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Accountable autonomous coding

Give the agent the night.
Get back a reviewable morning.

Nightshift gives coding agents a durable punch list, owner-defined safety rules, recovery, and a clock-out gate—so long coding runs keep working toward the contract instead of quietly stopping early.

Open GitHubInstall Nightshift ↓
  • MIT licensed
  • Local-first state
  • macOS · Linux · Windows
SHIFT 04 · 02:17 AM LIVE

Tonight’s contract

Release hardening

2/4
  1. ✓Repair the flaky release testcommitted · verified
  2. ✓Harden the recovery pathcommitted · verified
  3. 3Run the project gatesrunning checks now
  4. 4Leave the morning handoffwaiting in order
● The contract remains on disk through compaction and recovery.

START WITH THE PROBLEM

What do you need the agent to finish?

01Finish a task listDefine outcomes, checks, and a clear end.02Run overnightPrepare the host, machine, and review path.03Recover interrupted workRead the evidence before restarting a session.04Review the resultsInspect changes, checks, decisions, and open items.

INSTALL NIGHTSHIFT

One plugin.
Three native hosts.

Install for Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code. Every path uses the same local-first open-source package and durable shift contract.

Open the official OpenAI listing ↗MIT licensed · no API key · no separate server

WHY NIGHTSHIFT

The working agreement lives outside the conversation.

A prompt can fade. A punch list, gate, decision log, and deadline stay inspectable.

01

Persistent contract

Open work survives compaction, restarts, and handoffs because the authoritative list stays in your project.

02

Mechanical boundaries

Hooks deny sudo, containers, global installs, daemons, and logins by default, and enforce the command, path, identity, and stop rules you add.

03

Morning receipts

One page at clock-out and a report written as the work happens: commits, checks, parked decisions, and what each item cost.

ONE SHIFT, END TO END

Clear work in.
Inspectable evidence out.

Nightshift does not replace your coding host. It gives the host a durable operating contract and works one approved unit at a time.

Explore the complete lifecycle →
  1. 01

    Define the contract

    Write the outcomes, gates, commit intent, and any explicit deadline.

  2. 02

    Work one item

    Implement fully, verify immediately, commit locally, then tick.

  3. 03

    Park decisions

    Choose reversible defaults, record the reasoning, and keep moving.

  4. 04

    Review the receipts

    Inspect commits, checks, decisions, snags, and recovery events.

WATCH ONE SHIFT

The gate refuses an early clock-out.

A real session, unedited apart from pacing: three items, one commit per item — and midway the agent declares itself finished with two boxes still open. The gate hands back the contract; it clocks out only once the list is clear.

READY-MADE CODING SHIFTS

Search the problem.
Start from a bounded contract.

Browse every ready shift →
FINITE SHIFT

Finish the todo list

Turn approved work into ordered outcomes with one local commit and gate per item.

Build the contract →OPEN-ENDED

Evolve the product

Research the product, rank evidence-backed opportunities, and ship the strongest complete work within the clock.

See product evolution →QUALITY

Clear quality debt

Survey tests, code, accessibility, contracts, documentation, dependencies, and security.

Open the quality guide →RECOVERY

Revive after API Error 500

Diagnose a service error, check recovery evidence, and keep the approved list available for an attended restart if needed.

See how revival works →TESTING

Increase test coverage overnight

Use Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code to add behavior-protecting tests without padding a percentage.

Open the coverage shift →CONTINUITY

Keep Codex on task after compaction

Preserve the current phase, rejected paths, next action, and verification outside conversation history.

Preserve the checkpoint →AUTOMATIC HUNT

Let Nightshift choose the work

Inspect the project, rank applicable work by evidence and value, and fill a bounded shift without inventing a backlog.

See automatic selection →SCHEDULE

Start the shift at 04:05

Preflight the queued work and permissions, then print the launchd, cron, systemd, or Task Scheduler entry. It registers nothing itself.

Schedule a shift →COST

Know what each item cost

The runtime measures tokens and time per item from the host’s own records at the tick. Nothing is estimated, and unavailable is never written as zero.

Read the receipts →ARTIFACT WORK

Run a shift without Git

Research sources, audit SEO, or write documentation in a persistent folder with local receipts instead of commits.

Explore non-Git shifts →

REAL RUNS, NOT PROMISES

A 45-hour contract.
Six roadmap phases.
One reviewable handoff.

The real runs library follows the work from punch list to a human-reviewed 67-commit pull request covering 57 closed issues.

Read the real runs →
45h

elapsed contract continuity

67

reviewable commits

57

issues closed

6

roadmap phases

THE SHORT ANSWERS

Before you leave an agent with the night.

Read every answer →
What does Nightshift actually do?

It gives Cursor, Codex, and Claude Code a durable punch list, opt-in mechanical rules, recovery, and a clock-out gate for accountable long coding runs.

Does every shift need a Git repository?

No. Artifact mode supports compatible research, documentation, SEO, and writing shifts in persistent folders, leaving local receipts instead of commits.

Does it push or merge code?

Not by default. Nightshift leaves local commits for owner review unless the shift contract explicitly authorizes an external action.

Does the gate prove the code is correct?

No. The gate prevents approved work from being quietly abandoned. Item definitions, project checks, and human review prove quality.

Should my first shift be unattended?

No. Run one small task attended so you can verify permissions, gates, stop behavior, and recovery in your exact environment.

THE FIRST SHIFT CAN BE SMALL

One task. One gate.
One reviewable morning.

Open GitHubCursor install steps ↗Install from OpenAI ↗