A native macOS companion app for the Hermes AI agent.
Full visibility into what Hermes is doing, when, and what it creates.
Available in English, 简体中文, Deutsch, Français, Español, 日本語, and Português (Brasil).
A "projects fundamentals" maintenance release on top of v2.10.0. Six interlocking fixes from user feedback:
- Global
/scarf-*slash commands — six bundled commands (scarf-new,scarf-help,scarf-dashboard,scarf-widget,scarf-cron,scarf-export) available in every chat, not just per-project. Loaded from~/.hermes/scarf/slash-commands/and bootstrapped on launch with the same version-gated upgrade pattern as bundled skills. - Skills sidebar finally shows
scarf-template-author—SkillBootstrapServiceinstalls into~/.hermes/skills/scarf/(matchingSkillsScanner's<category>/<skill>/SKILL.mdlayout) and auto-migrates the old flat install. One-time migration runs at first launch. - Pre-session slash menu — typing
/before opening a chat now shows the full agent-command set greyed-out ("Available once a chat is open") instead of collapsing to just/new. - New-project wizard hand-off — kickoff prompt rewritten with
SKILL:/PROJECT_PATH:anchors that agents reliably treat as invocation markers (vs. the polite "use the skill" sentence agents routinely ignored). Skill-presence preflight incommit()guarantees the bundled skill is on disk beforesession/new. - AGENTS.md
scarf-projectblock: Scarf platform reference — the managed block now describes Scarf's dashboard widget vocabulary, project slash commands, Kanban tenant, model presets, typed config, cron--workdir, skill loading, and template export. Idempotent + secret-safe + capped to ~30 lines. Now refreshed on template install too (previously chat-start only). - Health: capabilities diagnostic panel — raw
hermes --versionline, parsed semver/date, per-release flag list, and a Re-detect button. Capabilities auto-refresh onNSApplication.didBecomeActivesohermes updateoutside Scarf is picked up without a relaunch.
See the full v2.10.1 release notes.
A coordinated catch-up to Hermes v0.15.0 ("The Velocity Release"). v2.10 surfaces the Scarf-relevant slice of the largest Hermes release yet — OpenAI as a first-class provider, the 104-PR Kanban maturation wave, Bitwarden Secrets Manager, MCP mTLS, skill bundles, per-session edit-approval modes, plus ntfy, xAI Web Search, and the xAI model-retirement migration. New v0.15 capability flags gate every surface; pre-v0.15 hosts render byte-identical to v2.9.x. (All flag/config/wire shapes were verified against the v2026.5.28 Hermes source before implementation.)
- OpenAI as a first-class provider — wire ID
openai-api, distinct from the OpenAI Codex runtime, in the Models picker. (Bareopenaistays a Hermes alias to OpenRouter, so it isn't registered separately.) - Krea image generation —
krea-2-medium/krea-2-largejoin the image-gen model list. - xAI May-15 model retirement — retired Grok IDs (
grok-4-0709,grok-4-fast-*,grok-3,grok-code-fast-1, …) resolve forward togrok-4.3so a stored retired model still works, and the Health view warns + offers one-clickhermes migrate xai. - Vercel removed — Vercel AI Gateway (provider) and Vercel Sandbox (terminal backend) were deleted upstream in v0.15 and are dropped from Scarf's pickers.
- Server-side sort (priority / created / status / assignee / title / updated) from the board header.
- Promote, Schedule / Park, and Delete-permanently (
archive --rm) card actions; new Scheduled and Review columns (collapse when empty). - Per-task worktree
--branchon create + a read-only model-override line in the inspector;--boardmulti-board plumbing in the service layer. - Precise chat-scoped board — the chat-header Kanban chip and the board it opens now filter by the originating ACP
session_id(stamped automatically by Hermes), replacing the old tenant + time-window approximation, with a "This chat ⇄ All tasks" scope toggle.
- New Settings → Secrets tab for the
secrets.bitwarden.*block — one bootstrap token (BWS_ACCESS_TOKENin~/.hermes/.env) replaces per-provider API keys. EU Cloud / self-hosted server URLs supported.
