Seance Hub Guide
Brian's L6 setup

Seance Hub Guide

The XPS runs every Claude session. Your Mac and phone are windows onto it.

Circle = a projectA group of panes in the sidebar.
Pane = one workerA Claude session, a shell, or a live doc.
You steer the leadEach circle's lead Claude runs its workers.
Watch it work

What actually happens on screen

A simulation of the Seance window. Pick a scenario.

1/9

Your setup

Where everything runs

TAILSCALE · PRIVATE TO YOUR DEVICES XPS hub always on · lid closed ● Seance: every pane lives here ● Claude sessions (about 3 at once) ● The Brain, main copy ● Phone page (https) reboots and comes back by itself Mac Seance.app window Brain copy Heavy builds (claude-mac) Phone Seance page to watch · Claude app to talk window Brain sync claude-mac phone
Playbook

Five ways to use it

Ongoing projects

Standing project lead

One circle per project (Photo Layer, Follows, GH11) with a lead that stays open and keeps context. Any session can ask it things.

Big questions

Fan-out research

A lead splits the work into workers (Zendesk, Amplitude, Kibana). Each writes a file. The lead waits, then writes one summary.

rwgps-ui changes

Build + review

A claude-mac worker builds. A fresh XPS worker reviews the diff. Your two-reviews rule, with a truly fresh reviewer.

Later or overnight

Queue it

send --queue hands a pane its next task as soon as it goes idle.

Plans and readouts

Live doc

A file pane shows a markdown file rendering live while Claude writes it.

House rules

  • Results go in files, not screens. Leads wait on the file.
  • One code worker per folder. Use lane worktrees for parallel rwgps-ui work.
  • About 3 Claudes on the XPS (8 GB). Heavy work goes to claude-mac.
  • Adding to a running task: note-agent. A second send cancels the first.
  • Hit a usage limit? seance ctl handoff moves the task to a fresh session.

Try it: paste into a lead

You are the lead for this circle. Investigate <question>. Start 3 workers with `seance ctl new --agent claude --task-file`: one on Zendesk, one on Amplitude, one on Kibana. Each writes findings to ~/Claude/Brain/inbox/<date>/<source>.md. Wait for all three with `seance ctl wait --artifact`, then write one plain-language summary and kill the workers.
Daily use

Start a session

PM work · runs on XPS
seance ctl new --name <job> --agent claude

Or press Ctrl+Shift+N and type claude. It asks where to run: Enter for the XPS, m for the MacBook (then a folder, rwgps-ui by default).

rwgps-ui · runs on Mac
seance ctl new --name <job> --agent claude-mac

Type your Mac password once when the pane asks. That unlocks GitHub.

From the phone

Watch: the Seance app icon. Talk: the Claude app, sessions named omarchy-…. Tailscale must be on.

Reference

When you need the details

Handy commands
CommandWhat it does
seance ctl rosterEvery pane and its state
seance ctl read <pane> --lines 40What a pane's screen says
seance ctl send <pane> "do X"Give a pane a task
seance ctl note-agent <pane> "also Y"Add to the task it's already doing
seance ctl pad <pane> --catRead a pane's notes
seance ctl ask --to <circle> "…?"Ask another circle's lead and wait
seance ctl kill <pane>Close a pane
seance ctl doctorHealth check

Shortcuts from the Seance README (Linux names; Mac keys not yet confirmed): Ctrl+Shift+N new pane · W close · S flip to notes · J jump to circle · Z zoom · Space overview.

Which Claude runs where
claudeclaude-mac
Runs onXPSMac, over ssh
Good forPM work, Cadence, Brainrwgps-ui, builds, Playwright, PRs
NeedsNothingMac awake, Remote Login on, Mac password once
In the Claude appYesYes

Seance's built-in profile skips permission checks. Ours (~/.config/seance/agents.json on the XPS) doesn't, so auto mode and the gates still apply.

Which machine is this pane on?
  • Every pane starts on the XPS. Only a claude-mac pane (or typing ssh m5-airball) reaches the Mac.
  • You pick when you start: typing claude in a pane asks. Enter = XPS, m = MacBook for harder work.
  • Check the prompt: the XPS shows a colored bar starting with bhanley. The Mac shows brianhanley@M5-Airball ~ %.
  • Ask Claude: it knows from its start-up note which machine it runs on.
  • From any pane: seance ctl list --json shows each pane's command. claude-mac means Mac.
  • Name Mac panes mac-… so the sidebar tells you at a glance.
  • A pane can't change machines. Start a new pane on the other one and pass the context in a file or with seance ctl tell. ctl handoff only starts the new session on the same machine and folder.
How the Brain stays in sync
  • Session start: pulls the other machine's changes.
  • Session end: commits anything in Brain/ and pushes to the XPS.
  • Also synced: your global CLAUDE.md, hooks, skills, commands (in ~/Claude/dotclaude/).
  • Per machine: settings.json, logins, session history, Brain/inbox/.
  • "rebase failed" means one note changed on both machines. Ask Claude to merge it.
Where things live
WhatWhere
Phone addresshttps://xps.<your-tailnet>.ts.net
Seance on the XPS~/github/zackham/seance, services seance-daemon, seance-web
Seance on the Mac/Applications/Seance.app, source ~/work/seance
Agent profilesXPS ~/.config/seance/agents.json
Full notes~/Claude/Brain/reference/seance-hub.md
Disk header backupMac ~/xps-backup/
Upkeep
  • Upgrade the XPS first, then the Mac. Versions must match.
cd ~/github/zackham/seance && git pull && cargo build --release -j2 && seance upgrade
cd ~/work/seance && git pull && ./scripts/bundle-macos.sh
  • Never pkill seance on the XPS. It ends every session.
  • After a BIOS update, type the disk passphrase once, then re-enroll the TPM.
When something breaks
You seeFix
Seance.app empty or warning barCheck ssh xps; compare Seance versions
Phone page won't loadTurn Tailscale on
claude-mac pane closes at onceWake the Mac; check Remote Login
GitHub fails in claude-macRestart the pane, type the Mac password
XPS slowToo many Claudes; move work to claude-mac