--- title: "Herdr vs Panda Code: Which Should You Use for Coding Agents?" url: "https://goremy.ai/blog/articles/herdr-vs-panda-code-which-should-you-use" author: Luis Chavez-Mattos editor: Luis Chavez-Mattos editor_title: Director, Product published: "2026-11-10T04:20:09.538Z" updated: "2026-11-11T11:51:37.163Z" topic: AI Coding Tools description: "Herdr is a terminal runtime for coding agents; Panda Code is a desktop app with diffs and teams. Compare remote work, status, persistence and updates." --- # Herdr vs Panda Code: Which Should You Use for Coding Agents? > Herdr is a terminal runtime for coding agents; Panda Code is a desktop app with diffs and teams. Compare remote work, status, persistence and updates. Edited by Luis Chavez-Mattos, Director, Product · Published 2026-11-10 · Updated 2026-11-11 ## Should you use Herdr or Panda Code to manage multiple coding agents? It depends on how you work. Herdr is a terminal multiplexer, like tmux, that knows whether each agent is working, blocked or done. Panda Code is a desktop app that shows each agent as a chat thread with diffs, a browser and team runs. Pick Herdr if you live in the terminal and SSH into servers. Pick Panda Code if you want to review changes and click instead of type. Many people run both. ## TL;DR - **Herdr is a terminal runtime.** Every agent gets a real terminal pane, so anything that runs in a terminal works, including agents that don't exist yet. - **Panda Code is a desktop GUI** that wraps agents you already have installed (Claude Code, Codex, Kimi Code, OpenCode, GLM) and shows them as chat threads. - **Herdr suits SSH-heavy workflows.** One window can manage your local machine plus all saved SSH hosts. Panda Code suits people who would rather not manage servers. - **Panda Code wins on review.** It offers per-turn diffs, a changes panel, worktree merges, a built-in browser, agent teams and chat bots. - **Both now protect running agents during updates**, but they restore different things after a restart: Herdr restores terminals, Panda Code restores conversations. - **Both have rough edges.** Herdr is pre-1.0 (version 0.9.5 at the time of the source), and Panda Code only supports the agents it has integrated. ## What is Herdr? Herdr bills itself as the runtime your coding agents live on. It is a terminal multiplexer that tracks the state of each agent and shows it in a sidebar: working, blocked on a question, or done. The repo had close to 49,000 GitHub stars when the source video was made, and the version was 0.9.5. Recent releases changed it from a nicer tmux sidebar into something closer to infrastructure. The biggest changes are multi-machine management, a `--machine` flag for scripting, per-client UI, safer updates, sturdier persistence, and a way for agents to report their own state. ## What is Panda Code? Panda Code is a desktop app. It runs the coding agents you already have installed and presents each as a chat thread rather than a terminal screen. Because it is a GUI, it adds features that only make sense with buttons and panels: a diff for every turn, a changes panel for committing from worktrees, a two-click merge into main, a built-in browser where you pick an element and send it to the agent, a taskboard, and a usage page showing plan limits in one place. ## How do Herdr and Panda Code compare at a glance? | Area | Herdr | Panda Code | |---|---|---| | Form | Terminal multiplexer | Desktop app | | Agent view | Real terminal pane | Chat thread | | Remote work | SSH machines in one sidebar | Opt-in multi-machine mode, serve mode, cloud sandbox | | Status | Screen reading, or agent self-reports | Talks to each agent through its own interface | | Responding | Jump into the pane and type | Click approve or deny, answer a card | | Persistence | Restores terminal sessions | Saves threads in a local database | | Unique | Plugins, Kitty images, scriptable CLI, multi-client | Diffs, teams, browser, taskboard, Telegram and Slack bots | ## How does remote work differ? Herdr takes the SSH route. You add a saved machine and its agents appear in the sidebar under local. One window can manage local and remote hosts together. If you run the add command interactively, Herdr finds sessions already running on that host and lets you pick one, so you don't start a duplicate. The label defaults to the SSH host name. It can also connect to Windows SSH hosts now. The agent list merges every machine. Claude Code on your laptop and Codex on a server sit in one list, and a blocked approval on the server triggers the same notification as a local one. Each machine reconnects on its own, so a dropped server doesn't stop local agents. The `--machine` flag runs any Herdr command against a saved machine without a Herdr window open: ``` herdr --machine agent list ``` Agents can use this too. An agent on your laptop can start another agent on your server, send it a prompt, wait, and read the output. Both machines need the new version for this to work. If a remote command fails, it never falls back to running locally. Connection handling has improved as well. `herdr machine status` checks all saved machines without prompting. `herdr machine reconnect` lets you finish a password or MFA login in your terminal. Open clients recheck failed machines every 30 seconds. SSH now uses compression, and scrolling output sends only changed rows, which helps on poor Wi-Fi. Panda Code handles remote work differently. Its multi-machine mode is opt-in: agents can launch threads on your other computers and wait for them. You can also run it on a spare machine or server in serve mode so agents keep working when your laptop sleeps. For long tasks, a cloud sandbox in the run-on menu keeps going without your machine, and changes return to a local worktree. If you already live on SSH boxes, Herdr fits better. If you would rather not manage servers, Panda Code's sandbox option is the lighter path. ## How do they track agent status? Both show what is