Download

One tarball for Apple silicon Macs: the daemon, the menu bar app, and an install script. Unpack it anywhere and run install.sh; it copies the files to a stable location and registers the launch agent for you.

Download agent-watchdog-darwin-arm64.tar.gzv0.1.0 430 KB

File: agent-watchdog-0.1.0-1745be1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz
Version: 0.1.0
Commit: 1745be1
Built: 18 Sep 2026
Platform: darwin-arm64
Size: 430 KB (440,362 bytes)
SHA-256: a2e9fcb9e5220e39ff1b52dfc3dbc55d6e03333dba177a70457463f2ecabcea8 (.sha256 file)

Install from the terminal

Downloads the stable-named tarball, unpacks it into the current directory, and runs the bundled installer:

curl -fsSL https://agent-watchdog.pages.dev/downloads/agent-watchdog-darwin-arm64.tar.gz | tar -xz && ./agent-watchdog/install.sh

What install.sh does, in order:

Checks that this is macOS on Apple silicon and that a Node 26 or newer binary is on your PATH, and stops with a hint if not.
Removes the quarantine flag macOS puts on browser downloads.
Copies the unpacked tree to ~/.local/share/agent-watchdog (override with --app-dir).
Links agent-watchdog and agent-watchdog-menubar into ~/.local/bin (override with --dir).
Runs agent-watchdog install, which writes the launch agents for the daemon and the menu bar app and starts them. Pass --no-install to stop before this step, or put settings flags after -- to hand them to install, for example ./agent-watchdog/install.sh -- --message-agents.

Afterwards the daemon logs to ~/Library/Logs/agent-watchdog/ and settings live in the config file described in the usage guide. To upgrade, run the same line again with the new tarball; install migrates your settings.

Requirements

A Mac with Apple silicon running macOS 13 or newer.
cmux, the terminal the daemon watches sessions in.
Node 26 or newer on your PATH. With nvm: nvm install 26 && nvm use 26.
Claude Code as the agent (the only provider today).

Downloading with a browser

macOS marks browser downloads as quarantined, and Gatekeeper refuses to start a quarantined binary from a launch agent. install.sh clears the flag before it copies anything. If you unpack the tarball by hand and skip install.sh, clear it yourself from the directory that holds the unpacked files:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine agent-watchdog

To verify the download, compare its checksum with the one above: shasum -a 256 agent-watchdog-darwin-arm64.tar.gz.

Which Node runs the daemon

The launch agent records the exact node binary that ran install, including one that nvm put on your PATH. If you later remove that Node version, the daemon stops starting; run agent-watchdog install again with the new Node on your PATH to point the launch agent at it. install.sh prints the path it is about to use.

Build from source

Intel Macs, older macOS releases, and anyone who wants to change the code can build from a clone: the quick start covers it, and the usage guide applies to both paths once agent-watchdog is on your PATH.