CLI reference

Next docs describe unreleased work from master. Stable docs remain at /docs/.

Herdr’s CLI talks to the running server over the same local socket API used by integrations and agents.

Most commands print JSON responses. Use them from scripts when you want deterministic automation.

Launch and status

herdr                         # launch or attach to the default session
herdr --session work          # launch or attach to a named session
herdr --remote workbox        # attach through SSH, using local keybindings
herdr --remote workbox --remote-keybindings server
herdr --remote workbox --handoff
herdr --no-session            # single-process escape hatch
herdr --default-config        # print default config
herdr update                  # download and install from the configured channel
herdr update --handoff        # opt into live handoff for supported running servers
herdr completion zsh          # generate a zsh completion script
herdr channel show            # print stable or preview
herdr channel set preview     # opt into preview builds
herdr channel set stable      # return Linux/macOS direct installs to stable
herdr --version               # print version

Status commands:

herdr status
herdr status server
herdr status client

API schema commands:

herdr api schema
herdr api schema --json
herdr api schema --output herdr-api.schema.json

herdr api schema prints a short summary of the socket protocol schema bundled with the installed binary. Use --json for the full JSON Schema document, or --output PATH to write that document to a file.

Shell completions

herdr completion zsh
herdr completions zsh
herdr completion bash
herdr completion fish
herdr completion powershell
herdr completion elvish

completion prints the script to stdout. completions is an alias. For a temporary zsh session, load the script directly:

source <(herdr completion zsh)

For a persistent zsh setup, write the generated _herdr function somewhere on your fpath before compinit runs:

mkdir -p ~/.zfunc
herdr completion zsh > ~/.zfunc/_herdr

Then make sure your .zshrc contains:

fpath=(~/.zfunc $fpath)
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

Server

herdr server
herdr server stop
herdr server reload-config
herdr server agent-manifests [--json]
herdr server update-agent-manifests [--json]
herdr server reload-agent-manifests

herdr server runs the headless server explicitly. Use it for supervised or service-style setups. reload-config applies reloadable settings without restarting panes. agent-manifests shows the active agent detection manifest sources, cached remote versions, and last remote update results. update-agent-manifests fetches remote manifest updates immediately, reloads them into the running server, and prints the updated manifest status; pass --json for the raw status response. reload-agent-manifests reloads agent detection manifests into the running server after local override edits.

Notifications

herdr notification show <title> [--body TEXT] [--position top-left|top-right|bottom-left|bottom-right] [--sound none|done|request]

notification show uses the configured [ui.toast] delivery. --position only affects in-app Herdr toasts. --sound defaults to none; done and request play the existing finished and needs-attention sounds only when the notification is shown.

Sessions

herdr session list [--json]
herdr session attach <name>
herdr session stop <name> [--json]
herdr session delete <name> [--json]

Use default as the session name when you need to stop the default session explicitly.

Workspaces

herdr workspace list
herdr workspace create [--cwd PATH] [--label TEXT] [--env KEY=VALUE] [--focus] [--no-focus]
herdr workspace get <workspace_id>
herdr workspace focus <workspace_id>
herdr workspace rename <workspace_id> <label>
herdr workspace report-metadata <workspace_id> --source ID [--token NAME=VALUE] [--clear-token NAME] [--seq N] [--ttl-ms N]
herdr workspace close <workspace_id>

Create a workspace without stealing focus:

herdr workspace create --cwd ~/project --label api --no-focus

A workspace is the top-level project or work context. Creating one also creates its first tab and root pane. The JSON response exposes their IDs as .result.workspace.workspace_id, .result.tab.tab_id, and .result.root_pane.pane_id.

Worktrees

herdr worktree list [--workspace ID | --cwd PATH] [--json]
herdr worktree create [--workspace ID | --cwd PATH] [--branch NAME] [--base REF] [--path PATH] [--label TEXT] [--focus] [--no-focus] [--json]
herdr worktree open [--workspace ID | --cwd PATH] (--path PATH | --branch NAME) [--label TEXT] [--focus] [--no-focus] [--json]
herdr worktree remove --workspace ID [--force] [--json]

Worktrees are normal Herdr workspaces with Git checkout provenance. worktree create creates a Git worktree checkout, opens it as a workspace, and groups it with the parent repo workspace. If --branch names an existing local branch, Herdr checks it out; otherwise it creates the branch from --base or HEAD. Without --path, Herdr creates the checkout under <worktrees.directory>/<repo>/<branch-slug>.

workspace close closes Herdr state only. worktree remove is the explicit checkout deletion path; it runs git worktree remove, never deletes the branch, and requires --force when Git refuses a dirty checkout.

Tabs

herdr tab list [--workspace <workspace_id>]
herdr tab create [--workspace <workspace_id>] [--cwd PATH] [--label TEXT] [--env KEY=VALUE] [--focus] [--no-focus]
herdr tab get <tab_id>
herdr tab focus <tab_id>
herdr tab rename <tab_id> <label>
herdr tab close <tab_id>

A tab is another terminal layout inside a workspace. Without --workspace, tab create uses the active workspace and fails if none exists. Its JSON response exposes .result.tab.tab_id and .result.root_pane.pane_id.

