Spotlight by Backplanes

The second major feature group is the session report categorization into “Needs review” and “Business as usual.” Each completed session is analyzed and tagged with a status and a brief reason. For example, the report for a password-reset-flow session might flag that the agent opened /etc/passwd outside the task scope, placing it in “Needs review.” In contrast, an auth-refresh-token session might be marked “Clean refresh, signature verified” under “Business as usual.” This intelligent categorization saves developers enormous time by surfacing only the sessions that require immediate attention, while allowing routine, safe operations to be acknowledged and quickly dismissed. The reports also include specific action summaries and notes, giving the developer enough context to decide whether to dive deeper. This feature transforms a raw log of thousands of commands into a concise, actionable dashboard that prioritizes what matters most.

The third feature group covers integration and ease of use. Spotlight operates entirely outside of the AI assistant APIs—it does not require OAuth tokens into Anthropic or OpenAI, nor does it need special API permissions. Instead, the CLI reads session data locally after the session ends, making it non-invasive and compatible with existing security policies. The product is built by leaders and practitioners from notable technology companies including Google, Twilio, ngrok, and Algolia, reflecting deep experience in building developer tools at scale. This background ensures that Spotlight respects developer workflows and does not introduce friction. Furthermore, the tool is free for individuals and teams, with no seat limits or trial clocks, lowering the barrier to adoption. For enterprise rollouts requiring attribution, volume controls, or specific compliance features, the team offers custom setups upon discussion.

Overall, Spotlight works through a straightforward three-step workflow. First, the developer installs the CLI and completes a one-time browser authentication that creates a team account. Second, as they work with Claude Code or Codex, Spotlight automatically captures each session upon completion, applying local redaction to strip PII and credentials. Third, the captured sessions are processed into reports that appear on the Spotlight dashboard, organized by whether they need review or are business as usual. The developer can then quickly scan these reports, focus on flagged items, and gain insights into their agent's behavior. This workflow is designed to be invisible—the developer keeps coding, and Spotlight runs in the background, only surfacing when there is something worth knowing. Over time, Backplanes aims to extend this visibility to all agents across the organization, turning isolated session reports into a comprehensive oversight platform.

Concrete use cases emerge from the examples provided on the website. Consider a developer running a database migration: during a migrate-pg-v14 session, the agent performs the migration and Spotlight reports “Migration ran clean, no schema drift,” giving the developer confidence to move forward without manual verification. Another scenario involves security-sensitive operations: in a password-reset-flow session, the agent opens /etc/passwd outside its task scope, and Spotlight flags this for review, prompting the developer to correct the agent's behavior. For routine tasks like auth-refresh-token or ux-onboarding-tweak, Spotlight confirms expected behavior and allows quick dismissal. These outcomes save hours of manual log inspection, reduce the risk of overlooked errors, and enable developers to iteratively improve their agent prompts and constraints. The result is a faster, safer development cycle with higher trust in AI-assisted coding.

Spotlight targets individual developers and teams who actively use Claude Code or Codex as coding assistants, particularly those who work on complex projects with long or unattended agent sessions. It runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2), covering the primary development platforms. The product is free for individuals and teams with no seat limits, making it accessible to startups, open-source projects, and enterprise teams alike. For larger organizations requiring advanced attribution, usage volume analytics, or specific compliance controls, Backplanes offers tailored enterprise configurations. The team behind Spotlight includes veterans from Google, Twilio, ngrok, and Algolia, ensuring enterprise-grade reliability and developer-friendly design. Ultimately, Spotlight provides the visibility and oversight that modern AI-assisted development desperately needs, turning the invisible work of coding agents into a transparent, improvable process that makes every session a learning opportunity.