- mTLS client certificates (
client_cert/client_key/ssl_verify) for HTTP + SSE MCP servers, in the server editor. - A read-only
hermes mcp catalogbrowse sheet for the Nous-approved MCP catalog.
- A read-only Bundles tab listing the named skill groups in
~/.hermes/skill-bundles/*.yaml— each loadable in Hermes via one/<name>slash command — with each bundle's member skills and instruction.
- A chat-header chip toggles a live session between Default (ask before edits), Accept Edits (auto-allow workspace +
/tmp), and Don't Ask via ACPsession/set_mode. Distinct from the globalapprovals.mode/ YOLO surface; sensitive paths always still prompt.
- ntfy as the 23rd gateway platform (push notifications via a topic URL, no account), plus new per-platform toggles (Telegram
disable_topic_auto_rename/ignore_root_dm, Discordallow_any_attachment, Signal group-onlyrequire_mention). - xAI Web Search as a
web_tools.search.backendoption (reuses your Grok OAuth /XAI_API_KEY), and an opt-in xAI TTSauto_speech_tagstoggle. - Supply-chain audit — a "Run supply-chain audit" button on the Health view runs
hermes audit(OSV.dev) and shows the result inline.
See the full v2.10.0 release notes for the complete list, including the pre-release review fixes and the v2.9 highlights (Hermes v0.14 catch-up: /subgoal + /yolo + /sessions + /codex-runtime slash commands, xAI Grok OAuth + NovitaAI providers, LINE + SimpleX Chat platforms, Brave Search + DuckDuckGo backends, the Hermes Proxy local server) which are all still in play.
Previous releases: see the Release Notes Index on the wiki for v2.7, v2.6, v2.5, v2.3, v2.2, v2.0, v1.6, and earlier.
Same Hermes server you've been running on your Mac — reachable from your phone over SSH. Multi-server, project-scoped chat, session resume, memory editor, cron list, skills tree, settings (read), all native iOS. Pure-Swift SSH (Citadel under the hood — no ssh binary needed on iOS). Per-project chat writes the same Scarf-managed AGENTS.md block the Mac app does, so the agent boots with the same project context regardless of which client opened the session.
Join the public TestFlight — the link is live now but only accepts new beta testers once Apple's Beta Review approves the first build. If you hit a "not accepting testers" splash, bookmark it and try again in 24–48h.
Tap any thumbnail to view full size. Servers list · Chat · Project dashboard (Site Status Checker template) · Skills browser · System tab.
See the ScarfGo wiki page for the full feature tour, ScarfGo Onboarding for the SSH-key setup walkthrough, and Platform Differences for what is and isn't shared between Mac and iOS.
ScarfGo speaks SSH directly — no companion service, no developer-controlled server in between. Onboarding takes about a minute:
- Install via TestFlight. Open the public TestFlight link on your phone, accept the invite, install ScarfGo from TestFlight (just like any other beta).
- Tap Add Server. Enter the host (IP or DNS), SSH user, port (default 22), and an optional nickname. Same details you'd type into
ssh user@host. - Generate Key. ScarfGo creates a fresh Ed25519 keypair on the device. The private half lives in the iOS Keychain (
kSecAttrAccessibleAfterFirstUnlockThisDeviceOnly) and is excluded from iCloud sync — it never leaves the phone. - Add the public key to your Hermes host. Tap Copy public key, then on the host run:
This is its own line per device — the convention any second SSH client uses. Mac (Scarf) keeps using your existing ssh-agent /
cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys <<'EOF' <paste the line ScarfGo showed you> EOF chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
~/.ssh/configand is unaffected. - Tap Test connection. ScarfGo opens an SSH session, probes for the
hermesbinary, and saves the server on success. If it can't findhermes, see the troubleshooting section — it's almost always aPATHquirk on non-interactive SSH.
Done. Open the Dashboard tab and tap any session to resume it; tap the + in Chat to start a new project-scoped session.
Scarf 2.0 is a multi-window app. Each window is bound to exactly one Hermes server — your local ~/.hermes/ is synthesized automatically, and you can add remotes via File → Open Server… → Add Server (host, user, port, optional identity file). Open a second window for a different server and the two run side-by-side with independent state.
