Boatman Ecosystem
AI-powered autonomous software development, from CLI to desktop.
Boatman is an integrated ecosystem for automating software development workflows using Claude AI. It takes tasks — from Linear tickets, inline prompts, or markdown files — and implements them end-to-end: planning, coding, testing, reviewing, refactoring, and creating pull requests.
The Ecosystem
BoatmanMode CLI
The command-line autonomous development agent. Feed it a task, and it orchestrates a multi-agent pipeline to deliver production-ready code.
- Multi-phase workflow: plan, execute, test, review, refactor
- Git worktree isolation for safe parallel work
- Configurable Claude model selection per agent
- Structured JSON event emission for integration
- Usable as a Go library
Boatman Desktop
A cross-platform desktop application built with Wails (Go + React) that wraps the CLI with a rich GUI.
- Interactive Claude AI chat for your codebase
- Firefighter Mode for production incident investigation
- Real-time streaming of agent execution
- Session management and project organization
- MCP server integration (Linear, Datadog, Bugsnag, Slack)
Get started with the Desktop app →
How It Works
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Input Sources │
│ Linear Ticket │ Inline Prompt │ Markdown File │
└────────┬────────────────┬──────────────────┬────────────────┘
│ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ BoatmanMode CLI │
│ │
│ 1. Prepare Task 5. Run Tests │
│ 2. Create Worktree 6. Peer Review │
│ 3. Plan (AI Agent) 7. Refactor Loop │
│ 4. Execute (AI Agent) 8. Commit & Push │
│ 9. Create PR │
│ │
│ Emits structured JSON events ─────────────────────────┐ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────┘
│
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│
▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Boatman Desktop │
│ │
│ • Captures JSON events from CLI subprocess │
│ • Displays real-time agent progress in Tasks tab │
│ • Provides Firefighter Mode for incident investigation │
│ • Integrates with Linear, Bugsnag, Datadog via MCP │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Quick Start
CLI
# Install
go install github.com/philjestin/boatmanmode/cmd/boatman@latest
# Or download pre-built binary
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/philjestin/boatmanmode/main/install.sh | bash
# Run
boatman work --prompt "Add a health check endpoint at /health"Desktop
# Clone the monorepo
git clone https://github.com/philjestin/boatman
cd boatman
# Build CLI first
make build-cli
# Start desktop in dev mode
make devPrerequisites
| Tool | Purpose | Required For |
|---|---|---|
| Go 1.24.1+ | Build CLI and Desktop backend | Both |
| Node.js 18+ | Desktop frontend | Desktop |
| Wails v2 | Desktop app framework | Desktop |
claude CLI | AI code generation and review | Both |
gh CLI | Pull request creation | CLI |
git | Version control | Both |
tmux | Agent session management | CLI |
Repository Structure
boatman-ecosystem/
├── cli/ # BoatmanMode CLI — autonomous agent
│ ├── cmd/ # CLI entry points
│ ├── internal/ # Implementation packages
│ └── examples/ # Library usage examples
│
├── desktop/ # Boatman Desktop — GUI application
│ ├── frontend/ # React/TypeScript UI
│ ├── agent/ # Session management
│ ├── boatmanmode/ # CLI integration layer
│ └── config/ # Configuration
│
├── shared/ # Shared Go packages
├── docs/ # This documentation site
├── go.work # Go workspace configuration
└── Makefile # Build commands