Terminal Agent Managers Still Moving: CCManager, herdr, and How to Tell
A look at terminal-based managers for AI coding agents: what "still moving" means, how to check a tool's activity yourself, and where CCManager and herdr fit.
People running more than one AI coding agent from a terminal often reach for a manager: a tool that starts, tracks, and switches between agent sessions instead of juggling raw terminal tabs. The question behind "which terminal agent managers are still moving" is really about maintenance, which of these projects show signs of ongoing development rather than sitting untouched.
This piece looks at two terminal-oriented options with public project pages: CCManager, an open-source session manager, and herdr, which presents itself as an agent runtime. It sets out what counts as an activity signal, records what those signals looked like on 2026-08-19, and shows how to run the same check yourself on any tool in this category.
The short list
Judged by publicly observable activity on 2026-08-19:
- For the broadest documented agent support today: CCManager, with 749 commits in its repository's full history (419 of them in the 52 weeks measured below) and a current, wide agent list in its README (observed 2026-08-19), MIT-licensed, and advertising no tmux requirement — though its commit cadence fell in every window we measured, to 28 in the last one.
- For the steepest recent development cadence: herdr, which positions itself as an agent runtime on herdr.dev (observed 2026-08-19) and logged 1,431 commits over the 52 weeks to 2026-08-19 — 921 of them in the most recent 13-week window, the highest of any project measured here.
Pricing at a glance
Prices below were checked against each vendor's official pricing page on 2026-08-19. Vendors change pricing without notice — the linked page is authoritative.
- MIT license (README, observed 2026-08-19)
- Install: npm install -g ccmanager, or npx ccmanager
- Manages sessions across Git worktrees and projects
- Supports Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, Cursor Agent, Copilot CLI, Cline CLI, OpenCode, Kimi CLI, MiniMax Code (README, observed 2026-08-19)
- Positioned as an agent runtime: "Run them anywhere. Leave them running." (herdr.dev, observed 2026-08-19)
- Homepage exposes Docs, Plugins, Blog, and Compare sections
- Install action shown on the homepage (observed 2026-08-19)
52 weeks of commits, week by week (measured 2026-08-19)
| Repository | 2025-08-20 → 2025-11-19 | 2025-11-19 → 2026-02-18 | 2026-02-18 → 2026-05-20 | 2026-05-20 → 2026-08-19 | 52-week total | Week by week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CCManager | 151 | 146 | 94 | 28 | 419 | |
| herdr | 0 | 0 | 510 | 921 | 1,431 | |
| Claude Squad | 2 | 3 | 18 | 4 | 27 | |
| happy | 507 | 370 | 577 | 129 | 1,583 | |
| AgentAPI | 47 | 27 | 12 | 3 | 89 |
Measuring weekly commit counts pulled on 2026-08-19 from each project's public GitHub statistics endpoint over the same trailing 52 weeks, the four 13-week windows show sharply diverging trajectories: herdr climbed from 0 commits in the year-ago window to 510 and then 921 in the two most recent windows (1,431 total as of 2026-08-19), while CCManager fell across every window, from 151 down to 28 in the latest quarter, and AgentAPI thinned from 47 to just 3 with its most recent commit back on 2026-05-27. For someone weighing whether to build on one of these tools, that shape is a rough proxy for how actively each is currently being worked on—a still-accelerating repository is less likely to be abandoned mid-integration than one whose commit stream and last commit date are both trailing off. It says nothing, however, about the quality of the code being committed, whether those commits represent real progress or churn, how many people actually run any of these projects, or whether any of them will still be maintained a year from now; a single large window (happy's 1,583 total, for instance) can reflect refactors or noise as easily as forward motion. Commit frequency is one weak signal among many and should be read as such rather than as a verdict.
Weekly commit counts for the last 52 weeks, from each repository's own GitHub statistics endpoint, grouped into four 13-week windows. Every repository is measured over the same 52 weeks, so the columns are directly comparable. Commit counts include merges, dependency bumps and documentation edits, and a monorepo will always show more commits than a single-purpose repository — this measures how busy a repository is, not progress, quality, or how much of the work reaches users. Collected by this site on 2026-08-19 (2026-08-19T00:04:48Z) by calling the public APIs ourselves — 15 of 15 requests returned data. These are our own readings, not figures supplied by any vendor.
How we judged "still moving"
Activity is not a single number. For a terminal agent manager, a few public signals tend to point the same direction:
- Commit and release cadence on the project's repository, meaning how much has landed and how recently.
- Breadth of supported agents, since tracking newer command-line agents as they appear takes continual work.
- Documentation and configuration that keep up with those agents.
Every figure below is an observation from the vendor's own page on 2026-08-19. Counts such as stars and commits change daily, so read them as a snapshot rather than a fixed property.
CCManager: a self-contained session manager
CCManager is a command-line application for managing multiple AI coding agent sessions across Git worktrees and projects (CCManager README, observed 2026-08-19). On its GitHub repository the same day, the project showed 1.2k stars, 92 forks, and 749 commits all-time, a sizable commit history for a tool in this niche — 419 of those fall inside the 52-week window measured in the table above.
CCManager advertises itself as self-contained. Its README says the tool runs out of the box and does not require you to install or configure tmux (observed 2026-08-19), and it frames that as the difference from Claude Squad, which the same README describes as a tmux-based tool. If your workflow is already built around tmux, the README points you back to Claude Squad.
What suggests CCManager is keeping pace is the range of agents it lists. As of 2026-08-19, its README documents tailored state detection for Claude Code (the default), Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, Cursor Agent, Copilot CLI, Cline CLI, OpenCode, and Kimi CLI, with MiniMax Code (MCode) also in its supported-assistant table. For each, the tool tracks whether a session is idle, busy, or waiting on confirmation.