Remote Hermes is reached over system SSH — the same ~/.ssh/config, ssh-agent, ProxyJump, and ControlMaster pooling your terminal uses. File I/O flows through scp/sftp; SQLite is served from atomic sqlite3 .backup snapshots cached under ~/Library/Caches/scarf/snapshots/<server-id>/; chat (ACP) tunnels as ssh -T host -- hermes acp with JSON-RPC over stdio end-to-end. Everything in the feature list below works against remote identically to local.
The remote host must have:
- SSH access — key-based auth via your local ssh-agent. Scarf never prompts for passphrases; run
ssh-addonce in Terminal before connecting. sqlite3on the remote$PATH— needed for the atomic DB snapshots. Install on the remote withapt install sqlite3(Ubuntu/Debian),yum install sqlite(RHEL/Fedora), orapk add sqlite(Alpine).pgrepon the remote$PATH— used by the Dashboard "is Hermes running" check. Standard on every distro; installprocpsif missing.~/.hermes/readable by the SSH user. When Hermes runs as a separate user (systemd service, Docker container), the SSH user needs read access toconfig.yamlandstate.db. Either (a) SSH as the Hermes user, (b)chmodHermes's home to be group-readable and add your SSH user to that group, or (c) set the Hermes data directory field when adding the server to point at the right location (e.g./var/lib/hermes/.hermes).
If the connection pill is green but the Dashboard shows "Stopped", "unknown", or empty values, the SSH user can't read the Hermes state files. Open Manage Servers → 🩺 Run Diagnostics (or click the yellow "Can't read Hermes state" pill in the toolbar). The diagnostics sheet runs fourteen checks in one SSH session — connectivity, sqlite3 presence, read access to config.yaml and state.db, the effective non-login $PATH — and tells you exactly which one fails and why, with remediation hints for each. Use the Copy Full Report button to paste the full output into a bug report.
For the common "Hermes isn't at the default path" case (systemd services, Docker), Test Connection in the Add Server sheet now probes /var/lib/hermes/.hermes, /opt/hermes/.hermes, /home/hermes/.hermes, and /root/.hermes when it can't find state.db at ~/.hermes/, and offers a one-click fill if it finds any of them.
Scarf mirrors Hermes's surface area through a sidebar-based UI. Sections below map 1:1 to the app's sidebar.
- Dashboard — System health, token usage, cost tracking, recent sessions with live refresh
- Insights — Usage analytics with token breakdown (including reasoning tokens), cost tracking, model/platform stats, top tools bar chart, activity heatmaps, notable sessions, and time period filtering (7/30/90 days or all time)
- Sessions Browser — Full conversation history with message rendering, model reasoning/thinking display, tool call inspection, full-text search, rename, delete, and JSONL export. Subagent sessions are filtered from the main list and accessible via parent session drill-down
- Activity Feed — Recent tool execution log with filtering by kind and session, detail inspector with pretty-printed arguments and tool output display
- Live Chat — Two modes: Rich Chat streams responses in real-time via the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) with iMessage-style bubbles, markdown rendering, tool call visualization, thinking/reasoning display, permission request dialogs, and a one-click
/compressfocus sheet (when Hermes advertises the command); Terminal runshermes chatwith full ANSI color and Rich formatting via SwiftTerm. Both modes support session persistence, resume/continue previous sessions, auto-reconnection with session recovery, and voice mode controls - Memory Viewer/Editor — View and edit Hermes's MEMORY.md and USER.md with live file-watcher refresh, external memory provider awareness (Honcho, Supermemory, etc.), and profile-scoped memory support with profile picker
- Skills Browser — Browse installed skills by category with file content viewer and required config warnings. New in 1.6: Browse the Skills Hub, search by registry (official, skills.sh, well-known, GitHub, ClawHub, LobeHub), install, check for updates, and uninstall — all from the app
- Platforms — Native GUI setup for all 13 messaging platforms (Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, Matrix, Mattermost, Feishu, iMessage, Home Assistant, Webhook, CLI). Per-platform forms write credentials to
