A lightweight task log manager designed for both humans and AI agents (Claude Code). Run long-running commands with automatic log capture — both you and your AI can see what's happening.

┌─ hawk list ──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ● test-all          running   2m 13s        4.2KB│
│ ✓ codegen-myapp      done      5m ago        1.1KB│
│ ✗ lint-all          failed    12m ago       8.3KB│
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Claude Code's run_in_background is great — your agent runs a build, you keep working, it gets notified when it's done. But:

• Logs vanish into Claude's conversation context, cluttering your chat history
• You can't watch a running build from your own terminal
• Logs don't persist — once the conversation scrolls or compresses, they're gone
• tmux-based workarounds tie you to a specific terminal setup and not everyone uses tmux

hawk fixes all of this. It wraps run_in_background with a simple CLI that both Claude and you can use:

• Agent runs hawk start test -- pnpm test-all — gets auto-notified on completion, checks results with hawk output test
• Human runs hawk tail test from any terminal to watch live, or hawk for an interactive fzf picker
• Logs persist in /tmp/hawk-logs/<project>/ as readable, timestamped files — not buried in chat
• No tmux, no special terminal setup, just a Go binary on your PATH

One CLI. Two audiences. Zero dependencies beyond Go.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/houseinisprogramming/hawk-tui/main/install.sh | bash

This downloads a pre-built binary for your platform and installs:

1. The hawk binary to /usr/local/bin/
2. The Claude Code skill to ~/.claude/skills/hawk/

Pre-built binaries are available for macOS (arm64, amd64) and Linux (arm64, amd64). Falls back to building from source if no binary is available.

git clone https://github.com/houseinisprogramming/hawk-tui.git
cd hawk-tui
go build -o hawk .
sudo cp hawk /usr/local/bin/

# Install Claude Code skill
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/hawk
cp skill/SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/hawk/SKILL.md

hawk start test-all -- pnpm test-all
hawk start build -- npm run build
hawk start lint -- eslint src/

Output is tee'd to both stdout and a log file at /tmp/hawk-logs/<project>/.

hawk tail test-all

hawk output test-all        # opens in less -R (interactive)
hawk output test-all 50     # last 50 lines (when piped)

hawk list

hawk: logs for my-project

  test-all                  running    2m ago     4.2KB
  build                     done       15m ago    1.1KB
  lint                      done       1h ago     890B

hawk

Opens fzf with a preview pane showing the last 30 lines of each log. Select one to tail -f it.

Requires fzf. Falls back to hawk list if not installed.

hawk stop test-all

hawk clean        # remove logs older than 24h
hawk clean 48     # remove logs older than 48h

hawk start test -- pnpm test
         │
         ├── spawns: sh -c "pnpm test"
         ├── tees output to: /tmp/hawk-logs/<project>/<timestamp>-test.log
         ├── writes PID to:  /tmp/hawk-logs/<project>/<timestamp>-test.pid
         └── streams to stdout

• Project detection: Uses git rev-parse --show-toplevel to group logs by repo
• Log naming: YYYY-MM-DD_HH-mm-ss-<name>.log — human readable and lexicographically sortable
• TTY detection: hawk output uses less -R in terminals, plain tail when piped

The included skill teaches Claude Code to use hawk automatically. After installing:

1. Claude uses hawk start <name> -- <cmd> with run_in_background: true
2. Claude gets auto-notified when the task finishes
3. Claude checks results with hawk output <name>
4. You can watch live with hawk tail <name> from your terminal

For best results, add this to your CLAUDE.md:

- ALWAYS use `hawk start <name> -- <command>` with `run_in_background: true`
  when running any shell command that may take more than a few seconds
  (tests, builds, lints, codegen). Never run these directly with Bash —
  always go through hawk. After completion, use `hawk output <name>` to
  check results.

/tmp/hawk-logs/
└── <project-name>/
    ├── 2026-03-11_14-30-05-test-all.log
    ├── 2026-03-11_14-25-00-build.log
    └── 2026-03-11_14-20-00-lint.log

MIT