It reads your sessions
The panel lists Claude's sidebar and marks what is still working.
macOS menu bar app · not out yet
One click, a full grid of Claude sessions.
Panes sits in your menu bar. Pick a layout and it opens the split panes for you, filled with the sessions you already have running. No dragging.
- Never moves your mouse
- Reads your sessions
- No telemetry
- macOS 14+
Everything it does, and nothing it doesn't.
It never touches your mouse
Panes open through the accessibility API. Your pointer never moves.
It sends nothing about your work
One call to activate your licence, then never again. No telemetry, no account.
From paid to running, in a minute.
Four steps, and the app tells you what it needs as you go.
- 1
Buy it
Checkout takes a card or Apple Pay. The download link and your licence arrive by email straight after.
- 2
Drag it to Applications
Open it from there rather than from the disk image. A grid icon appears in the menu bar — no window, no Dock icon.
- 3
Allow Accessibility when it asks
That is what lets Panes press Split View for you. The panel links straight to the setting.
- 4
Open Claude and pick a layout
The grid is built in about a second, with your working sessions already in it.
Two things worth knowing
Open Panes from Applications, not from the mounted disk image — an app run from an image gets a temporary path, and the Accessibility permission does not follow it there.
Panes drives the Claude desktop app, so you need that installed too. It is free from Anthropic.
One price. Paid once.
No subscription, no account, no upsell.
Panes for macOS
macOS 14+ · Apple silicon and Intel
$9one time · plus tax where it applies
- Every preset: 2 × 2, 3 × 2, 4 × 2, two columns, two rows
- Show all working, in the tightest grid that fits
- Close idle panes without disturbing the rest
- Opens at login, universal for Apple silicon and Intel
- No account and no telemetry — it phones home once, to activate
- Updates for as long as version 1 runs
Not on sale yet — the waitlist gets one email when it is. Licence terms.
Questions
The ones worth answering before you hand an app the Accessibility permission.
Why does it need Accessibility permission?
That permission is the only way to read Claude's session sidebar and press its View › Split View menu items. Panes uses it for nothing else: it reads the sidebar while the panel is open or a grid is being built, and switches the tree back off when it is done.
Does it move my mouse?
No. Every pane and every session is opened through the accessibility API, never by synthesising a click. Your pointer stays exactly where you left it, and nothing else on the Mac sees a stray event.
What do I get for the money?
The app, and updates for as long as version 1 runs. It is a one-time payment on one machine's worth of use, not a subscription, and there is no account to make. The download link and your licence arrive by email straight after checkout.
Is tax included?
No. The price is before tax, and whatever VAT or sales tax applies where you are is added at checkout and shown before you pay.
Can I have a refund?
Yes. If Panes does not do what this page says it does, reply to your receipt and you get your money back. It drives another app's menu, and that is worth being relaxed about.
Does closing a pane end the session?
No. Close idle panes uses each pane's own close control, which closes the split and leaves the session in Claude's sidebar exactly as it was. Nothing is stopped, deleted or renamed.
What happens when Claude updates?
Panes is built against the Split View menu. If a future Claude renames or moves an item, Panes tells you which item went missing rather than silently doing nothing. It is built against Claude for Mac 1.46.
Does it phone home?
Once, and only once. Activating your licence sends the key and an identifier for the Mac to the store, so it knows the key is in use. After that Panes never opens a connection again: no telemetry, no update check, no re-checking the licence. It works with the network off from then on, and nothing about your sessions ever leaves your Mac.
Does it work on Intel Macs?
Yes. Every release is a universal build for Apple silicon and Intel, and needs macOS 14 or newer.
Stop dragging panes around.
Pick a layout from the menu bar and get back to the work.