~/.hermes/.envand behavior toggles to~/.hermes/config.yaml. WhatsApp and Signal pairing use an inline SwiftTerm terminal for QR scan and signal-cli daemon management - Personalities — List defined personalities, pick the active one, and edit
SOUL.mdinline with markdown preview - Quick Commands — Editor for custom
/command_nameshell shortcuts with dangerous-pattern detection (rm -rf,mkfs, etc.) - Credential Pools — Per-provider credential rotation with a fixed OAuth flow (URL extraction + browser open + code paste) and proper
--type api-keyhandling. API keys never stored in UI state — only last-4 preview. Strategy picker (fill_first / round_robin / least_used / random) - Plugins — Install via Git URL or
owner/repo, update, remove, enable/disable. Reads~/.hermes/plugins/directly for reliable state - Webhooks — Create, list, test-fire, and remove webhook subscriptions. Detects the "platform not enabled" state and links to gateway setup
- Profiles — Switch between multiple isolated Hermes instances. Create, rename, delete, export (zip), import. Safe-switch warning reminds users to restart Scarf after activating a different profile
- Hermes Proxy (new in 2.9, Hermes v0.14+) — Launch the OpenAI-compatible local proxy that forwards requests to your OAuth-authenticated upstream provider (Nous Portal in v0.14; more adapters as Hermes adds them). Status card with running/stopped badge, endpoint URL with copy button (
http://127.0.0.1:8645/v1), provider picker, live log tail, and a usage-help card. Point Codex CLI / Aider / Cline / VS Code Continue at the endpoint and any bearer token works — the proxy attaches your real credential
- Tools — Enable/disable toolsets per platform with a connectivity-aware platform menu (green/orange/grey/red dots for connected/configured/offline/error). Fixed in 1.6: all 13 platforms now appear (was previously stuck on CLI)
- MCP Servers — Manage Model Context Protocol servers Hermes connects to. Add via curated presets (GitHub, Linear, Notion, Sentry, Stripe, and more) or fully custom (stdio command + args, or HTTP URL with optional bearer auth). Per-server detail view with enable/disable toggle, environment variable + header editor, tool-include/exclude filters, resources/prompts toggles, request and connect timeouts, OAuth token detection + clearing, and one-click "Test Connection" that runs
hermes mcp testand surfaces the discovered tool list. Gateway-restart banner appears after config changes that require a reload - Gateway Control — Start/stop/restart the messaging gateway, view platform connection status, manage user pairing (approve/revoke)
- Cron Manager — View scheduled jobs with pre-run scripts, delivery failure tracking, timeout info, and
[SILENT]job indicators. New in 1.6: full write support — create, edit, pause, resume, run-now, and delete jobs from the app - Health — Component-level status and diagnostics. New in 1.6: inline "Run Dump" and "Share Debug Report" buttons (the latter with an upload-confirmation dialog before sending to Nous support)
- Log Viewer — Real-time log tailing for agent.log, errors.log, and gateway.log with level filtering, component filter (Gateway / Agent / Tools / CLI / Cron), clickable session-ID pills that filter to a single session, and text search
- Settings — Restructured in 1.6 into a 10-tab layout: General, Display, Agent, Terminal, Browser, Voice, Memory, Aux Models, Security, Advanced. Exposes ~60 previously hidden config fields including all 8 auxiliary model tasks, container limits, full TTS/STT provider settings, human-delay simulation, compression thresholds, logging rotation, checkpoints, website blocklist, Tirith sandbox, and delegation. One-click Backup & Restore via
hermes backup/hermes import. Model picker replaces the old free-text model field, backed by the models.dev cache (111 providers, all major models) with a "Custom…" escape hatch
Custom, agent-generated dashboards for any project. Define stat boxes, charts, tables, progress bars, checklists, rich text, and embedded web views in a simple JSON file — Scarf renders them with live refresh. Let your Hermes agent build and maintain project-specific visualizations automatically. See Project Dashboards below for the full schema.