running, what needs you, and what finished. The difference is the next step. Herdr historically needed a built-in integration for each agent or had to read the screen and guess. Now an agent can tell Herdr directly that it is working, blocked or idle, using a guide called "add Herdr support to your agent." Detection was also added for Muse and Letta Code, and many status bugs were fixed across Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Antigravity, Grok, Kiro and others. When something needs you, you jump to the pane and answer in the terminal. Panda Code talks to each agent through its own interface. Approvals appear as a thin bar above the prompt box with approve and deny buttons. Questions appear as a small card with options. You click. ## How does persistence work? Herdr's restore is the more complete one for raw terminals. Key details from the recent releases: - It saves before the OS starts closing apps on a Mac restart or Windows shutdown. - Saves are written to disk before replacing the old file, so a crash or power cut won't corrupt the session file. - It keeps up to 48 layout snapshots in a session snapshots folder for manual recovery. - On Mac and Linux, closing the shell that started Herdr no longer stops the server. - Agents restart one at a time, 100 ms apart by default. You can change this with the startup per agent delay setting in the session section of your config. Agents can also report a resume command. After a restart, Herdr runs that command in the same pane and folder, and the conversation returns without Herdr having built-in support for that agent. Panda Code saves every thread in a local database, so you can reopen one and keep chatting. Its resume at reset feature continues a task by itself after you hit a usage limit and the limit resets. Panda Code's strength is the conversation and the work, not the terminal state. ## What happens when you update? Updating used to be a risk in Herdr, since it could stop the server and kill every pane. Now a client update can leave a compatible server and its agents alone. If the server lacks a feature, only that action is disabled. If Herdr needs to replace a remote server, it asks first, and the default answer is no. After `herdr update`, it lists servers still on the old version, gives the restart command for each, and reminds you to update saved machines. Panda Code installs its own updates only when no agent is working. It can also update each of your coding agents with one click. ## What can only one of them do? Herdr: plugins (and a command to update all GitHub plugins at once), standard Kitty graphics in panes, multiple clients viewing different workspaces and tabs on the same server, and a CLI agents can script. Each client keeps its own theme, menus and copy mode. A "go to" view lists every agent and terminal by workspace with status and path. You can also set more than one prefix key. Panda Code: per-turn diffs, worktree commits and merges, the element-picking browser, a taskboard, [agent teams where an architect splits work](https://goremy.ai/blog/articles/panda-code-agent-teams-cheap-balanced-best) across workers on different models, bots on Telegram and Slack, and the usage page. ## What are the limits of each? Herdr is still pre-1.0, and the releases have been fast and occasionally breaking: - Version 0.9.2 removed the old pane graphics API, so anything using it had to move to standard Kitty graphics. - Version 0.9.3 shipped the same day to fix escape-based shortcuts, and 0.9.5 followed 0.9.4 by a day. - Codex status regressed slightly in 0.9.5 because Herdr stopped installing Codex turn hooks to remove a startup warning. Status comes from screen reading again, and you need to run `herdr integration install codex` to update. - A Zsh with Powerlevel10k bug, where resizing a pane repeats parts of your prompt, is still open pending a Ghostty fix. - The `--machine` flag needs the new version on both ends. Panda Code's limits: - The apps aren't signed yet, so you see a warning on first open. - It only runs the agents it supports, so a brand new CLI agent may work in Herdr first. - Because it depends on how each agent behaves, it sometimes needs an update when an agent changes. ## Which one should you choose? Choose Herdr if you work in the terminal, SSH into servers all day, or use agents no GUI supports yet. It makes long sessions more reliable and is worth trying if you run more than two or three agents at once. Choose Panda Code if you want to review what agents changed, run teams, and mostly click. Using both is a reasonable setup. The creator in the source runs long jobs in Herdr on a server and does daily review and team runs in Panda Code on a laptop, and says the two don't interfere. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is Herdr a replacement for tmux? It covers the same multiplexer ground but adds agent awareness. It shows whether each agent is working, blocked or done in a sidebar, and it can manage local and SSH machines in one window. It is still pre-1.0, so expect frequent releases. ### Can Panda Code run agents on a remote server? Yes, in a few ways. An opt-in multi-machine mode lets agents launch threads on your other computers. You can run Panda Code on a spare machine or server in serve mode, or pick a cloud sandbox and have changes return to a local worktree. ### Will a new coding agent work in both tools? Likely in Herdr first. Herdr gives every agent a terminal pane, and agents can now report their own state and resume command. Panda Code only runs the agents it supports. ### Does updating kill my running agents? Not in the normal case for either tool. Herdr leaves compatible servers alone and asks before replacing one, defaulting to no. Panda Code installs its own updates only when no agent is working. ### Can I use Herdr and Panda Code together? Yes. One workflow is long-running jobs in Herdr on a server, with diff review and team runs in Panda Code on a laptop.