Review PRs and ship features in parallel — each one in its own Claude-ready worktree.
You're reviewing more PRs and starting more features than ever, because Claude Code makes each one faster. But your IDE and your shell still want one branch at a time. Zen fixes that mismatch.
For every PR in your review queue and every feature you're working on, zen creates a dedicated git worktree with Claude pre-armed: PR context injected as CLAUDE.local.md (never touching the repo's own CLAUDE.md), the right slash command installed, terminal tab opened on demand. A background daemon watches GitHub, prepares review worktrees silently as PRs come in, and removes them a few days after merge. Open a tab when you're ready — everything is already set up.
- Quick start
- What needs your attention?
- Review a PR
- Work on a feature
- Where am I?
- How it works
- Configuration
- MCP server
- Context injection
- Prerequisites
- Building
git clone https://github.com/mgreau/zen.git && cd zen
make build && mv zen ~/bin/ # or anywhere on your PATH
gh auth login
zen setup # interactive: repos, authors, daemon settings
zen watch start # background daemon polls GitHub for PRs
zen inbox # see what needs your attentionWhen a PR shows up in your inbox, zen review <number> opens that PR in a new terminal tab with Claude pre-armed and the PR context loaded. See Prerequisites for what to install first.
zen inbox is your daily triage. Three classes of PRs land here:
- Reviews waiting on you — PRs from configured authors, plus any explicit review requests.
- Your own approved-but-unmerged PRs — signed off, ready to land.
- Open PRs touching paths you watch — for staying aware of areas you care about.
zen inbox # everything, filtered by configured authors
zen inbox --all # from all authors
zen inbox --path pkg/sts # PRs touching specific paths
zen inbox --repo other-repo # different repo
zen inbox --ignore-drafts # skip drafts on this run (or set ignore_drafts: true in config)Drafts are shown by default. To skip drafts permanently, set ignore_drafts: true in your config — see docs/configuration.md. The --ignore-drafts flag overrides the config for a single run.
Example output:
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Legend W = Worktree
* = local worktree exists
zen review resume <number> to open | zen review <number> to create
2 Pending PR Reviews — app
Authors: alice bob charlie dave
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
PR Author Title Link
────── ──────────────────── ────────────────────────────────────────── ────────────────────────
#1042 alice api: Add pagination to ListUsers endpoi... https://github.com/acme/app/pull/1042
#1038 bob fix(auth): Handle expired refresh tokens https://github.com/acme/app/pull/1038
zen review 42 fetches the PR branch, creates a worktree, injects CLAUDE.local.md, installs the /review-pr slash command, and opens a terminal tab with Claude. When --repo is omitted, zen auto-detects by querying GitHub — if the PR number exists in multiple configured repos, it prefers the one where you're a requested reviewer or asks you to choose.
zen review 42 # create worktree + open terminal tab
zen review 42 --repo other # specify repo explicitly
zen review 42 --no-terminal # create worktree only, print command
zen review 42 --model opus # pick Claude model (sonnet, opus, haiku)
zen review resume 42 # open existing worktree in new terminal tab
zen review resume 42 --list # list available sessions
zen review resume 42 --session 2 # resume specific session
zen review delete 42 # remove a PR review worktree (with confirmation)If the worktree already exists, zen review resumes it; otherwise zen review resume offers to create one.
Same isolation model, your own branches. zen work new and zen work resume open the worktree in a new terminal tab by default; pass --no-terminal to skip.
zen work # list feature worktrees
zen work new <repo> <branch> # create new feature worktree
zen work new app my-feature "initial prompt" # with Claude prompt
zen work new app my-feature --model opus # pick Claude model
zen work resume <name> # resume a feature session in new tab
zen work resume <name> --model opus # resume with a specific model
zen work delete <name> # delete worktree (cleans Claude sessions too)Feature branches are prefixed by branch_prefix from config — see docs/configuration.md.
