Executive

A real-time Claude Code orchestration dashboard for managing multiple AI coding sessions across machines.

Let humans focus on what humans are good at – creativity, executive control, decision-making – and let AIs focus on what they’re good at – lightspeed execution.

Built as an internal dev tool for Vibe Otter and open-sourced to help other vibe coders out.

The Problem

If you’re running 3-5 Claude Code sessions at once, you already know what happens: you kick off a task, wait for Claude to finish, get distracted scrolling X, and then come back and talk to whichever Claude finishes first – even if it’s working on something low-priority. Once there are more than two sessions running, your weakly human executive brain function simply cannot keep track of what’s happening where.

Executive fixes this. It gives you a single dashboard that shows every Claude session across every machine, what it’s working on, how important it is, and whether it’s done. When something finishes, you hear a chime and know exactly what to work on next.

The goal is to get back to the kind of deep concentration you had when you artisanally coded by hand – 4-6 hour sessions of intense focus – except now you’re pushing out multiple features in a few hours instead of a few functions.

The Workflow

This tool was built around a specific workflow for managing Claude Code at scale:

• Development server (1-3 Claudes): A complete replica of production where Claudes run wild on new features. If they break something, roll back and try again.
• Production server (1-2 Claudes): Tech support, analytics, manual admin tasks that haven’t been automated yet. One Claude might be analyzing user pain points while another helps a customer.
• Local machine (1 Claude): Marketing tasks, side projects, LinkedIn posts, whatever doesn’t need a server.

The standard process for each task:

1. Plan in detail with Claude – discuss and refine until you’re on the same page
2. Approve the plan
3. Turn on autopilot and don’t talk to it again until it’s done
4. Move on to the next Claude that needs attention

Features

Real-Time Task Dashboard

Every Claude session auto-registers when it starts. You see live status updates, working/done/queued states, and hear a chime when something completes. No more checking terminals to see if Claude is still thinking.

Priority Tiers

Tag tasks as routine, important, or urgent. When multiple Claudes finish at once, you know which one to deal with first.

Autopilot Mode

The killer feature. Once you’ve thoroughly planned and discussed Claude’s approach, flip the autopilot switch. Executive will auto-approve all tool calls and permission requests, letting Claude work for 20+ minutes without interruption. This is a massive productivity unlock – you can fully context-switch to another task for real.

WARNING: Autopilot mode auto-approves ALL tool calls and permission requests without human review. This increases susceptibility to prompt injection attacks. If a repository or file Claude is working with contains malicious instructions, autopilot will execute them without asking. We recommend NOT using autopilot when working with repositories from unknown or untrusted sources – which, ironically, includes this one if you just found it on the internet. Use at your own risk.

Multi-Machine Support

Two deployment variants:

• local/ – Runs on localhost:7777, trusts localhost connections, optional API key for remote access. Best for single-machine use.
• cloud/ – Runs on localhost:7778 behind a reverse proxy (nginx), password auth with bcrypt + signed HTTP-only cookies. Best for multi-machine setups accessed over the internet.

Quick Start

Local (Single Machine)

cd local
npm install
./setup-machine.sh
./start.sh

Open http://localhost:7777 in your browser. Start a new Claude Code session – it will auto-register with the dashboard.

Cloud (Multi-Machine)

On the server:

cd cloud
npm install
./setup-machine.sh
./start.sh

Set up nginx as a reverse proxy to localhost:7778 with HTTPS. Then on each remote machine:

./setup-machine.sh machine-name https://executive.yourdomain.com

You’ll be prompted for the API key from the server’s .env file.

How It Works

Executive integrates with Claude Code through hooks – shell scripts that run at key lifecycle events:

Hook	Event	What It Does
session-start.sh	SessionStart	Registers the session with the dashboard
autopilot-hook.sh	PreToolUse	Checks autopilot status, auto-approves if enabled
permission-hook.sh	PermissionRequest	Auto-approves permission dialogs when autopilot is on
resume-hook.sh	UserPromptSubmit	Marks task as "working" when you send a new message
stop-hook.sh	Stop	Marks task as "done" when Claude stops
session-end.sh	SessionEnd	Removes the task from the dashboard

The dashboard uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) for real-time browser updates – no polling, no WebSockets, no dependencies.

Configuration

Environment Variables (Cloud)

Variable	Description
EXECUTIVE_PASSWORD_HASH	bcrypt hash of your dashboard password
EXECUTIVE_API_KEY	API key for hook-to-server authentication
EXECUTIVE_COOKIE_SECRET	Secret for signing session cookies
EXECUTIVE_PORT	Server port (default: 7778)

These are generated automatically by setup.js. See cloud/.env.example for the template.

Home Directory Files

The setup script writes these files for the hooks to use:

File	Purpose
~/.executive-key	API key for authenticating with the dashboard
~/.executive-machine	Machine name displayed in the dashboard
~/.executive-host	Dashboard URL that hooks call

About

Executive was built as an internal development tool for Vibe Otter, an AI website builder for small businesses. The Vibe Otter codebase is 99.999% vibe-coded with Claude Code (6 lines were written by hand, last June) and has built over 1,000 websites for customers. Executive is the tool that made it possible to orchestrate multiple Claude sessions across development, production, and local machines simultaneously.

Open-sourced to help other vibe coders manage their AI coding workflows.

License

Apache License 2.0 – Copyright 2025 Vibe Otter (https://vibeotter.com)