- Hermes Process Control — Start, stop, and restart the Hermes agent directly from Scarf
- Menu Bar — Status icon showing Hermes running state with quick actions
- macOS 14.6+ (Sonoma) for Scarf
- iOS 18.0+ for ScarfGo (the iPhone companion, public TestFlight from v2.5)
- Xcode 16.0+ to build from source
- Hermes agent v0.6.0+ installed at
~/.hermes/on each target host (v0.15.0+ recommended for full v2.10 feature support — OpenAIopenai-apifirst-class provider, Krea image-gen models, xAI model-retirement aliases +hermes migrate xai(Vercel removed), xAI Web Search backend, ntfy as the 23rd gateway platform + per-platform flags, xAI TTSauto_speech_tags, the Kanban v0.15 wave (server-side--sort, Promote / Schedule / Delete-permanently actions, Scheduled + Review columns, worktree--branch+model_overridedisplay, session-scoped board,--boardplumbing), Bitwarden Secrets Manager, MCP mTLS client certs +hermes mcp catalogbrowse, the skill Bundles tab, per-session edit-approval modes (session/set_mode), and the Health supply-chain audit. v0.14.0 still works for the v2.9 surface —/subgoal//yolo//sessions//codex-runtime, xAI Grok OAuth + NovitaAI, LINE + SimpleX Chat, Brave Search + DuckDuckGo, Hermes Proxy, etc.) - For remote servers: SSH access (key-based),
sqlite3on the remote (for atomic DB snapshots), and thehermesCLI resolvable from the remote user'sPATHor at a path you specify per server. ScarfGo requires the same on every Hermes host it connects to.
Scarf reads Hermes's SQLite database and parses CLI output from hermes status, hermes doctor, hermes tools, hermes sessions, hermes gateway, and hermes pairing. Automatic schema detection provides backward compatibility with older databases while supporting new features in newer Hermes versions.
| Hermes Version | Status |
|---|---|
| v0.6.0 (2026-03-30) | Verified |
| v0.7.0 (2026-04-03) | Verified |
| v0.8.0 (2026-04-08) | Verified |
| v0.9.0 (2026-04-13) | Verified |
| v0.10.0 (2026-04-16) | Verified (Tool Gateway introduced) |
| v0.11.0 (2026-04-23) | Verified |
| v0.12.0 (2026-04-30) | Verified |
| v0.13.0 (2026-05-07) | Verified |
| v0.14.0 (2026-05-16) | Verified |
| v0.15.0 (2026-05-28) | Verified |
| v0.15.1 (2026-05-29) | Verified — hotfix wave (dashboard, Docker, MCP, Kanban worker, skills.sh, /yolo, /model) |
| v0.15.2 (2026-05-29) | Verified — current target (recommended for full v2.10 feature support) |
Scarf 2.10 targets Hermes v0.15.0 for OpenAI as a first-class provider (openai-api, distinct from OpenAI Codex), Krea image-generation models, the xAI May-15 model-retirement aliases + hermes migrate xai action (Vercel AI Gateway + Sandbox removed), the xAI Web Search backend, ntfy as the 23rd gateway platform + per-platform flags (Telegram disable_topic_auto_rename / ignore_root_dm, Discord allow_any_attachment, Signal require_mention), the xAI TTS auto_speech_tags toggle, the Kanban v0.15 maturation wave (server-side --sort, Promote / Schedule / Delete-permanently actions, Scheduled + Review columns, worktree --branch + read-only model_override, the session-scoped board via ACP session_id, and --board plumbing), Bitwarden Secrets Manager, MCP mTLS client certificates + hermes mcp catalog browse, the skill Bundles tab, per-session edit-approval modes (session/set_mode), and the Health supply-chain audit (hermes audit). Every v0.15 surface is capability-gated — Scarf detects the host's Hermes version once per server connection (hermes --version → semver + YYYY.M.D parse) and hides v0.15-only UI on older hosts. v0.14.0 hosts keep the full v2.9 surface (/subgoal + /yolo + /sessions + /codex-runtime, xAI Grok OAuth + NovitaAI, LINE + SimpleX Chat, Brave Search + DuckDuckGo, Hermes Proxy, ACP --setup-browser, the YOLO warning, the Qwen Cloud rename). v0.13.0 hosts keep the full v2.8 surface (Persistent Goals, ACP /queue, Kanban v0.13 diagnostics, Curator archive/prune, Google Chat, MCP SSE transport, per-capability Web Tools backends). Earlier Hermes versions remain supported for monitoring, sessions, file-based features, and ACP chat; new behavior degrades gracefully on older agents.
