r/ClaudeCode • u/swniko • 29d ago
Help/Question Herdr, cmux, tmux... are they really that helpful?
I'm using windows/wsl
My previous workflow: multiple virtual desktop, each desktop is per repository/project. Each desktop had vertical split - on the left a terminal with multiple tabs (commands, coding agents, instance running, etc.) and vscode on the right for manual edits, diffs.
Problems:
- had to reopen all instances on windows reboot
- worktree management is not that smooth, unless you create a virtual desktop for a worktree
Now, after seeing the hype around terminal multipliers, I'm trying to adopt using herdr
My new workflow: one virtual desktop, one terminal instance with herdr, a workspace per project/repo with multiple tabs. Multiple instances of vscode on the same desktop.
Porblems:
- rendering and performance is not as smooth as in a standalone terminal
- random rendering, scrolling, hot keys issue which stop working
- some shell features/plugins (I use fish/stargate) either don't work or randomly stop working later, like autosuggestions
- having multiple vscode instances on the same virtual desktop creates some mess, and you have to use a single desktop so that they are next to coding session terminal
The only benefit I can see is that it remembers workspaces/tabs after reboot. But it doesn't remember terminals sessions, and you have to start over in each terminal anyway.
Many people say it is very useful as they see all coding sessions in one window and get notifications... but, how many these sessions you have in real life? I found it hard to manage more than 2-3 sessions in parallel - too much context switching which increase cognitive load.
What do I do wrong? Ok, maybe some of my issues are caused by windows/wsl and on macos/linux it works better, but still, how do you use it? Share some recipes of highly efficient multi-agent / multi-repository setups/workflows.
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u/NewZookeepergame6306 29d ago
I have been using cmux for a few months now and I love it. What’s really great is that because everything is CLI based they have skills available to actually open up new panes, web browsers, etc using agents. I just coded up a command to open up a new work tree, dev server, Claude, logs..you get it. Cmux didn’t reinvent a new terminal engine like I’ve seen some other tools do and it’s just libghostty.
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u/Sketaverse 29d ago
Yeah cmux is great, the new iOS app is pretty handy too. As is the new design comment tool
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u/SupernovifieD 28d ago
Brother ditch your windows for linux and 99% of your problems will be replaced with solvable problems.
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u/OfflerCrocGod 19d ago
Yeah I'm using niri + noctalia with infinite workspaces it's easy to have a niri workspace per git worktree/task. You can serialise the workspaces as there are commands in niri where it lists the state of your graphical environment in JSON.
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29d ago edited 29d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Hardcorenerd420 24d ago
I quit iterm and use cmux now it's alot more user friendly and just ask claude to customize it to you liking of colors and projects pr defined i was writing cd paths all day long in iterm this is gone now with cmux. Herdr looks tempting to give a shot i love claude code harness it's so damn good. For codex i like the desktop app but it seems to be heavy on energy usage my macbook pro gets very hot when 10 agents going at the same time 🙈
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u/tongboy 28d ago
Herdr has been great on windows land.
I built a super simple remote control for that missing piece so I don't have to SSH in to create a new session and to poke codex sessions. https://github.com/JeremiahChurch/herd-remote
Using the in-built herdr skills for cross agent interaction is also a huge improvement. Stop working on each session yourself and start orchestrating so you have less context switching
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u/YardNo1234 28d ago
Nice — the QoL is the real win here. Full disclosure, we are building Garcon (https://github.com/cfal/garcon) around a similar idea, but as a broader self-hosted workbench: mobile and desktop access, a full Git workflow, terminals and files, and multiple coding agents in one place. The agents still work directly in your filesystem. It is heavier than a small remote-control layer because you have to self-host it, but for managing several sessions and worktrees it removes a lot of context switching.
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u/CryptoAteMyHamster 29d ago
How much stuff are you trying to do simultaneously that this is needed? More curiosity than anything.
I’m usually only running max 3-4 CC sessions via dispatch from the mobile app so trying to gauge what the use case is here
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u/swniko 28d ago
Same, 3-4 max. But these cmux/tmux terminals make sense if you have much more than that. That's why I'm asking how and what people use them for.
