Search skills/

herdr Claude skills

A Rust terminal multiplexer for coding agents, with a skill that lets one agent split panes, start other agents and wait on them.

herdrdev/herdr 5 skills Planning, TDD & debuggingSkill & agent tooling
Our verdict Recommended with caveats

A well-maintained, Apache-2.0 runtime with a careful control skill, but the skill is useless without installing herdr itself, and the documented installer is a curl-to-shell script.

2/5 Depth expertise shipped Note Security Review before installing 0d Maintenance Updated today 75K Adoption installs OK License Apache-2.0, commercial OK

What herdr does

herdr is a terminal workspace manager built for running several coding agents at once. It keeps terminals alive in a background server so you can detach, close the client or drop an SSH connection and reattach later, groups them into workspaces, tabs and panes, and labels each pane working, blocked or idle so you can see which agent is waiting for an answer. It works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and other agents without wrapping them, and it can show saved SSH machines in one window.

The skill in skills/herdr (about 15 KB, one file) is how an agent drives that runtime from the inside. It tells the agent to check that it is running in a herdr pane first, to read the installed CLI's help instead of trusting the skill for syntax, and then to use the herdr CLI to create sibling panes, start a named agent in one, send it a prompt, read its output and wait until it is ready or blocked. It also covers pane IDs, remote machines through --machine, and what not to touch, such as the user's focused session. The repo has three more skills for the maintainers (release audit, issue triage, throwaway repro sessions) that only apply inside the herdr repository. Installation is through a shell script, Homebrew, mise or release binaries, and the skill is only useful after herdr is installed.

Good for

  • Developers who already run several coding agents in terminals and want to see which is blocked
  • Letting one agent start and prompt a second agent (for example a reviewer) in a neighbouring pane
  • Keeping long agent sessions alive over SSH

Not for

  • Anyone not willing to adopt a new terminal multiplexer
  • Use outside a herdr-managed pane (the skill tells the agent to stop there)

What's inside depth 2/5

The main skill is a single 15 KB SKILL.md with no references, scripts or evals; the real depth is in the herdr binary it controls, plus three maintainer-only skills.

Skills
5
Reference docs
1
Scripts
0
Tests / evals
20
Templates
0
Avg SKILL.md
5.9 KB

Counted from the repository file tree. How we score depth.

Dependencies and costs

  • The herdr binary (curl installer, Homebrew, mise, or release download)
  • A supported coding agent installed separately (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and others)

Security review

Review before installing

The herdr skill lets an agent that is already running inside a herdr terminal pane list, split and control other panes, start other coding agents, send them prompts and read their output, including on saved SSH machines when asked. It checks that it is inside herdr first and has no pre-approved tools or scripts of its own. The herdr program itself is installed from the vendor with a curl-to-shell script and its source was not available to review.

Worth knowing

  • Installs with curl | shREADME installs the herdr binary with curl -fsSL https://herdr.dev/install.sh | sh (and a Windows irm https://herdr.dev/install.ps1 | iex equivalent) from the vendor's host.README.md:45
  • Relies on a CLI or package we could not reviewThe herdr skill drives the herdr binary (terminal multiplexer) found on PATH, whose source and binary are not among the files we have.skills/herdr/SKILL.md:3
  • Installs packages or toolsInstallation of the herdr binary is via the install script, Homebrew, mise or a release download.README.md:48

What we checked

The repository (3112 files) on Oct 29, 2026. Not a full review: 3060 of 3112 files were not downloaded (large repository; we reviewed the skill folders); it relies on code outside the repository: herdr binary and its Rust source (about 3,000 repository files were not downloaded); install.sh and install.ps1 served from https://herdr.dev.

NVIDIA SkillSpector static scan: 5 pattern hits (Agent Snooping 3, Supply Chain 1, Tool Misuse 1). The two HIGH hits are the README install one-liner; the MEDIUM hits are a release-audit skill that names the other skill files. Only five SKILL.md files and the README were available; no code files were present.

A review, not a certification. Skills change after we check them — read the files before installing.

License

Apache-2.0 — commercial use allowed.

Can it run unattended?

Yes. herdr keeps terminals running when you detach or lose SSH, flags blocked agents, and lets an agent wait on another; processes do not survive a machine restart, only the saved layout does.

Alternatives to herdr

Orca

stablyai/orca

An open-source desktop and mobile app for running several coding agents in parallel git worktrees, plus 11 thin skills that hand agents the app's CLI.

With caveats Check first Depth 2/5

Paperclip

paperclipai/paperclip

A self-hosted app for orchestrating teams of AI agents with org charts, budgets and approvals; its skills are mostly maintainer workflows.

With caveats Broad access Depth 4/5

delegate-skills

amElnagdy/delegate-skills

Twenty skills that hand a coding task to another agent CLI (Codex, Cursor, Aider, Claude and many more) in the background, then leave the diff review and commit to you.

Recommended Broad access Depth 4/5

Claude Octopus

nyldn/claude-octopus

An escalation layer that runs tasks past up to twelve external AI providers (Codex, Copilot, Ollama, Grok, more) with a consensus gate, plus 63 skills.

With caveats Check first Depth 4/5

FAQ

What is herdr?

herdr is a terminal multiplexer written in Rust for people who run several coding agents at once. It keeps sessions alive in the background, shows which agent is working, blocked or idle, and exposes a CLI and socket API that agents can use to control panes.

How do I install herdr and its skill?

Install the binary with the README's curl script, brew install herdr, mise use -g herdr, the Windows PowerShell script, or a release download. The agent skill lives in skills/herdr and is documented on herdr.dev as the agent skill; it only does anything inside a herdr pane.

Is herdr safe to install?

The scanner flagged the curl-to-shell installer in the README, which is how the binary itself is installed; use Homebrew, mise or a release download if you prefer to avoid piping a script. We found no hidden network calls or credential reads in the skill files.

herdr vs tmux: what is the difference?

herdr uses tmux-style prefix keys but adds agent awareness: it marks each pane working, blocked or idle and lets agents start and prompt each other through a CLI. tmux is a general multiplexer with no notion of coding agents.

Sources: GitHub repository (stars, license, file tree, last push Oct 29, 2026); install counts from skills.sh via Best Skills (CC BY 4.0). Review based on the README and SKILL.md files as published.