abtop is a terminal user interface tool that monitors AI coding agent sessions in real-time, similar to how htop monitors system processes.
The tool addresses the challenge of tracking multiple concurrent AI agent sessions by displaying token usage, context window utilization, rate limits, child processes, and open ports all in one screen. It discovers Claude Code, Codex CLI, and OpenCode sessions from local process and file state without requiring API keys or authentication, making it a read-only monitoring solution that works across macOS, Linux, and Windows.
Developers running multiple AI coding agents simultaneously should consider abtop if they need to track token consumption, detect when rate limits are approaching, identify orphaned processes or ports spawned by agents, or monitor context window saturation. The tool supports multiple active profiles and provides per-session context window percentage bars with warnings. It includes twelve built-in themes with four colorblind-friendly options. Terminal jump functionality allows pressing Enter to focus the terminal running a selected agent, with support for cmux, tmux, and iTerm2 on macOS. The recommended terminal size is 120x40 or larger, though the interface degrades gracefully at the minimum 80x24 size.
The project shows active maintenance with regular updates addressing platform-specific requirements and user-reported issues. Development includes careful attention to cross-platform compatibility, with native Windows support that avoids WSL dependency and platform-specific process discovery mechanisms. The maintainers have incorporated accessibility considerations through multiple colorblind-friendly theme options and responsive UI design that adapts to different terminal sizes. Recent work demonstrates responsiveness to user feedback, including refinements to agent detection logic and theme implementations.
