Mandelbot

A fractal agent tree for agentic development.

Mandelbot is a terminal emulator that organizes agents into a hierarchical tree. Each node is a virtual terminal with its own context, working directory, and prompting — scoped to a layer of work (system, project, change, sub-task). Agents communicate up and down the tree.

Features

• Agent control over the terminal. Agents communicate with the host through an MCP server. They can set their own tab title, report status, and spawn child agents — all without leaving the terminal session.

• Status indicators. Each tab shows a color-coded status dot (idle, working, blocked, needs review, error) and a background task counter, so you can see what every agent is doing at a glance.

• Delegation. Agents can spawn child tabs and coordinate parallel sub-tasks through a shared status file protocol. Work fans out into a tree and rolls back up.

• Hierarchical tab tree. Tabs are organized into a nested sidebar — projects contain tasks, tasks contain sub-tasks. Navigate up, down, and across the tree with keyboard shortcuts.

• Smart navigation. Jump directly to the next agent that needs attention. The "next idle" shortcut prioritizes blocked agents, then those needing review, then idle tasks.

Installing

macOS (Homebrew)

brew tap astex/mandelbot
brew install --cask mandelbot

Linux / macOS (shell script)

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/astex/mandelbot/releases/latest/download/mandelbot-installer.sh | sh

Linux users need libfontconfig1 and libfreetype6 installed.

Building from source

Requires rustup. The pinned toolchain will be installed automatically.

cargo build

Status

Beta — stable enough for daily use.