# Canopod > Canopod is a free, open-source Git worktree and local development service manager with an optional local MCP server for coding agents. Documentation for Canopod 0.5.0. Canopod manages Git worktrees, configured development services, ports, logs, terminals, and Postgres database workflows on your own machine. Its source license is AGPL-3.0-only, and downloads are free. The optional MCP server uses Streamable HTTP on loopback. MCP is off by default. Access is granted per registered repository and capability. It can expose cached status, bounded redacted logs and configuration; create worktrees and run configured setup; manage configured services; and update supported configuration fields with revision checks. It exposes no general shell tool. Dedicated worktree-removal and database-management tools are not exposed in version 0.5. Configured setup and service commands do execute; configuration permission can change an existing service command. Remote MCP exposure is unsupported. Claude Code and Codex have client setup support. The packaged canopod-backend supports headless operation. The desktop app and an independent headless backend must not own the same runtime directories at the same time. macOS on Apple Silicon is the validated desktop platform. Linux and Windows packages compile and ship but remain experimental and have not been validated on a desktop. There is no Intel Mac build. The macOS app is not notarized, and the Windows installer is not code-signed. Follow the installation guide for your platform. Database tooling is Postgres-specific. Other databases can run as services. Canopod sends no analytics; release checks and update downloads contact GitHub. Connected coding agents have their own data handling settings. The limitations and security pages describe the current boundaries. This optional index helps readers and tools find public documentation. It does not grant permissions or guarantee search or AI visibility. ## Start here - [Canopod documentation](https://docs.canopod.com/content/index.md): Install Canopod, create your first Git worktree, configure local services, and connect Claude Code or Codex through MCP. Guides and reference for version 0.5. - [What Canopod is](https://docs.canopod.com/content/overview.md): What Canopod does, the words it uses for things, and the two windows you'll spend time in. - [MCP and coding agents](https://docs.canopod.com/content/mcp.md): Connect Claude Code, Codex or another local MCP client to Canopod with explicit repository and capability grants. - [Install on macOS](https://docs.canopod.com/content/install-macos.md): Homebrew or the DMG, the one line that clears quarantine, and what you need installed first. - [Install on Windows](https://docs.canopod.com/content/install-windows.md): The Windows build, what's ported, and what nobody has tested yet. - [Install on Linux](https://docs.canopod.com/content/install-linux.md): The .deb, .rpm and AppImage, the system packages they need, and why the tray behaves differently here. - [Your first worktree](https://docs.canopod.com/content/first-worktree.md): Create a branch's worktree, watch it install itself, start it, work in it, and throw it away. - [Services and ports](https://docs.canopod.com/content/services-ports.md): How to define a service, and the formula that keeps five branches from fighting over the same port. - [Databases](https://docs.canopod.com/content/databases.md): A database per branch, where the name comes from, and everything the database dialog can do to it. - [Security](https://docs.canopod.com/content/security.md): Canopod's trust boundaries, dependency checks, update policy and private vulnerability reporting process. - [Limitations](https://docs.canopod.com/content/limitations.md): Everything 0.5.0 can't do yet, including the screens that exist but aren't wired up, with issue numbers. ## Documentation - [Adding a repository](https://docs.canopod.com/content/onboarding.md): Point Canopod at a repository and watch what it finds, what it proposes, and what it writes to disk. - [The main window](https://docs.canopod.com/content/main-window.md): Every region of the window: the top bar, the sidebar, the worktree bar, the rail, the panes and the status bar. - [The next action](https://docs.canopod.com/content/next-action.md): Canopod picks the one thing worth doing next in each worktree. Here's how it decides, and where it tells you. - [Worktrees](https://docs.canopod.com/content/worktrees.md): Creating, switching, pulling, committing, removing and pruning, with the git command behind each one. - [Logs](https://docs.canopod.com/content/logs.md): One merged stream per worktree, filters that stay out of the way, and a crash you can fix without leaving. - [Terminals and agents](https://docs.canopod.com/content/agents-terminals.md): Real shells per worktree, coding agents that start knowing where they are, and the handoff Canopod writes for them. - [The menu-bar popover](https://docs.canopod.com/content/popover.md): The menu-bar list: start something, stop it, open it, and get back to what you were doing. - [Palette and overview](https://docs.canopod.com/content/palette-overview.md): The command palette for running an action, and the overview for seeing every worktree at once. - [Keyboard shortcuts](https://docs.canopod.com/content/shortcuts.md): Every key Canopod listens for, grouped by where it works, plus why some of them stand down. - [Application settings](https://docs.canopod.com/content/settings-platform.md): The five settings pages that belong to Canopod itself, and how to get around the Settings window. - [Repository settings](https://docs.canopod.com/content/settings-repository.md): The seven pages that belong to one repository, and which of the two files each one writes. - [Where settings live](https://docs.canopod.com/content/settings-storage.md): Every file and storage key Canopod writes, where it lives on each platform, and which ones you can safely edit. - [.worktreemanager.json](https://docs.canopod.com/content/config-worktreemanager.md): The file that makes a branch's setup travel with it. Every field, where it's read from, and worked examples. - [Template variables](https://docs.canopod.com/content/config-variables.md): Everything you can put in a template or a setup command, and what each one resolves to. - [settings.json & state.json](https://docs.canopod.com/content/config-state.md): What's in Canopod's two machine-local files, field by field, and which one you must never hand-edit. - [Simple web app](https://docs.canopod.com/content/example-simple-web.md): A database-free, dependency-free first project with two branches running on separate ports. - [Node + Postgres app](https://docs.canopod.com/content/example-node-postgres.md): A Vite frontend, an API and one database, taken from an unregistered repo to three branches running at once. - [ToolJet monorepo](https://docs.canopod.com/content/example-tooljet.md): A monorepo with submodules, a plugins build and a strict Node pin. Three common failure modes, and how to avoid them. - [Other stacks](https://docs.canopod.com/content/example-other-stacks.md): Rails, Django, Go, Rust and Docker Compose. What works out of the box, what you write yourself, and what doesn't apply. - [Building from source](https://docs.canopod.com/content/dev-setup.md): Build and run Canopod from source, find your way around the code, and avoid the pitfalls already encountered. - [Building a release](https://docs.canopod.com/content/prod-setup.md): How a Canopod release is built, signed and published, and how this documentation is built and deployed. - [Commands and events](https://docs.canopod.com/content/reference-ipc.md): Every command the frontend can call and every event it can receive, for when you're reading or extending the code. - [Troubleshooting](https://docs.canopod.com/content/troubleshooting.md): Symptom, cause, fix. The failures that actually happen, and what to do about each one. ## Project - [Source code](https://github.com/emidhun/canopod): Public source and AGPL-3.0-only license. - [Releases](https://github.com/emidhun/canopod/releases): Published builds and release notes. - [All page text](https://docs.canopod.com/llms-full.txt): A combined copy of the public pages on this site. - [Canopod website](https://canopod.com/): Features, workflows, and downloads. - [Canopod documentation](https://docs.canopod.com/): Installation, configuration, and MCP setup.