Crystal: Supercharge Your Development with Multi-Session Claude Code Management

Stravu is excited to announce Crystal, a new graphical interface to manage Claude Code sessions. We built this internally to help speed up the development of Stravu, and it was so helpful we decided we had to share it. Instead of an IDE, we are calling it the first IVE (Integrated Vibe Environment).

The Problem with Claude Code Development: Downtime

The constant waiting with Claude Code was causing us frustration. Yes, you can have multiple sessions from the command line but it is cumbersome and confusing. Not only do you need to execute several commands to switch across but then you forget what each session was doing and don't have easy ways to track it. Crystal was born out of the necessity to solve this problem and help our developers be more productive.

How Crystal Works

Crystal manages the complexity of running multiple Claude Code instances::

1. Git Worktree Isolation: Each session operates in its own git worktree, preventing conflicts between parallel development efforts
2. Real-time Session Management: Monitor all your Claude Code sessions from a unified interface
3. Conversation Continuity: Resume any session with full conversation history intact
4. Integrated Git Operations: Rebase, squash commits, and view diffs without leaving the app
   
5. Execute and Test Changes: Provide a script to build and run your code, and you can launch your changes for testing with the push of a button
   

Use Cases

We've found that we started using Claude Code differently once we were able to manage multiple sessions

• Make Several Passes at Hard Problems: When stuck on a problem that AI has trouble at, we will run several instances of the same prompt at once and pick the winner.
• Work on Multiple Features at Once: While feature A is being built, inspect and test feature B and so on
• Idea Generation: Run multiple prompts along the lines of "Explore my code base and generate 10 improvement ideas"
• UX Experimentation: Again, run multiple sessions saying "Please improve the look of ..." and then go through the results

Multi-Session Development

Run as many Claude Code sessions as you need. Each session gets its own isolated environment, allowing you to:

• Compare different implementation approaches side-by-side
• Work on multiple features simultaneously
• Test various solutions without affecting your main branch

View, Test, and Merge Changes All From One Tool

Crystal is a full featured IVE (Integrated Vibe Environment):

• Commit changes between each prompt
• View changes and bring them back to main
• Run your application from the worktree to test functionality

Intelligent Session Management

• AI-Powered Naming: Sessions are automatically named based on your prompts
• Status Tracking: Visual indicators show whether sessions are initializing, running, waiting for input, or completed
• Prompt History: Quickly reuse prompts from previous sessions
• Session Templates: Create multiple numbered sessions with a single click

Seamless Git Integration

Crystal makes git operations intuitive with visual previews:

• View all changes with syntax-highlighted diffs
• Rebase from main to pull in latest changes
• Squash and rebase to prepare clean commits
• All without leaving the app

Business / Scrum Team Integrated Vibe Environment (IVE) Integration

We have set up MCP to connect Crystal to Stravu (the way AI-first teams collaborate) to enable business users to collaborate with developers:

• In Stravu, write a list of bugs, to dos, features in a notebook.
• In Crystal, turn each to do into a test case
• Run test to confirm, update back in Stravu
• Write code for each one, update back in Stravu

Getting Started with Crystal

Crystal is available as a desktop application for macOS. Simply:

1. Download Crystal from https://github.com/stravu/crystal
2. Install and launch the application
3. Select or create a project directory
4. Start creating sessions with your prompts

Crystal automatically handles git repository initialization, worktree creation, and Claude Code instance management.

Open Source and Extensible

We have released Crystal as an open source tool and welcome collaboration and pull requests!

Transform Your Development Workflow Today

Crystal represents a paradigm shift in how developers can leverage AI assistants. Instead of being limited to a single conversation thread, you can now orchestrate multiple AI sessions to tackle complex problems from different angles simultaneously.

Whether you're exploring different architectural approaches, working on multiple features, or simply want a more organized way to manage your Claude Code sessions, Crystal provides the professional tools you need to work more effectively.

Crystal is an independent project created by Stravu. Stravu is committed to helping AI-first teams work better together.

Claude™ is a trademark of Anthropic, PBC. Crystal is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic.

Ready to revolutionize your development workflow? Download Crystal today and experience the future of AI-assisted programming.