Workspace and tab creation, and pane splitting, leave focus unchanged by default. --focus selects the new layout; --no-focus states the default explicitly. Without --cwd, new terminals follow the configured terminal.new_cwd policy, which follows the source pane or workspace by default. Each --env KEY=VALUE adds or replaces that variable in the new root shell.

Panes

herdr pane list [--workspace <workspace_id>]
herdr pane current [--pane ID|--current]
herdr pane get <pane_id>
herdr pane layout [--pane ID|--current]
herdr pane process-info [--pane ID|--current]
herdr pane neighbor --direction left|right|up|down [--pane ID|--current]
herdr pane edges [--pane ID|--current]
herdr pane focus --direction left|right|up|down [--pane ID|--current]
herdr pane resize --direction left|right|up|down [--amount FLOAT] [--pane ID|--current]
herdr pane zoom [<pane_id>|--pane ID|--current] [--toggle|--on|--off]
herdr pane rename <pane_id> <label>|--clear
herdr pane split [<pane_id>|--pane ID|--current] --direction right|down [--ratio FLOAT] [--cwd PATH] [--env KEY=VALUE] [--focus] [--no-focus]
herdr pane swap --direction left|right|up|down [--pane ID|--current]
herdr pane swap --source-pane ID --target-pane ID
herdr pane move <pane_id> --tab <tab_id> --split right|down [--target-pane ID] [--ratio FLOAT] [--focus|--no-focus]
herdr pane move <pane_id> --new-tab [--workspace ID] [--label TEXT] [--focus|--no-focus]
herdr pane move <pane_id> --new-workspace [--label TEXT] [--tab-label TEXT] [--focus|--no-focus]
herdr pane close <pane_id>

For pane commands that accept --current, Herdr uses the calling pane’s HERDR_PANE_ID when the command runs inside a Herdr pane. For pane split, an explicit pane id or --pane ID splits that pane, --current splits the calling pane, and an omitted target keeps using the UI-focused pane. The split response exposes the new pane ID as .result.pane.pane_id. After pane move, use .result.move_result.pane.pane_id for later commands. A cross-workspace move changes the workspace-qualified pane ID; the prior value remains at .result.move_result.previous_pane_id. The running process keeps its launch-time HERDR_PANE_ID, HERDR_TAB_ID, and HERDR_WORKSPACE_ID; Herdr retains the old pane ID as an alias for that terminal, so pane commands using --current still resolve it. A live agent name follows the terminal and continues to resolve after the move.

Read output:

herdr pane read <pane_id> [--source visible|recent|recent-unwrapped|detection] [--lines N] [--format text|ansi] [--ansi] [--raw]
herdr pane read <pane_id> --source visible --ansi
herdr pane read <pane_id> --source recent-unwrapped --lines 120

pane read prints UTF-8 terminal text directly. ANSI escapes are stripped by default; use --format ansi or --ansi to preserve them where the source exposes styling. The detection source is always plain text. For recent sources, --lines N selects the last N rendered terminal rows before optional unwrapping; without it, reads default to 80 rows. For visible and detection, omitting --lines returns the full snapshot, while specifying it keeps the last N newline-delimited lines. agent read uses the same output and line behavior.

Send input:

herdr pane send-text <pane_id> <text>
herdr pane send-keys <pane_id> <key> [key ...]
herdr pane run <pane_id> <command>

<key> uses Herdr key-combo syntax: plain printable keys such as a, special keys such as enter, tab, esc, backspace, left, right, up, and down, modifier chords such as ctrl+h, control+j, alt+x, and shift+tab, function keys such as f1, and named punctuation such as minus, plus, and backtick. Legacy C-c and c-c are accepted as aliases for ctrl+c. esc is the canonical spelling; escape is also accepted.

pane run honors live bracketed-paste mode and submits text plus Enter atomically. Prefer it over send-text plus send-keys Enter for commands; the separate send operations remain low-level and non-submitting.

Report agent state from custom hooks:

herdr pane report-agent <pane_id> \
  --source ID \
  --agent LABEL \
  --state idle|working|blocked|unknown \
  [--message TEXT] \
  [--seq N] \
  [--agent-session-id ID] \
  [--agent-session-path PATH]

herdr pane report-agent-session <pane_id> \
  --source ID \
  --agent LABEL \
  [--seq N] \
  [--agent-session-id ID] \
  [--agent-session-path PATH] \
  [--session-start-source SOURCE]

herdr pane release-agent <pane_id> \
  --source ID \
  --agent LABEL \
  [--seq N]

report-agent-session updates native session identity without reporting lifecycle state. release-agent ends that source’s lifecycle authority when its agent process exits.

pane get, pane list, agent get, and agent list include a read-only agent_session object when an official integration has reported a native session reference. If no native session reference is stored, the field is omitted.

