How to Install and Use Munder Difflin

Most tools help you run a Claude Code agent. Munder Difflin helps you run a team of them — unattended, coordinated, and aimed at the big jobs: a multi-day refactor, a migration, an investigation that needs to grind overnight. This is the start-to-finish guide: install it, meet the orchestrator, and put the hive to work on something ambitious.

What Munder Difflin does best #

Before the steps, the mental model — because it shapes how you’ll use it. Munder Difflin wraps the Claude Code terminals you already run as full agents, gives each long-term memory and a mailbox, and puts a GOD orchestrator (named Michael) in charge — the one agent you talk to. You describe intent; it routes work, lets agents message each other, and escalates only the critical calls to you.

That design pays off most on long-horizon work. A single session loses steam (and context) on a multi-hour task. A coordinated hive that remembers can keep going for hours or days — the overnight, while-you-sleep use case is exactly what it’s built for. Keep that in mind as you set it up.

Step 1: What you’ll need #

• Node.js 18+ and npm.
• A C/C++ toolchain for node-pty’s native addon: Xcode Command Line Tools on macOS (xcode-select --install), build-essential on Linux, or the Visual Studio Build Tools on Windows. (If you download a prebuilt app instead of building from source, you don’t need the toolchain.)
• Claude Code on your PATH — agents run the claude command by default. You bring your own Claude Code; Munder Difflin coordinates it.
• Optional: the semantic memory index for instant cross-session recall. The app works without it — plain-markdown memory still functions and the index degrades gracefully.

Step 2: Install it #

There are two paths. Pick whichever fits you.

Option A — Download a build (easiest) #

Grab the installer for your OS from the download section (it points at the latest release):

Platform	File
macOS	Munder-Difflin-<version>-mac-universal.dmg (Apple Silicon + Intel)
Windows	Munder-Difflin-<version>-win-x64-setup.exe (64-bit installer)
Linux	Munder-Difflin-<version>-linux-x86_64.AppImage

Open the installer, launch the app, and skip to first launch.

Option B — Build from source (two commands) #

If you’d rather run the code directly (or you’re on a platform you want to build yourself):

git clone https://github.com/chaitanyagiri/munder-difflin.git
cd munder-difflin
npm install        # postinstall rebuilds node-pty against Electron's ABI
npm run dev        # launches the app with hot reload

The npm install step rebuilds the native terminal addon for your machine. If node-pty ever fails to load after an Electron upgrade, re-run npm install to rebuild it.

Step 3: First launch — the onboarding wizard #

The first time you open Munder Difflin, a three-step wizard sets up your control room:

1. Harness home. Pick a folder where the harness keeps its own files — agent metadata, logs, and any repos you create from inside the app. Something like ~/HarnessAgents is a fine default; it’s created if it doesn’t exist. Think of it as the town hall: agent state is pinned here so sessions survive a restart.
2. Your repos. Add the existing project folders you want agents to work in. Each becomes a room on the floor, and multiple agents can share a repo. This is optional and you can add more later — but adding your main project now saves a step.
3. Auto mode. Confirm whether agents should run unattended (covered next). The default is on.

Finish the wizard and you land on the office floor. Michael — your orchestrator — boots into his office automatically; give him a few seconds to clock in.

Step 4: Meet Michael, your GOD orchestrator #

Michael is the GOD agent: he runs the floor, triages requests, assigns work, and escalates only the critical calls to you. He’s the agent you talk to.

To talk to any agent (Michael included), select them on the floor to open their panel, then use the command bar at the bottom — type a message and hit Enter (or send). The bar has three modes:

• free — plain natural-language instructions (the default).
• /skill — invoke a Claude Code skill or slash command.
• quick — fast canned actions.

Talking to Michael in plain language is how you steer the whole team: describe a goal, and he decomposes and routes it. That’s the orchestration model in practice — you manage, he delegates. (New to the idea? How to run multiple Claude Code agents covers why an orchestrator beats juggling tabs.)

Step 5: Understand auto mode #

Auto mode is what makes unattended runs possible. With it on, every agent is spawned with:

claude --permission-mode bypassPermissions

That means Claude won’t stop to ask before editing files or running shell commands — essential for a “set it going and walk away” workflow. It’s also a loaded foot-gun on a production repo, so:

• Keep auto mode on for sandboxed, disposable, or branch-isolated working copies — anywhere a mistake is cheap to undo. This is the right default for the control-room experience.
• Turn it off (or drop the flag for a single agent in the Add Agent dialog) when you want to babysit a sensitive repo and approve each tool call.

Either way, Munder Difflin keeps a human-in-the-loop approvals queue: even in auto mode, the GOD agent escalates genuinely critical actions (spending real money, destructive operations, big scope changes) for your sign-off, so unattended doesn’t mean unsupervised.

Step 6: Spin up your first agent #

Click Add agent to open the spawn dialog. The fields:

• Name — the agent’s handle (picking a character fills this in for you).
• Folder — the working directory. Pick one of your registered repos with a click, or browse to another.
• Command — defaults to claude (plus --permission-mode bypassPermissions in auto mode). Pick a model above (Sonnet, Opus, Haiku, or CLI default) — the harness restarts the agent on the new model if you change it later.
• Description — a short note on what this agent is for.
• Goal (optional) — a long-running directive injected on every prompt. This is the most important field for long tasks (more below).
• Character & Color — pick from the office cast and an accent.
• Git isolation (optional) — checking ‘Git isolation (own worktree)’ auto-creates a dedicated git checkout for this agent and tears it down when you kill it. Use this whenever two agents share the same repo so they work on separate branches without colliding.

