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The7thFreedom
The7thFreedom

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I ported a macOS-only AI agent tool to Windows — here's what I learned

#ai #opensource #devtools #codingagent

I've been experimenting with multi-agent coding workflows for a
while now — running Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor in parallel,
each agent working on its own isolated branch. It's a genuinely
different way to develop once you get it working.

The best tool I found for orchestrating this is
Superset by superset-sh. It lets you spin
up multiple CLI-based coding agents across isolated git worktrees,
direct their work from a single interface, and merge results when
done. Clean, fast, well-built.

One problem: macOS only.

I'm on Windows. So I did what any mildly stubborn developer would
do — I ported it.

What Superset actually does

Before getting into the port, it's worth explaining why I thought
it was worth the effort.

The core idea is parallel agent execution across git worktrees.

Instead of:

You → one agent → one branch → wait → review → repeat
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You get:

You → agent A (feature-1 worktree)
    → agent B (feature-2 worktree)  
    → agent C (bugfix worktree)
     → all running simultaneously
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Each agent has its own working directory, its own branch, no
shared state. You review and merge when ready. For the right
kind of tasks, it's a significant productivity shift.

Why the Windows port was non-trivial

This wasn't a simple config change. A few things needed real work:

1. Terminal: macOS pty → Windows ConPTY

The original uses node-pty, which works great on macOS/Linux but
has historically been painful on Windows. I switched to
Windows ConPTY — the modern Windows pseudo-terminal API
that's been available since Windows 10 1809.

// macOS: node-pty
const pty = spawn('bash', [], { 
  name: 'xterm-color',
  env: process.env 
})

// Windows: ConPTY via node-pty with Windows-specific flags
const pty = spawn('powershell.exe', [], {
  name: 'xterm-color',
  useConpty: true,
  env: process.env
})
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ConPTY is solid now. The main gotcha is that some ANSI escape
sequences behave slightly differently — took some time to
normalize the output rendering.

2. File paths: backslashes everywhere

Windows uses backslashes. The codebase assumed forward slashes
throughout — in worktree paths, git commands, config files,
log output, everything.

The fix wasn't hard but it was tedious: normalize all internal
paths to forward slashes, then convert at the system boundary
only when actually calling Windows APIs.

// Normalize on input
const normalize = (p: string) => p.replace(/\\/g, '/')

// Convert back only when calling Windows shell
const toWin32 = (p: string) => p.replace(/\//g, '\\')
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3. Shell integration: PowerShell / cmd / WSL

On macOS, you assume bash or zsh. On Windows, you need to handle:

  • PowerShell 7+ (recommended)
  • cmd.exe (legacy fallback)
  • WSL (Linux environment on Windows)

Each has different ways to set environment variables, run
scripts, and handle exit codes. I ended up with a shell adapter
layer that normalizes the interface across all three.

4. Build pipeline: dmg → nsis/msi

The upstream build targets macOS .dmg. For Windows I switched
the Electron-builder config to target:

  • NSIS installer (.exe) — standard Windows installer with install/uninstall support
  • MSI — for enterprise environments 
// electron-builder.ts (Windows targets)
win: {
  target: [
    { target: 'nsis', arch: ['x64'] },
    { target: 'msi', arch: ['x64'] }
  ]
}
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5. Keyboard shortcuts: ⌘ → Ctrl

Every keyboard shortcut in the UI used macOS modifiers. Went
through the entire shortcut map and remapped:

  • ⌘ → Ctrl
  • ⌥ → Alt
  • ⌘⇧ → Ctrl+Shift

Small thing, but important for it to feel native on Windows.

What I notified upstream

I opened an issue with the superset-sh team
(superset-sh/superset#5011)
to let them know about the port. SuperWin maintains the same
Elastic License 2.0 as upstream and aims to stay rebased
on upstream main.

This is an unofficial community port — not affiliated with or
endorsed by the superset-sh team. If they ever ship an official
Windows build, great. Until then, SuperWin exists.

Current state

  • ✅ Runs on Windows 10 (1809+) and Windows 11
  • ✅ PowerShell / cmd / WSL support
  • ✅ Claude Code, Codex, Cursor orchestration working
  • ✅ Isolated git worktree management
  • ⏳ No prebuilt installer yet — build from source for now
  • ⏳ Installer coming in a future release

Requirements:

  • Bun v1.0+ for Windows
  • Git for Windows 2.40+
  • PowerShell 7+ (recommended)

Try it 

git clone https://github.com/the7thfreedom/superwin.git
cd superwin
Copy-Item .env.example .env
bun install
bun run dev
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GitHub: the7thfreedom/superwin

What I'd do differently

If I were starting over:

  1. Start with ConPTY from day one — I spent too long trying to make node-pty work before switching
  2. Path normalization layer first — add it as a utility module before touching anything else
  3. Test on WSL earlier — WSL path handling is its own category of edge cases

If you're a Windows developer doing AI-assisted coding and
have been watching the agent orchestration space from the
sidelines — this is your on-ramp.

Questions, feedback, bug reports all welcome. What's your
current AI coding workflow on Windows?

Top comments (1)

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The7thFreedom •

Happy to answer questions about the ConPTY integration or any Windows-specific edge cases — that part alone took longer than expected. Also open to contributions if anyone wants to help push toward a proper installer.