The grid is the heart of Helmsman. It lays out up to twelve live Claude Code sessions on one deck, four across and three down, so every session on it stays on screen at once. Spin up more than twelve and they flow onto the next deck. Up to twelve live sessions per deck, fifty in all.
Why a grid
Tabs hide everything but the front one. The grid does the opposite: every cell visible at once, so you never lose track of what is running. There is no tab bar to hunt through and no window to dig out from behind another.
Cells
Each cell hosts one session:
- An empty cell is ready to receive a new session.
- A live cell shows a running Claude Code terminal you can read and type into.
- The focused cell is the one you are actively steering.
Twelve per deck
Helmsman shows up to twelve sessions per deck, one per cell. Twelve is about the most you can watch at a glance without the grid turning into noise. Spin up more and they keep running on the next deck, so twelve is what stays in view at once, not the number you can run.
The number you can run is fifty, across every deck and every project together. That is the one hard ceiling: at fifty, Helmsman refuses the next spawn and asks you to close a session first. Past twelve running sessions it also says so, with a one-off heads-up at each twelve, because that many live agents is real work for your Mac. You can turn it off in Settings.
Glanceability
Because the whole grid is in view, you can scan it and see which sessions are busy and which are waiting for you, without reading a single line in detail. Then jump to the one that needs you. See Focus and steer.