Attention-grabbing session manager for agentic programming on GNOME.
Inspired by attn.
Monitors multiple Claude Code sessions in a sidebar, highlights when one needs your attention, and lets you switch between them without leaving the keyboard.
Session dots in the sidebar change colour as state changes:
| Colour | State | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Gray | Idle | Waiting, no action needed |
| Orange | Working | Actively running / busy |
| Green | Needs input | Waiting at a prompt for your next command |
| Red | Blocked | Paused on a question or permission prompt — needs a decision now |
| Blue | Done | Process has exited |
Ctrl+Shift+A jumps to the next session that needs attention, prioritising blocked (red) sessions over ones simply waiting at a prompt (green).
When gattn is not in focus, a desktop notification fires so you know exactly which session needs you without watching a terminal.
Everything is reachable without a mouse:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+N |
New session |
Ctrl+Shift+W |
Close session |
Ctrl+Shift+R |
Resume latest Claude session in current directory |
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab |
Next / previous session |
Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ or Alt+K / Alt+J |
Previous / next session |
Alt+← / Alt+→ or Alt+H / Alt+L |
Focus sidebar / terminal |
Ctrl+PgUp / Ctrl+PgDn |
Jump to first / last session |
Ctrl+Shift+A |
Jump to next unattended session (blocked first, then needs-input) |
F2 |
Rename session |
Ctrl+F |
Search / filter sessions |
Ctrl+G |
Toggle grid view |
Ctrl+Shift+D |
Show diff |
Ctrl++ / Ctrl+- / Ctrl+0 |
Zoom in / out / reset terminal font |
F11 |
Fullscreen |
In the diff dialog:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Alt+H / Alt+← |
Focus file list |
Alt+L / Alt+→ |
Focus source view |
Alt+K / Alt+↑ |
Previous file |
Alt+J / Alt+↓ |
Next file |
Alt+E |
Explain diff in Claude |
Alt+U |
Use diff in Claude prompt |
Alt+T |
Open in external diff tool |
Ctrl+G switches to a tiled overview of all open sessions at once, so you can spot activity across many agents at a glance.
Ctrl+Shift+D (or the git icon in the sidebar) runs git diff HEAD in the session's live working directory and shows the result with syntax highlighting — red for deletions, green for additions.
When a Claude session spawns sub-agents (parallel tasks), they appear indented under their parent in the sidebar with a robot icon. Their state dots follow the same colour scheme. Long executable paths are shortened to /.../name to keep the sidebar readable. Sub-agents that block on a question turn red, making it easy to spot which one needs a decision — use Ctrl+Shift+A to jump straight to it.
Grab the latest asset from the releases page.
AppImage
chmod +x gattn-*.AppImage && ./gattn-*.AppImageUbuntu / Debian
sudo apt install ./gattn_*.debFedora
sudo dnf install ./gattn-*.rpmNix
nix run github:mmxgn/gattnnix develop
meson setup build && ninja -C build && ./build/gattnGTK 4 · libadwaita · VTE (gtk4 variant) · GtkSourceView 5