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Nimbalyst

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glm-5.3-flash
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Table of Contents

Nimbalyst is an MIT-licensed open-source desktop workspace where you and coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode) edit the same markdown, diagrams, mockups, and code, with every agent change arriving as a reviewable red or green diff.

Nimbalyst’s bet is that agent work is mostly documents, and that a workspace where humans and agents co-edit the same files, with per-block diff approval, beats a terminal for anyone whose context lives in specs, diagrams, and trackers.

What it is
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A visual workspace built around WYSIWYG editors for markdown, CSV, mockups, Monaco code, Excalidraw, data models, Mermaid, mind maps, and an embedded browser, nearly all of them implemented on the product’s own extension SDK, and an extension can register an agent provider, which is how Gemini support arrives without a release. Parallel agent sessions run with one-click worktree isolation, tracked on a session kanban linked to the files each session touched, and integrated task trackers sit in the same workspace for agents to read and update. MCP servers connect with tool results rendered as widgets rather than raw JSON, content stays in plain files in your git repo, and an iOS companion handles approvals and replies on the go (Android in development). The desktop and iOS apps are MIT and free for individuals on macOS, Windows, and Linux; the collaboration server is AGPL, with Teams multiplayer free during beta. Since mid-October 2026 the product presents as three surfaces on the same files: the Nimbalyst Wiki, a free standalone plugin for Claude Code, Codex, Cowork, Cursor, VS Code, or any MCP agent that distills agent work into wiki pages of markdown in your repo (no app or account needed) and now leads the site, Wiki Teams multiplayer as the paid tier (free during beta), and the desktop app. It is built by a four-person team and continues the lineage of Crystal, the orchestration member this section tracks as deprecated in Nimbalyst’s favor.

Status
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Active on a fast train, with a small independent footprint. The repository was created 2025-10-30 and shows 1,908 stars and 304 forks as of 2026-10-16, with v0.81.7 (October 16, Claude Code sessions suggesting your next prompt with Tab to fill, Claude Agent sessions auto-resuming when a usage limit resets, and new editor blocks: charts, callouts, columns, tabs, a table of contents, transclusions, @ mentions, and link previews) as the latest release tagged stable, after v0.81.6 (October 15, the wiki plugin telling the agent at session start which local wiki pages cover the code and which cover uncommitted changes, plus new wikiDoctor and listMarks tools) and the v0.81.4 and v0.81.5 pair of October 14 (local-wiki fixes and team moves, and interactive HTML pages embedded live in documents as a new wiki page type); a v0.82 pre-release train (v0.82.0 through v0.82.3, October 23 to 25, cross-worktree commit proposals, wiki static-site export, context-usage bars, and Codex and WSL fixes) runs above the stable tag.

Star History Chart

The open-source launch was a self-submitted Show HN on 2026-04-30 that drew 8 points and 4 comments; the footprint search now returns eleven threads going back to November 2025, peaking at 29 points, with the newest pair from the wiki launch (a Show HN for the standalone nimbalyst-wiki plugin, 2026-10-20, 1 point, and a wiki-driven-development Ask HN, 2026-10-21, 4 points), and still no third-party coverage.

Strengths
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  • Per-block diff review inside the document is the mechanism the terminal cannot give you: you accept, reject, or edit each agent change in the rendered file where it lands.
  • The extension SDK is offered to your agents too: ask for an editor for a file type the product does not ship, and your agent writes, installs, and reloads it live.
  • Plain files on disk in open formats, no proprietary store, and the git repo stays the source of truth.
  • The iOS companion covers the waiting-on-you loop (approvals, replies, queued tasks) without a vendor cloud.

Cautions
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  • A year of work and six self-submitted threads have produced no third-party coverage, so the visual-workspace thesis is still unvalidated outside its own team.
  • Teams multiplayer is the revenue plan (AGPL server, paid plans promised), and it is free during beta, so the business side is unproven.
  • Six releases in three days this week is the v0.x churn rate you are adopting.
  • The SOC-2 claim on the teams page is vendor-stated and unaudited from where this section sits.

Pricing
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Free for individuals with no feature limits; Teams multiplayer is free during beta with paid plans planned, and no prices are stated yet. Without stated prices there is no price history to track.

Compared to
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  • Cate: the canvas workspace; Cate is spatial supervision of terminals, Nimbalyst is document co-editing with the agent.
  • Whiteboard: the review canvas where a finished agent draws its work; Whiteboard is harness-agnostic and built for reading, Nimbalyst is a full editor where both sides write.
  • Vibeyard: the CLI cockpit with the task board; Vibeyard supervises the run, Nimbalyst edits the artifacts.

Bottom line
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Recommended for engineers whose agent work is document-heavy (specs, diagrams, mockups, trackers) and who want per-block review instead of terminal approval. Not for terminal-first developers, and not for teams that need an independently validated collaboration product today.

Changes
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  • 2026-10-11 - Created from the category entrant scan, admitted on its differentiated co-editing and per-block diff review, with the empty-footprint caution recorded.
  • 2026-10-11 - Added the star history chart.
  • 2026-10-13 - Recorded v0.81.1 (October 13, the nimbalyst-wiki plugin for the Codex CLI, wiki attachments, and usage-limit auto-resume for stopped Claude sessions) as the new latest release; counts refreshed.
  • 2026-10-16 - Recorded the v0.81.4 and v0.81.5 pair of October 14 (local-wiki fixes, interactive HTML pages as a wiki page type) and v0.81.6 (October 15, wiki coverage context at session start, wikiDoctor and listMarks tools) as the new latest releases; counts refreshed.
  • 2026-10-18 - Recorded v0.81.7 (October 16, next-prompt suggestions with Tab to fill, usage-limit auto-resume for Claude Agent sessions, and the new editor blocks from charts and callouts to columns, tabs, and link previews) as the new latest release.
  • 2026-10-27 - Rotation re-verification, all cited URLs re-fetched live: the repository, product site, docs, and release train stand (stable still v0.81.7 with the v0.82.3 pre-release on top), and the footprint search refreshed to eleven threads with the wiki-plugin launch pair of 2026-10-20 and 2026-10-21; still no third-party coverage.

See also
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  • Crystal - the deprecated predecessor this workspace continues
  • Cate - the canvas neighbor supervising the same parallel sessions
  • Whiteboard - the review-side canvas that shares the visual-review thesis
  • Vibeyard - the board-first cockpit beside this editor-first workspace

References
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