Different lenses on what you're doing across worktrees.
zen who-am-i # all repos, last 7 days
zen who-am-i -r app -p 30d # specific repo, last 30 days
zen who-am-i --merged # only merged & deployed PRs with descriptions
zen who-am-i --merged -r app -p 7d # merged PRs in app, last 7 daysThree sections: Merged & Deployed, In Progress, PR Reviews. Period formats: 1d, 7d, 30d, 2w, 1m. Also exposed via MCP as zen_who_am_i.
zen status # alias: zen dashboardWorktree counts, PR reviews (with remote state and cleanup ETA), feature work, and daemon state.
zen reviews # PR reviews from past 7 days
zen reviews --days 30 # past 30 dayszen search 42 # by PR number
zen search oidc # by branch/name
zen search --type pr <term> # filter: pr, featurezen agent status # all worktrees
zen agent status --running # only running sessions
zen agent status --full # full token usage scan (slower)Session ID, model, token usage, and last activity per worktree.
GitHub ──── zen watch ──── Worktrees Ready ──── You Review ──────── Cleanup
PRs (daemon) (silent prep) (zen review resume) (automatic)
Two loops keep zen useful.
The automated loop is the daemon. It polls GitHub for PRs from configured authors, creates a worktree per PR with context pre-loaded, sends a macOS notification when ready, and removes worktrees a few days after merge. Each step is idempotent and retries on failure. The daemon does not open terminal tabs — worktrees are prepared silently.
The manual loop is yours: check what needs your attention, open a worktree in a new tab with Claude, do the work.
zen watch start # start background daemon
zen watch stop # stop daemon
zen watch status # show daemon status + last check
zen watch logs # tail daemon log output
zen watch logs search 42 # search logs for a PR, worktree, or keywordManual cleanup, in case you want it (the daemon handles merged PRs automatically, 5+ days after merge):
zen cleanup # find stale worktrees
zen cleanup --days 14 # custom age threshold
zen cleanup --delete # interactive deletionFor the internal design (workqueues, reconcilers, retry behaviour) see docs/architecture.md.
Minimal ~/.zen/config.yaml:
repos:
app:
full_name: octo-sts/app
base_path: ~/git/repo-octo-sts-app
authors:
- mattmoor
- wlynchzen setup walks you through this interactively. The daemon hot-reloads config on every poll tick — no restart needed.
Full reference (poll intervals, terminal selection, branch prefix, multi-repo disambiguation, state file paths) in docs/configuration.md.
zen mcp serve
Speaks Model Context Protocol over stdio so a running Claude session can call zen tools directly: list worktrees, check inbox, fetch PR details, open reviews. Register once:
claude mcp add --scope user zen -- zen mcp serve
Tool inventory and usage in docs/mcp.md.
The daemon writes a CLAUDE.local.md file into each PR worktree with the PR title, author, changed files, and review instructions. The repo's own CLAUDE.md is never touched — there's no risk of accidental commits. To refresh manually:
zen context inject <path> --pr 42 --repo app
| Requirement | Why |
|---|---|
| macOS | iTerm2/Ghostty tab management and notifications use AppleScript |
| Git | Worktree creation, fetching PR branches, cleanup |
GitHub CLI (gh) |
Authentication and GitHub API access — must be logged in (gh auth login) |
| iTerm2 or Ghostty | Opens review/work sessions in new tabs. Ghostty needs accessibility permissions for tab creation; falls back to new windows otherwise (see docs/configuration.md) |
Claude Code (claude) |
AI-assisted PR reviews and coding sessions |
| Go 1.24+ | Building from source |
make build
See CONTRIBUTING.md for testing and architecture pointers.
I was watching The Last Dance when naming this tool. Phil Jackson — the "Zen Master" — and his coaching philosophy resonated: orchestrate the system, trust the players, stay calm while everything moves around you. That's what this tool does: silently prepares worktrees, injects context, cleans up after itself, and lets you focus on the actual review when you're ready.