# Murmur > Murmur is a Mac app to branch conversations with Claude Code or Codex without losing the thread: side quests for your AI work. Any reply can start a new branch, nothing is overwritten, and the whole conversation is a tree you can see, cut back and summarise. Murmur doesn't call a model itself. It runs the agent already signed in on the person's Mac, Claude Code or Codex, over the Agent Client Protocol, on their own Claude or ChatGPT plan: no API key, and no per-token bill from Murmur. Every line of a conversation is a real agent session, forked at the reply it branches from, so a branch knows the path that leads to it and nothing from its siblings. Conversations are one of three kinds. **Think** is for ideas: the agent can read and search the web, with none of the person's Claude Code setup, starting at about 4.4k tokens. **Do** works in a folder with the person's full setup (skills, settings, CLAUDE.md, MCP servers), and every edit waits on a card with its diff. **Draw** is a board for rough wireframes, with no AI; a board can start a conversation as a picture. The map draws a conversation as a tree beside the transcript. Its tools change what the next turn is sent: **Sever** cuts the context at a line, **Select** continues from chosen messages or compares them, and **Summarise and compact** carries on from a summary. Sticky notes sit on the map and go to the agent only when dragged into a message. Conversations are kept in a local database on the Mac. Status: with testers, not yet open to download. For Macs with Apple silicon on macOS 13 or later. Setup: https://www.getmurmur.dev/getting-started. Testers are wanted: apply at https://www.getmurmur.dev/apply. Feedback: info@getmurmur.dev. ## Requirements - A Mac with Apple silicon, on macOS 13 Ventura or later. Not Intel Macs or Windows yet. - Claude Code 2.1.293 or later, or Codex 0.163.0 or later, installed and signed in to the person's Claude or ChatGPT account. - Node.js 22 or later, which Murmur uses to run the agent. ## Questions **Do I need an API key?** No. Murmur runs the agent you've already signed in to on your Mac, Claude Code or Codex, so there's no key to paste and no per-token bill from Murmur. **Claude's own app lets me edit a message. How is this different?** There, an edit keeps the old version behind arrows on that one message. In Murmur, branching is the main way through: every branch is on the map, you can leave notes on them, and you choose what the model is sent next. **Which agents does it work with?** Claude Code 2.1.293 or later, and Codex 0.163.0 or later, over the Agent Client Protocol, so more agents can follow. Gemini CLI is next. **Where are my conversations kept?** In a database on your Mac. Messages go to your agent's provider, as they would from the terminal, and nothing is deleted unless you delete it. **Can the agent change my files?** Only in a Do conversation, and only in the folder you chose. Each edit waits on a card with its diff until you allow it, unless you've chosen to allow edits for that session or folder. **Does branching use fewer tokens?** A branch never carries its sibling branches, so a side quest doesn't weigh on the rest of the conversation. But it carries everything above where it branched, and its first turn reloads that history. To send less, use Sever, Continue with these, or Summarise and compact. See https://www.getmurmur.dev/branching-and-tokens.md. ## Help: Basics - [Signing in](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/signing-in.md): Murmur runs on your own Claude Code or Codex and uses their sign-ins. Here's how to set them up and check which account each uses. - [Getting started](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/getting-started.md): Start a conversation, choose an agent and between Think and Do, and learn the controls under the message box. - [Boards](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/boards.md): Sketch, jot and draw rough wireframes on a board of your own, then copy it as a picture. ## Help: Conversations - [Branching](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/branching.md): Go a different way from any reply, edit a message or retry a reply without losing the original. - [Skills](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/skills.md): Turn Claude Code skills on and off, for one conversation or as the default for new ones, and call Codex skills. - [Search](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/search.md): Find a conversation, a message, a note or a branch name across everything you have written. - [Notes](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/notes.md): See every note in a conversation in one list, and attach notes to a message for the agent. ## Help: The map - [The map](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/the-map.md): See a whole conversation at once, move around it, and keep notes beside it. - [Sever](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/sever.md): Cut a line on the map so the agent stops being sent everything above it. - [Select](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/select.md): Pick messages on the map, then continue with them, summarise them, compare two, copy, export or delete. ## Help: Working with files - [Permission cards](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/permissions.md): What the agent asks before it changes your files or runs a command in a Do conversation, and how to answer. - [Mention files](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/mentions.md): Point the agent at files in a Do conversation's folder with @, so it has them without looking. ## Help: Reference - [Keyboard shortcuts](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/shortcuts.md): Every shortcut in Murmur, in one place. - [Settings](https://www.getmurmur.dev/docs/settings.md): Every setting in Murmur, page by page, from how conversations start to quick capture and your data. ## About Murmur - [Branching and tokens](https://www.getmurmur.dev/branching-and-tokens.md): What the agent sees on each turn of a branching conversation, what that means for tokens, and what saves them - [Changelog](https://www.getmurmur.dev/changelog.md): What's changed, by day - [Roadmap](https://www.getmurmur.dev/roadmap.md): What's next, what's later, and what's being explored ## Optional - [Everything in one file](https://www.getmurmur.dev/llms-full.txt): This summary, every help page, the branching and tokens explainer, the changelog and the roadmap