Comparison

We think you should be using either Dormouse or cmux, because:

• Running coding agents from a terminal beats running them from a GUI:
  • you have more power to coordinate multi-agent flows, and
  • you are less exposed to vendor lock-in.
• Browsers multiplexed next to your terminals are a huge unlock for watching agents and giving them feedback.

Some reasons you might prefer cmux:

• Its terminal is native Zig (Ghostty's), while Dormouse's is xterm.js, the one inside VS Code.
• Its browser is a private fork of Chromium (it used to be WebKit), which feels native and has an API agents can drive. Dormouse drives unmodified Playwright or agent-browser, which feels native to your agents but can lag slightly for you. You can open the system browser for no lag, but then Dormouse's layout does not manage it.
• It makes orchestrating a fleet of remote SSH boxes easy. Dormouse has not built that yet; it assumes most of your work happens on one or two machines.

Some reasons you might prefer Dormouse:

• It drives real, unmodified Playwright or agent-browser rather than a private browser fork.
• If you like VS Code (or one of its forks), Dormouse and all of its browser features run there.
• If you prefer lightweight standalone apps, the Dormouse download is about 60MB against about 320MB for cmux.
• You can try Dormouse in your browser without installing anything.
• Its alerts track your attention: which panes you have interacted with, so it only dings for something you have not seen. Walk across the room to stretch and it speaks aloud; go for a walk and it can push a notification to your phone.

Claude Desktop and the Codex app wrap one vendor's agent in a polished GUI. Dormouse runs the same agents' CLIs, Claude Code and Codex, in a terminal:

• A terminal coordinates multi-agent flows a chat window cannot, and any CLI agent can join.
• Your workflow is not tied to one vendor's app.

Some reasons you might prefer a desktop app:

• Nothing to set up: sign in and start.
• Built-in diff review, worktrees, and cloud tasks, designed around that one agent.
• You never have to touch a terminal.

Some reasons you might prefer Dormouse:

• Claude Code, Codex, and any other CLI agent run side by side in one layout.
• One alert model across all of them, which knows what you have already seen.
• Browser panes your agents drive, next to the terminals they run in.
• It runs inside VS Code, and on Linux.

herdr and Dormouse agree that coding agents belong in real terminal panes, with a multiplexer that knows which agents need you.

Some reasons you might prefer herdr:

• It runs inside the terminal you already use — Ghostty, kitty, WezTerm, even tmux — and over SSH.
• Its background server keeps agents running when your client disconnects.
• It is keyboard-first, for people who never want to reach for the mouse.

Some reasons you might prefer Dormouse:

• Mouse-friendly: split, drag, select, and copy as you would in any app.
• Browser panes next to your terminals, which your agents can drive.
• It runs inside VS Code, and on your phone.

Dormouse borrows tmux's model — panes, splits, and its keybinds — and adds the mouse, browsers, and agent alerts.

Some reasons you might prefer tmux or zellij:

• They run anywhere a shell does, including over SSH, and sessions survive a disconnect.
• Years of plugins, configuration, and muscle memory.
• No GUI at all.

Some reasons you might prefer Dormouse:

• Keep your tmux keybinds and use the mouse as well.
• Alerts when an agent in any pane needs you.
• Browser panes in the same layout as your terminals.
• You can still run tmux inside a Dormouse pane.