A user praises Herdr, a TUI tool, for managing multiple agentic CLI sessions, replacing Zellij with features like image pasting, tabs, and persistent sessions, offering a better workflow experience on Mac and Linux.
TLDR - I’m loving Herdr for managing my many agentic sessions - and have replaced Zellij workflow with Herdr. I work with constant multiple long running agentic sessions. If you aren’t there yet, I predict more than half of the people reading this will be. I work from a Mac laptop and ssh into Linux to run agentic cli’s: codex, Claude Code, pi, OMP, and OpenCode. I had been using Zellij, a modern Tmux competitor, to meet the need of long running sessions that don’t stop when I close my laptop. But is good enough ever good enough? Is the grass greener on the other side of the fence? I was interested in T3 Code as I follow it’s creator Theogg’s Youtube videos. I subscribe to T3 chat for $8/month because he’s great at supporting new open weights models quickly. Great for testing them out or whenever I want to start a thread with no memory of me or any previous discussion. I’ve been waiting for it to get out of beta but I think it’s one of those “forever in beta” type open source projects. Then I saw this video for Herdr. It’s as if T3 Code and Zellij had a baby. It’s a TUI that understands agent cli platforms. It supports all of mine out of the box and many more. I had Astra look into it for me - and it recommended Herdr which supported all my agent cli’s and fit my way of working. T3 code has a mobile app which Herdr lacks, and would be wonderful if I were using Codex and Claude Code all day to handle PR’s. Which is how many work, but not me. So I tried out Herdr. And I love it. I also love having AI employees. I had Astra write up an implementation plan to give to Warp ai terminal- who installed and set it up. The YouTube video is only 6 minutes long, worth a watch. One very nice thing is that Herdr gives me the ability to copy an image into a cli - you paste, and it comes across as a png file. Magical and very helpful - one of the biggest drawbacks of using cli versions of Codex and Claude Code (or any cli) was that lack. It’s super easy to have multiple codex, Claude Code, etc session. And as each of them spins up agents, there’s a separate section showing all your running agents. Very nice. At a glance you can see which ones are running and which are ready for my attention. It has the ability to make tabs, so for say, Claude Code, I can have multiple entire tabs off of it. And in each window I can split pane - just like with Tmux or Zellij. I never used those features before because I can’t remember the key board shortcuts. With herder you can use the mouse and right click for a menu as well as the shortcuts. So now I can create a pane, do some further cli work, then close it. Very convenient. The long running session feature works too. Close Herdr, open it back up and your sessions are still running. I think I’d still rather have a gui, I’m just that kind of guy. I MAY try T3-Code again one day. I tried it once and it was too early - very slow. For now, Herdr is a big upgrade in user experience than ssh with Zellij.
Herdr is an open-source terminal-based agent multiplexer for managing multiple AI agent sessions with workspaces, tabs, panes, and mouse support. It runs as a background server, allowing detachment and reattachment without losing agent processes.
Herdr is a terminal multiplexer that lets developers run multiple coding agents in separate terminals, on any machine or over SSH, with persistent sessions viewable at a glance.
Herdr version 0.9 introduces multi-machine support, allowing users to manage and control agents across multiple remote machines from a single TUI interface via SSH, enhancing workflow efficiency.