An agent multiplexer that lives in your terminal, and the tmux crowd isn't sold
Herdr runs every coding agent in one terminal and color-codes each as blocked, working, done, or idle in a sidebar. It's a ~10MB Rust binary that survives SSH disconnects. The thread split between users who'd ditched a dozen scattered windows for it and people asking why tmux wouldn't do.
Herdr gives each agent a real terminal, tracks its state without configuration, and exposes a Unix-socket API so agents can orchestrate their own workspaces. It detects Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot and 10+ others by process matching.
A high-karma user described replacing a dozen terminal windows of agents he could only inspect by VNC, now reachable from his phone over Tailscale. The recurring counter: 'Just use tmux no?'
What Herdr actually does that tmux predates
Herdr, an open-source terminal multiplexer for AI coding agents, pitches one line: run all your agents in one terminal and see who's blocked, working, or done at a glance. The argument for it is that tmux and friends were built before agents existed and have no idea what an agent's state is, while GUI agent managers add that visibility but lock you into a closed, often macOS-only app.
Herdr's answer is a ~10MB dependency-free Rust binary for Linux and macOS that gives each agent a real terminal (so full-screen TUIs render correctly), shows each session in a sidebar as 🔴 blocked / 🟡 working / 🔵 done / 🟢 idle without configuration, and survives disconnection so you can reconnect over SSH. A local Unix socket exposes a scriptable API, and it detects Claude Code, Codex, Devin, Copilot, Cursor and 10+ agents by process heuristics.
The thread: a believer, a defector, and a lot of "just use tmux"
The most concrete endorsement came from someone who'd lived the mess Herdr targets.
"I had about a dozen different terminal windows... multiple agents and harnesses running that I could only inspect by remote access/VNC away from home. With this... I can ssh into the machine, with tailscale, run herdr and see all active sessions... Even better, I can do that from my phone and iPad." — ricardobeat, a max-karma HN regular
A detail that didn't make the headline but won a convert: the mouse works.
"Herdr supports native-feeling scroll. You can scroll with your mouse wheel. That to me is a killer feature over tmux" — a user who dug into the docs' mouse-UI section
The loudest reply, repeated in several forms, was simply that this is a solved problem.
"Just use tmux no?" — the top reply on the thread
A Zellij user went further, having already bolted on the one feature that matters: a stop hook that pings the right tab when an agent finishes, no new tool required. And a developer who'd tried Herdr for a couple of days came away unconvinced the terminal itself was the point.
"conductor.build is way better IME. Running in the terminal is a flex, but doesn't actually bring any advantage." — an engineer who tested both for a few days
The split is less about Herdr than about a question the agent era keeps reopening: when you're running six agents at once, is visibility a feature you install, or a hook you write yourself?
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