Herdr GPUI

Herdr GPUI is a native desktop client for developers to view Herdr terminal sessions, Git worktrees, and coding agent activity.

A window onto your existing Herdr sessions

If you already run coding agents in Herdr, this client gives their workspaces and terminal panes a native desktop surface. The Herdr daemon owns the terminal processes and session state; the app receives terminal cells and sends keyboard and pointer input back. Closing the window leaves the daemon and its terminals running, so reopening the client does not mean starting those jobs again.

The project lives at penso/herdr-gpui. Its README explicitly calls it an unaffiliated project: it is not endorsed or supported by Herdr or herdr.dev. Install the Herdr daemon separately. The client can start an already-installed local server when its target session is absent, but it does not install or upgrade that daemon.

Move between branches, panes, and agents

• The workspace sidebar groups main checkouts with their linked Git worktrees and displays branch details and daemon-provided activity indicators. Worktree rows can show a cached pull-request number and diff counts.
• The agents panel switches between grouped and priority sorting. Clicking a workspace, tab, agent, or visible split pane focuses it through the Herdr API.
• Workspace and pane menus provide actions such as rename, split, and opening an existing worktree. A command palette brings navigation and actions into one searchable place.
• The terminal supports search, text selection, clipboard copying, and opening scrollback in an editor. Keyboard shortcuts and fonts can be configured locally.

For example, a developer can keep a main checkout and a feature worktree visible in the sidebar, select the agent working on that branch, and return to its terminal output. The activity indicators come from the daemon rather than a second, independent estimate of what each agent is doing.

Local sessions and saved SSH hosts

Alongside the local daemon, the client can attach to saved SSH hosts. Remote connections require an installed POSIX Herdr, noninteractive authentication, and an already trusted host key. For a host requiring a password or MFA, the documentation describes authenticating in a terminal first and reusing an SSH ControlMaster connection. This is a way to access sessions on another machine, not a hosted agent service supplied by the GUI.

Browser panes have a different lifecycle: web pages beside a workspace belong to the GUI because Herdr itself has no browser panes. The repository documents a local browser command for agents to open a URL in the running app. Terminal persistence and browser ownership should therefore be considered separately when closing or reconnecting the client.

Install the app, then connect the daemon

• On macOS, the current README requires macOS 14.2 Sonoma or newer, on Apple Silicon or Intel. Homebrew installs the signed, notarized universal app with brew install penso/tap/herdr-gpui; launch it with open -a Herdr.
• The release page also provides macOS disk images and experimental Linux and Windows downloads.
• Linux packages target x86_64 and ARM64 and require glibc 2.39 or newer plus Vulkan support. Packages are downloaded individually rather than maintained through a distribution repository; new releases need manual installation.
• Source builds use the repository's pinned toolchain. On macOS they also require the Xcode command-line tools. The README recommends just run for an optimized development build.

Check the platform limits before switching

Windows remains experimental. The project reports automated and command-line checks, but says its native window, renderer, and live daemon have not been exercised. Saved SSH hosts, in-app updates, saved GitHub credentials, and the avatar disk cache are unavailable there. Those limits matter if remote sessions are the main reason you want this client.

The GUI documentation also lists missing split dragging, terminal image rendering, and notification history. Large or frequently changing terminal surfaces can consume significant CPU. The client is most relevant to people already using Herdr who want its sessions in a native window; it still depends on the daemon and the coding tools you install around it.