overcli drives the official CLIs. overgit keeps none of its own data inside .git. overdb is read-only until you say otherwise. Stop using any of them and nothing breaks.
[ codelions ] · desktop tools for people who live in terminals
Three open-source desktop apps that sit over what you already use — your agent CLIs, your repos, your database servers — and never take ownership of any of it. Plus overgo, which puts overcli on a server for your whole team.
[ philosophy ] · what all three share
overcli drives the official CLIs. overgit keeps none of its own data inside .git. overdb is read-only until you say otherwise. Stop using any of them and nothing breaks.
The AI in all three runs through CLIs you already have installed — overcli drives claude, codex, gemini, copilot and ollama; overgit and overdb use claude, codex and gemini. No API keys, no new bill.
Apache 2.0, source on GitHub, a changelog entry for every release. Every claim on this site can be checked in the code.
[ latest ] · what just shipped
Highlights from each changelog.
[ who ] · the makers
“It started as a way to spend time building something real together — Owen learning how a production app actually comes together, Lionel getting to teach by doing instead of explaining in the abstract.”
That's why the decisions look the way they do: they were chosen to be explainable, not just clever.
[ faq ]
Because a father and son wanted to build something real together. Codelions is how Lionel and Owen Farr collaborate: Owen learning how a production app actually comes together, Lionel teaching by doing instead of explaining. The tools are what came out of it, free and open source — and every decision in them was chosen to be explainable, not just clever.
Engineers who already live in CLIs and want to read the source, read the diffs, and uninstall cleanly. If you'd rather have a hosted black box, these aren't for you — and that's fine.
Nothing. Overcli, overgit and overdb are free and open source under Apache 2.0. Overcli drives the agent subscriptions you already pay for — your Claude Pro plan, ChatGPT plan, gcloud credentials, or Copilot seat. No API keys to provision, no per-seat pricing, no new invoice.
None in the app. No analytics and no crash reporting; the only call out is an update check against GitHub Releases. Conversation history is files on disk you can open in any editor. You can verify all of that in the source — that's rather the point.
Yes. Apache 2.0 covers commercial use, and because everything runs locally against your own credentials there's no vendor in the path of your source code. The apps build from source if your security team would rather compile them itself.
macOS, Windows, and Linux. macOS builds are Developer-ID signed and notarized, so they open on a double-click. Windows isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may still warn. Building from source is one npm run dist away.
Lionel Farr and his son Owen Farr. The note from the two of them above explains more about why the tools look the way they do than any feature list would.
Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Copilot and Ollama on the logins you already have — every edit a real diff, every command a terminal block.
Then put them in a loop: reviews, flows, workers and teams.
Open overcli → overgitStage, commit, branch and push — fast, keyboard-first, plain git underneath, with AI to review a diff or draft the message.
Then worksets: one ticket across many repos, checked before you push.
Open overgit → overdbWrite SQL or ask in plain English, read the results and the plan — read-only until you say otherwise.
Then run one query on local, staging and prod, branch your data — and let your agents ask it, read only.
Open overdb →