If a Hermes update changes the database schema or CLI output format, Scarf may need to be updated. Check the Health view for compatibility warnings.
Download the latest build from Releases:
Scarf-vX.X.X-Universal.zip— Apple Silicon + Intel (recommended)Scarf-vX.X.X-ARM64.zip— Apple Silicon only (smaller download)
- Unzip and drag Scarf.app to Applications
- Launch normally — builds are Developer ID signed and notarized, so Gatekeeper accepts them on first launch
Scarf checks for updates automatically on launch via Sparkle and daily thereafter. You can disable automatic checks or trigger a manual check from Settings → General → Updates or the menu bar icon.
If Gatekeeper rejects the app on first launch (occasionally happens on macOS 14+ for zip-distributed apps depending on extraction tool + quarantine state), the bundle itself is fine — every release is verified to pass codesign --verify --strict --deep and spctl --assess --type execute before it ships. The fix is to only remove the quarantine attribute, never strip all xattrs or re-sign:
# Recommended — non-destructive
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Scarf.app
# Or extract with ditto instead of double-clicking the zip:
ditto -xk ~/Downloads/Scarf-vX.X.X-Universal.zip ~/Downloads/Do not run xattr -rc /Applications/Scarf.app — it strips codesign-related extended attributes and can break the bundle's seal. Do not run codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/Scarf.app — --deep ad-hoc re-signing is incompatible with Sparkle.framework's nested XPC services and Updater.app sub-bundle, and will corrupt the framework signature even if the outer app appears intact afterward. If a clean re-download + xattr -d com.apple.quarantine doesn't resolve the issue, please open an issue with codesign --verify --verbose=4 --strict /Applications/Scarf.app output captured before any mitigation attempts.
git clone https://github.com/awizemann/scarf.git
cd scarf/scarf
open scarf.xcodeprojOr from the command line:
xcodebuild -project scarf/scarf.xcodeproj -scheme scarf -configuration Release -arch arm64 -arch x86_64 ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH=NO buildFor an unsigned local Debug build without an Apple Developer account (handy for contributors), use ./scripts/local-build.sh — see BUILDING.md for prerequisites.
Scarf follows the MVVM-Feature pattern with zero external dependencies beyond SwiftTerm:
scarf/
Core/
Models/ Plain data structs (HermesSession, HermesMessage, HermesConfig, etc.)
Services/ Data access (SQLite reader, file I/O, log tailing, file watcher)
Features/ Self-contained feature modules
Dashboard/ System overview and stats
Insights/ Usage analytics and activity patterns
Sessions/ Conversation browser with rename, delete, export
Activity/ Tool execution feed with inspector
Projects/ Agent-generated project dashboards with widget rendering
Chat/ Rich ACP chat and embedded terminal with voice controls
Memory/ Memory viewer and editor
Skills/ Skill browser by category
Tools/ Toolset management per platform
MCPServers/ MCP server registry, presets, OAuth, tool filters, test runner
Gateway/ Messaging gateway control and pairing
Cron/ Scheduled job viewer
Logs/ Real-time log viewer
Settings/ Structured config editor
Navigation/ AppCoordinator + SidebarView
Scarf reads Hermes data directly from ~/.hermes/:
| Source | Format | Access |
|---|---|---|
state.db |
SQLite (WAL mode) | Read-only |
config.yaml |
YAML | Read-only |
memories/*.md |
Markdown | Read/Write |
cron/jobs.json |
JSON | Read-only |
logs/*.log |
Text | Read-only |
gateway_state.json |
JSON | Read-only |
skills/ |
Directory tree | Read-only |
hermes acp |
ACP subprocess (JSON-RPC stdio) | Real-time chat |
hermes chat |
Terminal subprocess | Interactive |
hermes tools |
CLI commands | Enable/Disable |
hermes sessions |
CLI commands | Rename/Delete/Export |
hermes gateway |
CLI commands | Start/Stop/Restart |
hermes pairing |
CLI commands | Approve/Revoke |
hermes mcp |
CLI commands | Add/Remove/Test MCP servers |
mcp-tokens/*.json |
JSON (per-server OAuth) | Detect/Delete |
.scarf/dashboard.json |
JSON (per-project) | Read-only |
scarf/projects.json |
JSON (registry) | Read/Write |
The app opens state.db in read-only mode to avoid WAL contention with Hermes. Management actions (tool toggles, session rename/delete/export) go through the Hermes CLI.
