Sidecar Dashboard
Sidecar is a multi-pane TUI (Terminal User Interface) that runs alongside AI coding agents. It gives you real-time visibility into tasks, git status, files, agent conversations, and Rigbox workspace metrics — all without leaving the terminal. Rigbox ships a fork with a dedicated Rigbox plugin for workspace monitoring.
Launch
Sidecar opens a full-terminal TUI with tabbed panels. Use Tab / Shift+Tab to switch between panels.
Run sidecar in a tmux pane alongside your AI agent. This lets you monitor what the agent is doing in real-time without interrupting it.# Split terminal horizontally
tmux split-window -h 'sidecar'
Panels
Sidecar organizes information into tabbed panels. Each panel focuses on a different aspect of your development workflow.
TD Monitor
Integrates with td to show your task management state:
- Focused task — the task you’re currently working on (
td start)
- Task list — all tasks with status indicators and priority
- Activity log — recent logs, handoffs, and status changes with session context
- Review queue — tasks awaiting review
This panel reads directly from td’s local SQLite database (.todos/db.sqlite), so it updates in real-time as you or your agent runs td commands.
Git Status
A split-pane git interface for monitoring changes:
- Staged files — ready to commit
- Modified files — changed but not staged
- Untracked files — new files not yet tracked
- Inline diffs — see what changed without leaving sidecar
| Key | Action |
|---|
s | Stage selected file |
u | Unstage selected file |
d | View diff for selected file |
v | Toggle side-by-side diff view |
File Browser
Navigate your project structure with a collapsible directory tree:
- Expandable folder navigation
- Code preview with syntax highlighting for the selected file
- Auto-refreshes when files change on disk
Useful for quickly checking what files an agent has created or modified.
Conversations
Unified view of AI agent session history across supported tools:
- Claude Code sessions
- Codex CLI sessions
- Gemini CLI sessions
- GitHub Copilot sessions
- Other agents detected in the workspace
Each session shows:
- Start time and duration
- Token usage (input/output)
- Session status
| Key | Action |
|---|
/ | Search sessions |
Enter | View session details |
Workspaces
Manage parallel development branches:
- Create and delete workspaces (git branches as sibling directories)
- Link td tasks to workspaces
- Launch coding agents directly from the panel
| Key | Action |
|---|
m | Merge workflow: commit → push → create PR → cleanup |
Rigbox Panel
This panel only appears when sidecar is running inside a Rigbox workspace. It detects the environment automatically.
- Workspace name and ID
- Running/stopped status with colored indicator
- Last task sync time and status
Tasks
- Aggregated task counts by status: Open, In Progress, In Review, Closed
- Sourced from td’s local database
Resources
- CPU usage (%) with warning thresholds at 50% and 80%
- RAM usage (MB used / total)
- Disk usage (GB used / total)
Apps
- List of running apps with port numbers
- Status indicators (running/stopped)
- Public URLs when available
AI Credits
- Credit balance with progress bar
- 7-day usage statistics (credits consumed, request count)
- Active AI agents with PID and status
- Credit mode (free/pro)
The Rigbox panel polls the platform API every 10 seconds for fresh metrics. Press r to refresh manually.
Global Keyboard Shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|
Tab / Shift+Tab | Switch between panels |
r | Refresh current panel data |
/ | Search within the current panel |
q | Quit sidecar |
? | Show help |
How Sidecar Reads Data
Sidecar pulls from multiple sources to build its dashboard:
| Data | Source | Update frequency |
|---|
| Tasks | .todos/db.sqlite (td’s local database) | Real-time |
| Task sync status | .todos/.rigbox-sync | Real-time |
| Git status | Local git repository | On file change |
| File tree | Local filesystem | On file change |
| Agent sessions | Agent log files in workspace | On change |
| Workspace metrics | Rigbox API (GET /workspaces/{id}/metrics) | Every 10s |
| App status | Rigbox API (GET /workspaces/{id}) | Every 10s |
| AI credits | Rigbox API (GET /users/me/credits) | Every 10s |
Typical Setup
The most effective way to use sidecar is in a split terminal — one pane for your agent, one for sidecar:
# Option 1: tmux (recommended)
tmux new-session -d -s dev 'sidecar'
tmux split-window -h
tmux attach -t dev
# Option 2: run sidecar in background, switch with Ctrl+B then arrow keys
- Watch the agent create tasks and log progress in the TD Monitor panel
- See files change in real-time in the Git Status panel
- Monitor resource usage to know if the workspace needs more RAM/CPU
- Check credit balance to know when to switch to BYOK mode
Configuration
Sidecar uses a plugin-based architecture. Plugins are loaded automatically based on what’s available in the workspace:
- td plugin loads if
.todos/ directory exists
- git plugin loads if the directory is a git repository
- rigbox plugin loads if
/etc/rigbox/workspace.json exists (automatic in Rigbox VMs)
- conversations plugin loads if agent session files are detected
No manual configuration is needed — sidecar adapts to whatever tools are present.
Credits
Sidecar was originally created by Marcus Vorwaller and is distributed under the MIT License. Rigbox maintains a fork with an added Rigbox workspace plugin for metrics, apps, credits, and task sync display.
Next Steps