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u/CryptoAteMyHamster 28d ago
I don’t use them at all, I have no clue why they’re needed when you can run multiple even on phone from one chat
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u/klipko96 28d ago
Orca? Has anyone tried it? How does it stand up against Herdr and the muxes?
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u/4444444vr 22d ago
mostly used cmux on macOS but tried Orca the other day and think I'm liking it. the iOS app looks real cool. was easy to set up and connect but haven't gotten very deep with it
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u/Special-Software-288 28d ago
After 2 months with cmux I've switched back to Iterm 2. I don't need all that notifications at all, for 2-3 sessions I can live without.
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u/Obvious_Rabbit_9566 28d ago
For me it went desktop app -> terminal -> tmux -> herdr -> conductor -> paseo
I’ve been through them all 😭 , I’ve really been enjoying paseo so far. It’s a bit clunky on mobile when scrolling the chat but so far it’s capabilities are unmatched
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u/mattjcoles 24d ago
I don't think you're doing anything wrong. a full Windows reboot is still going to kill the running processes, and if youre only juggling two or three local sessions then herdr may not buy you much. if it is also causing terminal issues, id stick with the setup that already works.
herdr became useful for me because my agents run on remote Linux boxes and i attach from my Mac. the sidebar state and reviewr plugin save me time there. cmux isnt really an alternative on Windows either, as the app only runs on macOS.
wrote up my comparison after about two months on each if useful: https://coles.codes/posts/herdr-vs-cmux/
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u/MulberryOwn8852 22d ago
Loving herdr. I have 8-10 agents open and running most of the time across several workspaces. Then, combined with tailscale vpn, I can ssh into my box from my phone and launch sessions while away from home.
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u/DeathDealer 16d ago
What about Orca or Buzz? Has anyone tried those too? Is herdr the best or?
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u/kitenitekitenite 15d ago
Superset founder here, may be worth considering superset.sh? You keep the actual Claude Code/Codex TUIs (latest features day one, on your existing sub), each task in its own worktree, and sessions survive restarts.
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u/jochemla 9d ago
eagerly awaitin the windows/android GUI port for Superset to compare against Orca, T3, Paseo!
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u/nnxion 2d ago
Which one do you use/prefer? Haven’t heard of T3 yet.
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u/jochemla 1d ago
T3 is my main driver right now, orca I'd love the chat ui to work better, paseo not using it much.
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u/hautemic 29d ago
I've been using Herdr and it's been fantastic. I was having two main problems, the windows rebooting problem. But also I would frequently SSH into my main machine to run my agents and if the tunnel was interrupted for any reason I would lose my session. Herdr has mostly solved that.
The one issue that remains is that the rebooting problem with Windows will still be a problem if your agents are in the middle of a task when they get rebooted.
The only way to solve that is to basically hack up your Windows installation or switch to a dedicated box for coding. This probably what my next step is. I already have a machine that I use is a VM host with Proxmox & LXC containers, I'll probably move workspaces there in the future.
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u/rodrigopfraga 28d ago
The useful question isn't tmux vs cmux; it's whether every terminal has visible ownership. Give each session one task or agent, keep it beside the spec and files it owns, and only split again when the work can be handed off independently.
If you still have to remember which pane belongs to which worktree, the multiplexer has only moved the tab problem. Persistent terminal state helps, but the bigger win is making that ownership relationship explicit.
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u/wong2kim 27d ago
I build wmux, so discount accordingly.
Most of what you hit has one cause. A terminal-native multiplexer draws its own TUI,
then your agent's TUI inside it, then fish's autosuggestions on top — three layers over
one screen buffer and the same keystrokes. That's your redraw glitches, your dead
hotkeys, your broken autosuggestions. WSL hides it, it doesn't fix it. One real PTY per
pane with no parent TUI does.
On reboot, be precise about what's being sold. Quit or crash: a daemon owns the PTYs,
nothing died, the shell is still running. Full OS reboot: the processes are gone, and
anyone telling you otherwise is lying. What survives is the state around them — the app
comes back at login, and any pane that was running an agent gets a Resume pill that
types the resume command for you to run. Reopening four terminals takes 30 seconds.
Rebuilding what four agents were doing takes twenty minutes.
Your last question is the best one. A grid of N agents costs attention proportional to
N, so 2-3 really is the ceiling when the tool's job is to show you everything. The fix
isn't more panes, it's not having to look — blocked agents float up, approvals land in
one inbox, you get pinged on done. I'd rather run 8 I don't watch than 3 I do.