Hit spawn. The agent appears as an avatar at a desk, provisioned in the hive with its own memory, mailbox, and identity. You’ll see it walk to a station and start working; envelopes fly desk-to-desk when agents message each other.

Step 7: Run an ambitious, long-horizon task #

Here’s where Munder Difflin earns its keep. To set a team working for hours or days:

1. Give agents a persistent Goal. The Goal field is injected into every prompt, so the agent keeps orienting toward the same long-running directive even as the conversation turns over. This is how a task survives across many cycles instead of drifting. Write it like a brief: “Migrate the test suite from Mocha to Vitest, one directory at a time, keeping CI green after each.”
2. Let Michael route the rest. Tell the GOD orchestrator the high-level objective and let him assign sub-tasks across agents. You describe the what; the hive figures out the who and when.
3. Scope each agent and let them coordinate. Give each a clear role so they stay in their lane and hand off through mailboxes instead of colliding. Shared long-term memory means what one agent learns, the next one inherits — knowledge compounds over a long run.
4. Walk away. With auto mode on, the team keeps going unattended. Check the approvals queue when you’re back; the GOD agent only interrupts you for the critical calls.

This is the run-an-office-of-agents-while-you-sleep workflow, and the practical guardrails behind it are in Claude Code automation while you sleep. Be honest with yourself about scope — bounded, well-specified jobs go best.

Step 8: Use Michael’s Command Center #

Select Michael on the floor and open his panel — it’s not a plain terminal. It’s a control surface with six tabs:

• Terminal — Michael’s live session, plus a message queue so you can park tasks while he’s working.
• Floor — the full agent roster with per-agent model selectors, a dispatch box (send a task to one agent or broadcast to all), and your registered repos. The Enrich toggle routes your queued messages through Dwight — a background prep assistant who gathers context and rewrites the prompt before Michael sees it.
• Memory — MemPalace semantic search plus full-text search across all hive files (board, tasks, agent memories) and a memory graph.
• Activity — live event log, the shared board, and real token + cost telemetry per agent (read directly from your Claude Code transcript files).
• Tasks — a dependency-aware kanban board. Add tasks with assignees, priorities, and dependsOn links; Michael and his team track status here.
• Schedules — recurring missions. Set a label, interval (1h / 6h / 24h / weekly), and a directive body; the harness dispatches it to the target agent automatically, no human needed.

For long-running floors, the Schedules tab is the most powerful: set a ‘30-minute floor check’ mission pointing at Michael with a directive like ‘Are all agents making progress? Re-engage anyone idle.’ — and the harness keeps the team moving even when you’re away.

Tips for best results #

• Scope beats ambition. A precise Goal (“do X, in this order, with this definition of done”) runs longer and cleaner than a vague one.
• Use branch-isolated working copies. Auto mode plus a throwaway branch is cheap to discard — and the ‘Git isolation’ checkbox in Add Agent automates this: each agent gets its own worktree provisioned and torn down for you.
• Register your repos. Pre-adding projects in onboarding (or later) makes spawning agents one click instead of a folder hunt.
• Lean on memory. Tell agents to write durable facts to their notes; the shared semantic palace turns those into instant recall for the whole hive.
• Watch the floor early. The visual office isn’t a gimmick — seeing who’s busy, idle, or blocked catches problems before they compound.

Troubleshooting #

• node-pty fails to load after an update → re-run npm install (the postinstall rebuilds the native addon against the current Electron ABI).
• Agents won’t start / “claude: command not found” → make sure Claude Code is installed and on the PATH of the shell that launched the app.
• Native build errors on npm install → install your platform’s C/C++ toolchain (Xcode Command Line Tools, build-essential, or VS Build Tools), then reinstall.
• No instant recall → the semantic memory index is optional; without it, markdown memory still works, just without the fast semantic search.

Where to go next #

• How to run multiple Claude Code agents — the habits that keep a team from colliding.
• Run an office of AI agents while you sleep — the long-horizon vision, with guardrails.
• What is a multi-agent harness? — the concept underneath it all.

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That’s the whole path from zero to a working hive. Download Munder Difflin — it’s free, open source, and local-first on macOS, Windows, and Linux — and put a team of agents on your next big task.

FAQ

Is Munder Difflin free?

Yes. Munder Difflin is free and open source under the MIT license. Download a build for macOS, Windows, or Linux, or run it from source — there's no paid tier.

Do I need Claude Code to use Munder Difflin?

Yes. Munder Difflin coordinates real Claude Code sessions, so you bring your own Claude Code (the `claude` CLI on your PATH). Each agent runs a real `claude` process; the harness adds memory, messaging, and the GOD orchestrator on top.

Can I leave it running for hours or days?

Yes — that's the point. With auto mode on, agents run unattended and a GOD orchestrator routes work and escalates only the critical calls to you. Give an agent a persistent Goal and it keeps working a long-horizon task across many prompts while you're away.

What platforms does it support?

macOS, Windows, and Linux. Grab the matching installer (.dmg, .exe, or .AppImage) from the latest release, or build from source with Node 18+ in two commands.

Is auto mode safe?

Auto mode spawns agents with `--permission-mode bypassPermissions`, so they don't pause for file edits or shell commands. It's the right default for the unattended control-room experience, but it's a foot-gun on production repos. Keep it on for sandboxed or disposable working copies; turn it off (or drop the flag per agent) when you want to babysit.

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