The Runner

The runner takes an issue you send it and starts a run: Claude Code, working on that one issue in a copy of the repository of its own, on a branch named after the issue, such as st/12-rate-limit-login. Your own checkout is never touched. When the agent is done it presents its work, and the issue waits in In review for you.

Nothing is merged for you. When you approve, the agent wraps up and gets the pull request ready, and merging it is yours.

Every run uses the Claude Code that is installed and signed in on the machine it runs on, the same one you use in a terminal. Splitterm never reads, stores or sends your Claude login: it only asks Claude Code whether it is signed in. Runs count against your own Claude usage.

The runner runs only on your own machines, and only while Splitterm is open on them. Pushes go out with your own git and its sign-in.

1. 1At the foot of the sidebar, the This machine card says Runner not set up. Press Set up, or run Set up this machine to run issues from the command palette.
2. 2Checks: Claude Code, installed and signed in; git 2.25 or newer; and the GitHub CLI, which is optional. Check again runs them again.
3. 3Name this machine: a name you will recognise on your other devices. Splitterm never uses the computer's own name.
4. 4When and how much: when runs start, how many work at once, and Leave room for me. You can change all of it later.
5. 5Test run: one minute that reads a repository and presents a five-line summary. It changes nothing and pushes nothing. You can skip it.
6. 6Press Finish setup. The runner is on.

Until a machine is set up, the runner does nothing on it: Runs is not in the sidebar, and the This machine card offers only Set up. On Free, the runner works for one project on each machine: see On Free.

The switch is on the This machine card, and at the top of the This machine sheet, which the runner's chip in the top bar opens. Its tooltip says what it does:

Turns this machine’s runner on or off. Off, nothing new starts here and queued issues wait; runs already working go on to their end.

Only an action on this machine turns it on. Nothing from the web or another device can.

Turning it off while runs are working asks first. Turn off lets them finish; Turn off and stop them also stops each one, the way its own Stop does. With nothing running, the switch flips at once. While runs finish, the chip and the tray say so, as in Runner off · 2 finishing.

Open an issue and, under Run it on a machine, choose this machine and press its Dispatch button. With the runner off, the button queues the issue, and it starts when you switch the runner on.

At once, in the This machine sheet, sets how many runs work together, from 1 to 4. More wait their turn. Plan first, in a project's Settings, makes every run plan before it changes anything and wait for your approval of the plan.

A project's Runs lists every run on this machine, grouped by what it needs: Needs you, Running, Held and queued, In review, and Done. Select one to read its Activity, What it was told (every block it was given, word for word, with who wrote it) and its Branch.

Start now

Starts a held run at once, past every hold but the runner switch.

Pause and Resume

Hold a working run, and let it go on.

Message

While a run works, a message you send it arrives at its next step.

Take over

Moves the agent's session into a terminal of yours, in the run's worktree, to work with it directly. Leaving Claude Code or closing that pane hands it back to the runner, and the pane's menu can also send it for review.

Watch in a tile

Opens the run's live transcript as a tile beside your terminals.

Stop

Ends the attempt after you confirm. Its branch and worktree stay on this machine, and the issue can run again later.

A run edits, tests and installs from lockfiles inside its own worktree without asking. Anything else asks you, and only the run's own branch is ever pushed.

In careful mode every command asks. A run is careful when nobody was at the machine as it started, or when it reads text written by someone other than you, an agent's note included. In a project's Settings you can trust text written by agents there, and list the project's own test, build and lint commands so they run without asking.

Runs share your Claude usage limits with everything else you do in Claude Code. Once your runs have reported your limits, the top bar's usage chip shows what they reported: how much of the five-hour window and the week is used, or that a limit was reached and until when.

Leave room for me, on by default, holds new runs before they use the part of your limits you keep: 30% of the five-hour window and 15% of the week, unless you change them. With it on and your usage not known yet, the runner works one run at a time, and new runs wait at the first limit until it resets. A run that has started always finishes.

Right away

Runs start when you send them. A queued run waits while you are away from the machine.

Nights

Starts runs between the times you set, while nobody is at the machine. For now it cannot be chosen: see below.

When I'm away

Starts runs when the screen is locked, or nobody has touched the machine for 10 minutes. For now it cannot be chosen either.

Some work would start with nobody at the machine: Nights, When I'm away, a queued run that comes up while you are away, a routine's run, and work sent from the dashboard. Whether that may start is one setting of Splitterm's, not of your machine, and for now it stays off.

While it is off, such work waits for you, and the app says so in one sentence: For now, work starts only in Splitterm on this machine. Nights and When I'm away cannot be chosen, a routine still files its issue but its run waits, and the dashboard sends no work to the machine.

Everything you start at the machine runs as usual: Dispatch, Start now, and Run now on a routine. Nothing on your machine can turn the setting on: no setting, file or switch of its own. If it is turned on later, such work starts by itself in careful mode, where every command asks.

Pause while I share my screen

New runs and notifications wait while you present. Also in the tray menu.

Quiet hours

Desktop notifications wait until quiet hours end. Needs you keeps everything.

Keep this PC awake while running

Only on power. A laptop on battery sleeps as usual.

Start new runs only on power

New runs wait until the machine is plugged in.

The footer of Runs counts the branches on this machine and opens their list. A run's worktree is removed a day after the run ended, and only when its work exists somewhere else: pushed, merged, or with no changes at all. Anything not pushed or not committed is kept, and the list shows what will go and when.

Every request Splitterm makes is logged, with where it went and why. Open What leaves this machine from the This machine sheet, the command palette or Settings > General.