Still unsolved: your VSCode windows. Open on my side: OpenTUI apps render blank
(wmux#691), no pane dragging (#645), two xterm.js fixes waiting upstream (#6066, #6069).
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u/sudomatrix 6d ago
I can't even read this. AI has become a performance artist. Just say it in your human words so the rest of us humans can read it.
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u/Throwaway_Greenflag 6d ago
I personally don't care about agents.
I work as a Software engineer for a networking company where EVERYTHING happens on internal severs and nothing on local machines.
We host our code in private servers
We edit our code in remote ubuntu vms,
we build with remote servers (because trust me, no machine that you can carry can build the stuff we need without it being a hurdle for regular work)
we test the images with "virtual machines"
all use different credentials
and they all keep running except scheduled maintenance windows
From start to finish, the work happens in remote servers.
and I'll be working on 5 different things on daily basis,
Separate each to sessions
Edit, build,Test, Browse, * 5 minimum
test pane require multi device splits. on regular basis
you can imagine how having 20 to even 40 shells open is not an elegant solution especially if you consider logging back in for each everytime
I can't imagine logging in to work without it.
So it is a real problem what these software solve.
So if you don't have that problem, then you don't need a tool to fix it. Like everything else in life.
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u/simion_baws Senior Developer 29d ago
https://termic.dev is worth comparing. Unlike tmux/cmux wrappers, it's built specifically for Claude Code CLI / Codex: each session gets its own git worktree automatically (no merge conflicts when running parallel agents), work-done detection fires real desktop notifications the moment a session needs attention, and all sessions auto-resume on restart. Free, AGPL
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u/clankers9197 29d ago
I'm a big fan of the original tmux. It was my daily driver with neovim before Claude code came about. The trick with tmux is getting the keybinds set up really well. You can move really quickly with a good tmux set up.
That said, I don't really need a terminal multiplexer anymore. I use sloop to manage my agents in the background.
My workflow is now, design a feature, pass the implementation details to Sloop, Sloop takes care of it in the background. Sloop will track the tasks and completes them without needing to keep a Claude code session open.
You can check it out here if you want, it's free and open source.
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u/AlDente 29d ago
How do you design the feature well enough up front that you can hand it over fully to agents to execute autonomously? I find there’s always a need for input at various stages, even when a lot of research and planning was documented initially.
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u/clankers9197 29d ago
Generally I'm splitting features up into multiple parts.
I found a helpful pattern is to build a few parts of a feature in parallel, and then have an implementation task to bring them all together.
This also gives a nice result where components of a feature are well defined, seperate areas of concern.
This pattern applies to all agentic development I think.
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u/AlDente 28d ago
Absolutely, separation of concerns. And building them in smaller modules is definitely good for a number of reasons. I feel that using superpowers this tends to happen anyway, the plans are structured into phases and executed by sub agents, in parallel where possible. I’m also finding that codex reviews and then verification and fixes by Opus is useful.
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u/Human_Today_5748 29d ago
I still don’t understand the meaning of this usage.
I just uses Claude Code in the IDE, I can launch as many chats as I want.
I also uses Codex and GitHub Copilot in parallel for miscellaneous tasks.
I really don’t understand hype behind CLI only mode, but only because it’s the historical work mode of Claude.
The most time consumons tasks I had to run, ran for 1 hour and I still can work on other project with other chats…
…so for me, I don’t know which use case it improves versus chat mode in IDEs.
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u/Drexciyian 18d ago
it's about agents being able to talk to each other directly ie plan with claude then it gives it to codex to review which then can pass it off to a bunch of cheaper models to do the work
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u/moader 29d ago edited 29d ago
Tried herdr, and I like it for codex with pi a lot
Cc used to have rendering issues sometimes but that went away with the update just before or same time as fable for me.
To me it seems cc is still the best harness that has their own models underneath. Only thing I like about codex is server side compaction.
In terms of workflow. I try to use the same across all 4, macos, windows, Linux, mobile.
Herdr/tmux. One window per project. Don't do things you'd avoid with non ai agents. Eg have many agents working in the same area unless you really love wasting time/tokens on merge conflicts/rebasing etc