Quil vs herdr.
A Rust terminal multiplexer purpose-built for AI coding agents — 'tmux, rebuilt for agents.' Single binary, its own PTY and VT engine, a socket API agents can drive, and a language-agnostic plugin system. Quil's closest philosophical twin.
Agent breadth and extensibility.
Agent breadth and extensibility. Detects ~18 agents with screen-content heuristics, installs native integrations with one command, exposes a full socket API + CLI that agents and scripts can drive, and runs language-agnostic plugins with actions, event hooks, and a GitHub-topic marketplace.
Native Windows. MCP-native. Notes + memory built in.
Native Windows is still beta, there is no MCP server (agents drive it through a bespoke socket API + an installed skill instead of a protocol assistants already speak), and it has no pane-notes editor or per-pane memory reporting.
herdr and Quil made almost the same bet: build your own multiplexer, keep it a single lightweight binary, and make it agent-aware. herdr is further ahead on agent breadth (it detects ~18 agents and ships 14 integrations) and scriptable plugins; Quil is further ahead on native Windows and on speaking MCP, the protocol AI assistants already understand. The honest read: herdr is the stronger Unix-first agent fleet manager today, Quil is the stronger Windows-native, MCP-native one.
Feature by feature.
| capability | quil | herdr |
|---|---|---|
| Own multiplexer + PTY (not a tmux wrapper) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Survives a full host reboot | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI session auto-resume | ✓ | ✓ |
| └── herdr restores native sessions for ~14 agents; Quil for Claude Code + OpenCode. | ||
| Native Windows (no WSL) | ✓ | ~ |
| └── herdr's native Windows support is a ConPTY beta; Quil ships bundled ConPTY/OpenConsole and a Windows clipboard image-paste proxy. | ||
| MCP server for AI agents | ✓ | ✕ |
| └── herdr exposes a bespoke socket API + an installed agent skill instead of the MCP protocol. | ||
| Pane notes editor | ✓ | ✕ |
| Per-pane memory reporting | ✓ | ✕ |
| Screen-content agent detection (no hooks) | ~ | ✓ |
| └── Quil pattern-matches idle only; herdr ships updatable detection manifests for ~18 agents. | ||
| Breadth of agents detected | ~ | ✓ |
| └── Quil: 2 deep + tools. herdr: ~18. | ||
| One-command agent integration installer | ✕ | ✓ |
| Git worktree-per-session | ✕ | ✓ |
| Executable plugins (actions / event hooks / link handlers) | ~ | ✓ |
| └── Quil plugins are declarative TOML pane types; herdr runs any-language plugins. | ||
| Plugin marketplace | ✕ | ✓ |
| General CLI to script the multiplexer | ✕ | ✓ |
| └── Quil scripts via MCP (for AI); herdr adds a shell CLI for humans. | ||
| Remote SSH thin-client attach | ✕ | ✓ |
| Named sessions / live server handoff | ✕ | ✓ |
| Sound + desktop notifications | ~ | ✓ |
| └── Quil has an in-TUI notification center but no sound or OS notifications. | ||
| Themes with light/dark auto-switch | ~ | ✓ |
Coming from herdr?
herdr uses a tmux-style prefix (Ctrl+B) where Quil uses direct Alt-based keys. Both keep agents alive on detach and restore AI sessions. If you're on Windows without WSL, Quil is the smoother path; if you drive many different agents from Unix and want to script the multiplexer from a shell, herdr is very strong.
▸ Is herdr basically Quil in Rust?
Architecturally they're remarkably close — both build their own multiplexer and PTY layer rather than wrapping tmux, both keep agents alive on detach, both restore AI sessions. The divergence is emphasis: herdr optimizes for agent breadth and shell scriptability on Unix; Quil optimizes for native Windows and for being an MCP server that AI assistants drive directly.
▸ Can herdr run on Windows without WSL?
It has an experimental native Windows (ConPTY) beta, but several features are unsupported there. Quil treats Windows as a first-class target with bundled ConPTY/OpenConsole and a clipboard image-paste proxy.
▸ How do agents control each tool?
herdr exposes a Unix-socket API plus a CLI, and ships an installable 'skill' so an agent learns to call it. Quil exposes 18 tools over the Model Context Protocol, which Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code speak natively with no glue.
Other comparisons.
Try them both. Pick a side.
Quil installs side-by-side with herdr. Nothing to uninstall first.