| Package | Purpose |
|---|---|
| SwiftTerm | Terminal emulator for the Chat feature |
| Sparkle | Auto-updates from the GitHub-hosted appcast |
Everything else uses system frameworks: SQLite3 C API, Foundation JSON, AttributedString markdown, SwiftUI Charts, GCD file watching.
Scarf watches ~/.hermes/ for file changes and queries the SQLite database for sessions, messages, and analytics. Views refresh automatically when Hermes writes new data.
The Chat tab has two modes. Rich Chat communicates with Hermes via the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) — a JSON-RPC connection over stdio — streaming responses in real-time with automatic reconnection and session recovery on connection loss. Terminal mode spawns hermes chat in a pseudo-terminal for the full interactive CLI experience with proper ANSI rendering. Sessions persist across navigation in both modes — switch tabs and come back without losing your conversation.
Management actions (renaming sessions, toggling tools, editing memory) call the Hermes CLI or write directly to the appropriate files, keeping Scarf and Hermes in sync.
The app sandbox is disabled because Scarf needs direct access to ~/.hermes/ and the ability to spawn the Hermes binary.
Project Dashboards turn Scarf into a customizable monitoring hub for all your projects. You define a simple JSON file in your project folder describing what to display — stat boxes, charts, tables, progress bars, checklists, rich text, and embedded web views — and Scarf renders it as a live-updating dashboard. Your Hermes agent can generate and maintain these dashboards automatically.
- Development dashboards — test coverage, build status, open issues, sprint progress
- Data project trackers — pipeline metrics, data quality scores, processing throughput
- Deployment monitors — deploy history tables, uptime stats, error rate charts
- Research dashboards — experiment results, key findings, paper status checklists
- Agent activity views — cron job results, content generation stats, task completion rates
- Embedded web apps — local dev servers, HTML reports, Grafana dashboards, any web-based tool your agent generates
- Any project status — if your agent can measure it, Scarf can display it
1. Create the dashboard file
Create .scarf/dashboard.json in any project folder:
{
"version": 1,
"title": "My Project",
"description": "Project status at a glance",
"sections": [
{
"title": "Overview",
"columns": 3,
"widgets": [
{
"type": "stat",
"title": "Test Coverage",
"value": "87%",
"icon": "checkmark.shield",
"color": "green",
"subtitle": "+2.1% this week"
},
{
"type": "progress",
"title": "Sprint Progress",
"value": 0.73,
"label": "73% complete",
"color": "blue"
},
{
"type": "list",
"title": "Tasks",
"items": [
{ "text": "Write unit tests", "status": "done" },
{ "text": "Update API docs", "status": "active" },
{ "text": "Deploy to prod", "status": "pending" }
]
}
]
}
]
}2. Register your project
Have your agent append a {name, path} entry directly to the registry at ~/.hermes/scarf/projects.json — Scarf watches the file and picks up the change on the next sidebar refresh, no manual UI step needed:
{
"projects": [
{ "name": "my-project", "path": "/Users/you/Developer/my-project" }
]
}(You can also add the folder by hand in Scarf via Projects → + if you'd rather click than edit JSON — both paths write to the same file.)
3. View in Scarf
Select your project in the Projects sidebar — the dashboard renders immediately. Scarf watches the file for changes and refreshes automatically whenever the JSON is updated.
| Type | Description | Key Fields |
|---|---|---|
stat |
Key metric with large value display | value, icon, color, subtitle |
progress |
Progress bar with label | value (0.0–1.0), label, color |
text |
Rich text block | content, format ("markdown" or "plain") |
table |
Data table with headers | columns, rows |
chart |
Line, bar, or pie chart | chartType, series (each with name, color, data) |
list |
Checklist with status indicators | items (each with text, status: done/active/pending) |
webview |
Embedded web browser | url, height (default 400) |
The webview widget embeds a live web browser directly in your dashboard — perfect for displaying local dev servers, HTML reports, or any web-based tool your agent generates.
