current comparison, September 2026
pane vs herdr
Pane and Herdr both help you run several coding agents without losing the thread. Pane gives you a desktop workspace for worktrees, visual diffs, and git review. Herdr keeps the work in a terminal UI (TUI) with a background server, live detach, and reattach. Pick the workflow that matches how you review and reconnect.
By Parsa Khazaeepoul, co-founder of Pane. Tested every agent manager in this comparison set in production. .
feature by feature
| workflow | pane | herdr |
|---|---|---|
| operating systems | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, and Linux support, with remote paths depending on the host |
| agent support | any CLI agent | supported integrations plus custom terminal commands |
| terminal UI | desktop app with built-in terminals | terminal UI with mouse controls, workspaces, tabs, and panes |
| worktrees | created and cleaned up around panes | available in the workspace flow; you control the git details |
| diff review | built-in visual diff viewer | review from the terminal, git, or an installed tool |
| git workflow | commit, push, rebase, squash, and merge in the app | run git in the terminal or use an integration |
| remote runtime | self-hosted daemon, desktop or browser client | background server, SSH, and named remote sessions |
| cloud host | run the self-hosted daemon on a machine or VM you configure | bring your own SSH server and storage; Herdr Cloud is coming soon with a waitlist |
| phone access | browser app for remote sessions; Claude app control through Pane Chat | SSH client or terminal client for the remote session |
| orchestration | Pane Chat and runpane CLI can coordinate work across panes | agent integrations and CLI or socket APIs; you compose the workflow |
| live detach | client reconnects to saved workspace state | processes keep running while the server stays up |
| restart recovery | session and worktree state return; processes need normal recovery | saved layout returns; supported agents can resume native sessions |
| notifications | desktop and sound alerts | status in the TUI, with notification behavior depending on the client |
| license | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
Current details: Herdr session state and restore · Herdr persistence and remote access · Herdr connecting machines · Pane review and commit docs · Herdr worktree helpers
choose Pane when the review loop is the pain
Use Pane when your bottleneck starts after the agent has written code. You want each task tied to a branch and folder, a diff you can scan, and git actions close to the terminal.
- → you want a desktop GUI and keyboard shortcuts
- → you review several agent diffs in one place
- → you want worktree, port, environment, and git details in the same workspace
- → you want Pane Chat to coordinate work across panes
- → you move between Windows, macOS, Linux, or a remote Pane host
choose Herdr when the terminal is home
Herdr is a good fit when you want a terminal-first workspace. Its background server lets you detach and reconnect while the server and its processes stay alive. Its agent integrations can report status and resume supported native sessions after a server restart.
- → you already work comfortably in a terminal UI
- → live detach and SSH reattach matter more than a visual diff screen
- → you want mouse-friendly workspaces, tabs, and panes in a terminal
- → you prefer to compose git and review tools yourself
persistence has more than one meaning
A live detach is different from a restart. Herdr's strongest path is detach and reattach while its server keeps running. After a server restart, Herdr restores the saved shape and can resume agents that expose a supported native session. Pane restores its saved session and worktree state, but neither product can make a sleeping or powered-off host execute work.
- → detach means the client leaves while the host keeps running
- → recovery means rebuilding a session after a process or server stops
- → remote compute means the host is another machine, not that execution is immortal