Herdr: Terminal-Based Agent Multiplexer Released

What changed

Herdr has been released as a terminal-based agent multiplexer, designed to provide a runtime environment for AI coding agents. The tool allows agents to operate within the terminal, with features aimed at improving workflow persistence and management. A key capability is the ability to detach from agent sessions without stopping their execution; Herdr keeps terminals running in a background server, enabling sessions to be restored and resumed after client disconnections, SSH interruptions, or even server restarts. While the original processes do not survive restarts, Herdr restores the saved layout and can resume supported agent sessions.

Herdr also facilitates multi-machine management within a single terminal window. Users can combine local work with saved SSH machines, presenting a unified agent list while maintaining independent reconnects for remote machines. The interface provides status indicators for each agent pane, marking them as working, blocked, or idle, and explicitly notifying users when an agent requires input.

Agent interaction is designed to be native, with agents driving Herdr through its CLI and socket API. This allows agents to spawn new panes, prompt each other, and manage dependencies by waiting for other agents to become unblocked. Herdr supports existing agent tools such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, and Grok, integrating with their terminals without wrapping or replacing them.

Beyond agent management, Herdr offers both keyboard and mouse-based interaction. It supports tmux-style prefix keys alongside direct click, drag, and split functionalities. The platform is extensible through a plugin system, allowing for customization of panes and workflows. Herdr is distributed as a single Rust binary, avoiding the need for Electron-based applications and running within standard terminals.

Installation can be done via a curl script (curl -fsSL https://herdr.dev/install.sh | sh), Homebrew (brew install herdr), or other package managers like mise. Windows users can install via PowerShell. After installation, running herdr in a directory starts the multiplexer, allowing users to launch agents and manage panes.

Why it matters for builders

For AI builders, Herdr offers a significant improvement in managing and interacting with AI coding agents. By centralizing agent activity within the terminal, it reduces the context switching required when working with multiple tools or machines. The persistence features are particularly valuable, ensuring that development work is not lost due to unexpected disconnections, which is a common pain point in remote development or when dealing with long-running agent tasks.

Practical impact

Builders can install Herdr using the provided scripts or package managers and start running their existing AI agents within its managed environment. Experimenting with the keyboard shortcuts and mouse interactions can help optimize workflow efficiency. Developers can explore the plugin marketplace to extend Herdr's capabilities for their specific agent setups. The ability to monitor agent status and receive prompts when agents are blocked offers a more transparent and controlled development process.

Caveats and source limits

The source material indicates that while Herdr restores saved layouts and can resume supported agent sessions, the original processes themselves do not survive machine restarts. Specific details on which agent sessions are fully supported for resumption, beyond the general mention of "supported agent sessions," are not elaborated. The source also does not provide independent benchmark data for Herdr's performance or resource utilization compared to other terminal multiplexers or agent management tools. Information regarding the pricing or licensing beyond the Apache 2.0 license is not detailed, though it is presented as an open-source project. The latest release version mentioned is v0.7.5.