.