When a dashboard includes a webview widget, Scarf adds a tabbed interface: Dashboard shows your normal widgets, Site shows the web content full-canvas with clean margins — using the entire available space in the app. This gives you the best of both worlds: compact metrics at a glance, and a full embedded browser when you need it.
{
"type": "webview",
"title": "Project Report",
"url": "http://localhost:8000/dashboard",
"height": 500
}url: Any URL — typically a local server (http://localhost:...) or file pathheight: Height in points when displayed as an inline widget card (default: 400). The Site tab always uses full available space regardless of this setting.
Colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, teal, indigo, mint, brown, gray
Icons: Any SF Symbol name (e.g., checkmark.shield, cpu, doc.text, chart.bar)
The real power is letting your Hermes agent build and update dashboards automatically. Add instructions like this to your agent's context:
Analyze this project and create a
.scarf/dashboard.jsondashboard with relevant metrics and status. Use stat widgets for key numbers, charts for trends, tables for structured data, lists for task tracking, and a webview widget if the project has a local web server or HTML reports. Register the project by appending a{name, path}entry to~/.hermes/scarf/projects.jsonif not already registered — Scarf picks up the change on next sidebar refresh.
Your agent can update the dashboard as part of cron jobs, after builds, or whenever project state changes. Since Scarf watches the file, updates appear in real-time.
{
"version": 1,
"title": "Required — dashboard title",
"description": "Optional — subtitle text",
"updatedAt": "Optional — ISO 8601 timestamp",
"sections": [
{
"title": "Section Name",
"columns": 3,
"widgets": [{ "type": "...", "title": "..." }]
}
]
}Each section defines a grid with 1–4 columns. Widgets flow left-to-right, wrapping to new rows. See DASHBOARD_SCHEMA.md for the full schema reference with examples of every widget type.
Scarf ships through GitHub releases — the App Store is not supported because Scarf spawns the user-installed hermes binary and reads ~/.hermes/ directly, both of which App Sandbox forbids.
Each release goes through a single local script: scripts/release.sh. The script archives a universal binary, signs it with the Developer ID Application cert, submits to notarytool, staples the ticket, produces the distribution zip, signs an appcast entry with Sparkle's EdDSA key, pushes an updated appcast.xml to the gh-pages branch, creates the GitHub release, and tags main.
The Sparkle appcast is served from awizemann.github.io/scarf/appcast.xml.
Signing prerequisites (one-time):
Developer ID Applicationcertificate in the login Keychainscarf-notarykeychain profile registered viaxcrun notarytool store-credentials- Sparkle EdDSA private key in Keychain item
https://sparkle-project.org(back this up — without it, shipped apps can never receive updates)
Community-contributed Scarf project templates live under templates/ in this repo and are browsable at awizemann.github.io/scarf/templates/ with live dashboard previews and one-click scarf://install?url=… links.
- Install from the web — click "Install with Scarf" on any template's detail page; the app takes over from there.
- Install from a local file — Scarf → Projects → Templates → Install from File…, or double-click any
.scarftemplatein Finder. - Author a template — see
templates/CONTRIBUTING.mdfor the full walkthrough. Fork, drop a template undertemplates/<your-github-handle>/<your-name>/, open a PR; CI validates the bundle automatically.
The catalog's site is a static HTML + vanilla JS build generated by tools/build-catalog.py and driven by scripts/catalog.sh (check / build / preview / publish). Appcast and main landing page are independent — updating the catalog never disturbs Sparkle.
Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue to discuss what you'd like to change before submitting a PR.
- Fork the repo
- Create your feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/my-feature) - Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add my feature') - Push to the branch (
git push origin feature/my-feature) - Open a Pull Request
For template submissions, see templates/CONTRIBUTING.md — same flow, with a catalog-specific checklist + automated CI validation.
If you find Scarf useful, consider buying me a coffee.