Feature coverage in the README runs wide: parallel sessions per worktree, multi-project navigation, creating, merging, and deleting worktrees inside the app, copying Claude Code session data between worktrees, configurable shortcuts, command presets with automatic fallback, status-change hooks, devcontainer integration, and an auto-approval mode that the README labels experimental and describes as using AI verification for safe prompts (observed 2026-08-19).
One detail reads like recent upkeep. The README says that when CCManager runs the default claude command, it appends --teammate-mode in-process to avoid a conflict between Claude Code's agent teams feature and CCManager's PTY-based session management (observed 2026-08-19). Adapting to a newer agent behavior is the kind of change a maintained project makes. Installation is through npm (npm install -g ccmanager) or a one-off npx ccmanager, and the project is under the MIT license (CCManager README, observed 2026-08-19).
herdr: positioned as an agent runtime
herdr describes itself on herdr.dev as "the agent runtime," with the tagline "Run them anywhere. Leave them running." (observed 2026-08-19). That framing points at long-lived agent processes rather than one-off terminal sessions.
The homepage exposes Docs, Plugins, Blog, and Compare sections along with an install action, and states 30,333 GitHub stars, 475,376 installs to date, 692 community plugins and 20 agent CLIs detected (observed 2026-08-19). What it does not lay out is a commit history or a release list, so cadence cannot be read off that page — which is why we measured it at the repository instead. The commit table above is that measurement: 1,431 commits over the 52 weeks to 2026-08-19, rising from 510 to 921 across the two most recent windows, with no commits recorded in the two earliest ones.
How to check whether a manager is still moving
The same method works on any tool in this space, including ones not covered here:
- Open the repository's commit history. Commits within the last few weeks, arriving steadily rather than in one old burst, are the clearest sign.
- Read the releases feed. A tagged release cadence shows the maintainer is shipping, not only committing.
- Scan open issues and pull requests. Replies and merges show a maintainer who is present.
- Match the supported-agent list against the CLIs you actually use. A manager that already handles current agents has, by definition, been updated recently to do so.
- Look at when the docs last changed. Configuration that matches today's agent flags is a quieter but reliable indicator.
Applied on 2026-08-19, the two split on which signal you weigh. CCManager's repository carries the longer all-time history — 749 commits since the project began, against 419 in the last 52 weeks — and the fuller documented agent list. herdr's repository carries the steeper recent cadence: 921 commits in the last 13-week window against CCManager's 28. Neither page settles it on its own, which is the point of opening the commit history rather than reading a homepage.
Strengths & trade-offs
- Open source under the MIT license (README, observed 2026-08-19)
- Advertises no tmux requirement and out-of-the-box use (README, observed 2026-08-19)
- Documents support for a broad set of current CLIs, including newer ones (README, observed 2026-08-19)
- Large public commit history observed on its repository (749 commits all-time, 419 of them in the last 52 weeks, 2026-08-19)
- Worktree and session features: parallel sessions, multi-project, presets, status hooks, devcontainer integration
- Its worktree-centric model assumes you work with Git worktrees
- The README labels its auto-approval mode experimental
- tmux-first users may prefer a tmux-native tool; the README itself points them to Claude Squad
- Clear persistent-runtime positioning: run agents anywhere and leave them running (herdr.dev, observed 2026-08-19)
- Homepage links out to Docs, Plugins, Blog, and Compare sections, and reports 30,333 GitHub stars, 475,376 installs and 692 community plugins (herdr.dev, observed 2026-08-19)
- Steepest recent commit cadence of the projects measured here: 921 commits in the 13 weeks to 2026-08-19, against CCManager's 28
- The herdr.dev homepage we read on 2026-08-19 gave no pricing and no supported-agent list, only a count of 20 agent CLIs detected, so those need checking elsewhere
- No commits recorded in the two earliest windows we measured, so its 52-week total rests on a short and recent history
On the question as asked — which of these is still moving — the commit table answers herdr. It logged 1,431 commits over the 52 weeks to 2026-08-19, rising from 510 to 921 across the two most recent windows, while CCManager fell in every window we measured, from 151 down to 28. happy shows why the recent window matters more than the annual total: 1,583 commits over the year, but only 129 in the last one.
CCManager answers a different question better. Its README documents the broader current agent list of the two, it appends --teammate-mode in-process to accommodate Claude Code's newer agent teams behavior, it installs through npm and it is MIT-licensed (observed 2026-08-19). So: for the most documented agent coverage today, CCManager; for the project whose development is accelerating, herdr. One caveat on herdr in the other direction — its 52-week total rests on the two most recent windows only, so it is a steep curve over a short history rather than a long track record. CCManager's README also names Claude Squad as a tmux-based alternative for anyone whose setup already centers on tmux.
FAQ
What does "still moving" mean for a terminal agent manager?
It means active development: recent commits and releases, plus support for the command-line agents you use, including newer ones. You can judge it from a project's public repository and docs rather than taking a label at face value.
Is CCManager free?
Its README lists CCManager under the MIT license, and it installs via npm (npm install -g ccmanager or npx ccmanager). No paid tier is listed on its README as of 2026-08-19.
Which AI agents does CCManager support?
As of 2026-08-19, its README documents Claude Code (the default), Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, Cursor Agent, Copilot CLI, Cline CLI, OpenCode, and Kimi CLI, with MiniMax Code (MCode) also in its supported-assistant table.
How can I tell if herdr is actively maintained?
Check its repository rather than its homepage. herdr.dev reports 30,333 GitHub stars and 475,376 installs to date (observed 2026-08-19) but publishes no commit history or release list. Measured directly from the repository's commit statistics over the 52 weeks to 2026-08-19, herdr logged 1,431 commits, 921 of them in the most recent 13-week window.