macOS · terminal multiplexer

RACE icon RACE

Run Agents in Canvas Environment

A terminal multiplexer built as an infinite, zoomable canvas. Terminals are windows you place, resize, group and pan around — not tiles in a grid.

Download for macOS Buy a license — €29.90

Try before you buy — up to 3 terminals per canvas and 3 canvases, no time limit.

>_ See it move

A canvas full of terminals is something you have to see panning.

One minute of a live session — mirrors, matrix rain, an aquarium and three agents at work. Full walkthrough coming to YouTube.

A whole RACE session zoomed out, Shades of Purple theme
The whole session, zoomed out
Four mirrors of the same terminal showing identical output
Same terminal, multiple views — mirrors
Two group frames holding system monitors and shells
Groups keep related terminals together

>_ Features

∞

Infinite canvas

Terminals live at real coordinates on a surface you pan and zoom — from inside one terminal out to the whole session. Multiple canvases in a sidebar, each with its own working directory and viewport that survive a restart.

⌘

Terminals as windows

Cmd-N opens a terminal at the pointer. Drag to move, borders to resize, with alignment guides and snapping. Cmd-H/J/K/L focuses the nearest terminal in that direction; add Shift to spawn one there instead.

⟳

Shells outlive RACE

Every shell runs in its own detached PTY host. Restart RACE and each terminal gets its screen, scrollback and a replay of exactly the output it missed — no gap, no duplication. Crash recovery adopts orphaned shells.

⌁

AI? We got you covered

Watching multiple agents work across a canvas is just great — and the bundled race-mcp MCP server lets them list canvases, read what terminals are showing, rearrange them and type into them. Off by default.

;)

No AI? Intelligent choice!

RACE is a backronym — at its core it's a terminal runner, and a canvas of persistent terminals earns its keep whether the things typing into them are agents or just you.

◩

Mirrors

A second live window on the same shell — it shows everything the shell prints and sends everything you type. Send one to another canvas and keep a build or log in view from wherever you work.

▣

Groups

A dashed, tinted frame around related terminals. Cmd-drag the frame and everything inside moves along; resize it to change membership. Cmd-F zooms straight to it.

◉

Inactivity monitor

Watch a terminal for you: after it goes quiet, its border blinks in its highlight color until output resumes. A finished build stands out across a wide canvas.

▤

16 themes, 3 levels

Night Owl-inspired default, Catppuccin, Tokyo Night, Solarized, Dracula, Nord, Gruvbox, Matrix and more. A theme colors the whole app, and can be set per application, per canvas or per terminal — plus a per-terminal highlight color.

⌨︎

Full keyboard fidelity

Kitty keyboard protocol — Shift-Enter, Ctrl-Enter, Alt-Backspace and all F-keys reach the application. Fully keyboard-driven menus and a Cmd-? overlay with every shortcut.

And the details that add up…
  • Custom renderer — damage-driven redraws, glyphs cached on demand, stable grids while zooming. Fonts go below 4 points for dense zoomed-out layouts.
  • Focus Mode — Cmd-F zooms the selection to fill the view; a second press restores where you were.
  • Double-Cmd pan — tap Cmd, then hold it, and the pointer drags the canvas without clicking.
  • Wheel goes where you look — scrolls the terminal under the pointer, focused or not; over empty canvas it pans.
  • Smart selection — copying a soft-wrapped line yields the logical line, no hard breaks. Cmd-click opens links, including wrapped URLs and OSC 8 hyperlinks.
  • Honest resize — widening a terminal gives back the slack its scrollback held instead of leaving mangled wrapping.
  • JetBrains Mono by default — any installed family via config, with system fallback, fitted box drawing and color emoji.
  • Live configuration — override any subset of config.toml in ~/.config/race/; changes apply without a restart.
  • Everything comes back — canvases, viewports, names, sizes, groups, themes, mirrors, monitor state, even fullscreen and sidebar width.

>_ FAQ

Which platforms does RACE run on?
macOS. Interested in Linux? Drop me a line!
What happens when my year of updates ends?
Your license keeps working indefinitely for every release published within its window. You only buy again if you want newer builds.
What happens to a big layout if my license lapses?
It comes back whole. Restoring never destroys anything — only creating new terminals and canvases beyond the free caps is refused.
Do my shells die when RACE quits or crashes?
No. Each shell runs in its own detached PTY-host process. On restart you get a gapless reattach; after a crash, Restore Terminals adopts the orphaned shells.

Ready to spread out?

Try RACE free — 3 terminals per canvas, 3 canvases, no time limit.

Download RACE for macOS