Glossary
Glossary
Shuriken uses one word for each thing: a source is an account or key your agents run on, fuel is what your subscriptions have left (100 fuel is one Claude Max 20x), and Finish merges a chat's branch back. Each term below has one line and a link to the page that explains it.
What Shuriken is
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Harness
What Shuriken is: an app that runs the coding agents you already use, on your own accounts, across your computers, servers and phone. Read more
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Agent
A coding AI that works in a chat, such as Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI. Shuriken runs 67 of them. Read more
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Provider
The company behind an agent and its plans: Anthropic for Claude, OpenAI for Codex, Google for Gemini. Read more
Accounts and limits
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Source
An account sign-in, API key or endpoint you add to Shuriken for agents to run on, such as a Claude subscription or an OpenAI key. Read more
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Source switching
Shuriken moving your chats to another of your own sources when the one in use reaches your switch point, so the work keeps going. Read more
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Switch point
How full a limit may get, 99% by default, before new turns move to another source. You set it in Sources › Switch settings › Switch at. Read more
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Fuel
What your subscriptions have left, on one scale: 100 fuel is a whole Claude Max 20x limit (about one ChatGPT Pro's week for Codex), so a Claude Pro counts 5 every 5 hours. Read more
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Session limits
Claude's session limit runs in 5-hour windows, and each window starts on an account's first use. Shuriken sends an idle subscription one tiny background request so its window starts and its limit comes back sooner. Read more
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On hold
A chat waiting for a usage limit to reset. It carries on by itself when the limit comes back. Read more
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Spend cap
A money ceiling you set, such as the most an API key may spend once it takes over from your subscriptions. A limit is the provider's usage limit; a spend cap is yours. Read more
Chats and branches
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Chat
A conversation with an agent in a project, one row in the sidebar. Every chat runs on one of your computers or servers. Read more
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Main chat
The chat every project has, pinned first. It works in the project folder itself, for quick changes in place. Read more
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Own branch
A chat's own copy of the project on a new branch, a git worktree. Every new chat but the Main chat gets one when the project uses git. Read more
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Finish
Sends a chat's branch back into the default branch: it commits what is left, rebases, runs your checks and squash-merges, then archives the chat. Read more
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Queue
Messages you send while the agent works wait here until its turn ends, then go one at a time. You can edit, reorder or remove them. Read more
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Steer
A follow-up let into the agent's running turn instead of interrupting it or waiting in the queue (Send and steer). Read more
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Fork
A new chat that starts with a copy of another chat's history up to a reply you pick. The original keeps running, and the fork can merge back into it. Read more
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Chats without a project
Chats you start without making a project, like in a plain chat app. They run on the computer you are on, and you can move one to a project later. Read more
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Activity
The panel that shows what a chat is running right now: subagents, workflow phases, background commands and monitors, live. Read more
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Global MCPs
One list of MCP servers that your chats in Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and more all get. You sign in to each server once and assign it to the projects that need it. Read more
Devices
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Device
Anything signed in to your Shuriken account: a computer, a server or a viewer. Read more
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Server
A machine without the app, set up with a one-line install command, that runs agents for your account. Read more
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Viewer
A phone or a browser. It shows and steers every chat and runs none of them. Read more
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Keep awake
The device stays awake by itself while anything runs: a chat or the queue. Read more
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Cocaine mode
Shuriken's name for keeping a Mac running with its lid shut, switched on from the laptop icon in the top bar. Read more