Those commands include foreground_cwd when Herdr can resolve the cwd of the foreground process controlling the pane. The existing cwd field remains the pane/workspace cwd used for labels and follow-cwd behavior.

pane get and pane list include scroll when terminal scroll metrics are available. scroll.offset_from_bottom == 0 means the pane is at the bottom of its scrollback.

Report display-only pane metadata without taking over semantic state:

herdr pane report-metadata <pane_id> \
  --source ID \
  [--agent LABEL] \
  [--applies-to-source ID] \
  [--title TEXT|--clear-title] \
  [--display-agent TEXT|--clear-display-agent] \
  [--state-label STATUS=TEXT] \
  [--clear-state-labels] \
  [--token NAME=VALUE] \
  [--clear-token NAME] \
  [--seq N] \
  [--ttl-ms N]

STATUS is one of idle, working, blocked, done, or unknown. --agent and --applies-to-source guard only --title, --display-agent, and --state-label. They do not guard token patches; token reporters own clearing or TTL refresh. Use --display-agent to change the visible name.

Metadata text is normalized before storage. Herdr trims surrounding whitespace, removes control characters, and caps --title, --display-agent, each --state-label, and token values at 80 characters. Empty normalized token values clear that key.

--token patches one named display value; --clear-token removes one. Unmentioned tokens remain unchanged. Pane tokens are available to Agent sidebar rows as $name; workspace tokens are available to Space rows. TTL applies independently to the token keys updated by that call.

--source and --applies-to-source must be 80 characters or fewer and may contain only ASCII letters, digits, colon, dot, underscore, and hyphen. --ttl-ms makes metadata expire automatically and must be between 1 and 86400000 milliseconds. Omit it for metadata that should stay until replaced, cleared, or the pane closes. --seq lets Herdr ignore stale reports from the same --source; stale reports are accepted by the API but ignored by pane state. A pane or workspace accepts sequenced token reports from at most 32 distinct sources during its lifetime; clearing or expiry does not release those source slots.

Agents

For the pane-versus-agent model and complete orchestration examples, see Agent automation.

herdr agent list
herdr agent get <target>
herdr agent read <target> [--source visible|recent|recent-unwrapped|detection] [--lines N] [--format text|ansi] [--ansi]
herdr agent send-keys <target> <key> [key ...]
herdr agent prompt <target> <text> [--wait] [--until STATUS]... [--timeout MS]
herdr agent rename <target> <name>|--clear
herdr agent focus <target>
herdr agent wait <target> [--until STATUS]... [--timeout MS]
herdr agent attach <target> [--takeover]
herdr agent start <name> --kind KIND --pane ID [--timeout MS] [-- <agent-args...>]
herdr agent explain <target> [--json|--verbose]
herdr agent explain --file PATH --agent LABEL [--json|--verbose]

Agent targets are either a unique live agent name or the pane ID that currently hosts the agent. Terminal IDs and bare agent-kind labels are not agent targets. Agents started through agent start require a name; manually launched agents remain unnamed and use their pane ID.

agent start activates an existing available shell pane: the pane’s interactive shell must own the foreground, with no foreground command, editor, or agent running. Topology must be created separately. Names are unique among live agents and must match [a-z][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}. The kind selects Herdr’s canonical interactive executable, while arguments after -- are passed to that executable. Supported kinds are pi, claude, codex, gemini, cursor, devin, agy, cline, omp, mastracode, opencode, copilot, kimi, kiro, droid, amp, grok, hermes, kilo, qodercli, and maki. A name follows the current pane occupant and is cleared when that agent exits, is released, or is replaced. Temporary detection uncertainty does not clear it.

Start returns only after the expected agent owns the same terminal and is ready for interactive input. The default startup timeout is 30000 milliseconds; explicit values must be greater than 3000 and no more than 300000.

agent prompt honors live bracketed-paste mode and submits text plus encoded Enter atomically, including while the agent is working. With --wait, a prompt sent from a non-working state must produce an observed lifecycle change within five seconds or Herdr returns agent_prompt_stalled; a caller timeout of five seconds or less keeps the normal timeout error. After activity is observed, it waits for the first requested settled status. It does not track individual turns. If the agent is already working, completion of that active turn may satisfy the wait. --until narrows the matching states and is rejected unless --wait is also present. Standalone agent wait returns immediately when the current status matches. Both default to idle, done, or blocked; use --until unknown explicitly when needed.

idle means ready for input after its tab has been seen in the focused Herdr UI; done is the same underlying idle state after unseen background work completes. Focusing that tab or targeting it with pane focus / agent focus marks it seen; reading it through the CLI does not. blocked means Herdr recognized an approval or question UI. unknown means an agent is present but Herdr cannot classify it confidently, not that its work succeeded.

agent send-keys sends logical terminal keys such as enter, up, esc, or ctrl+c. Herdr validates every key before writing any bytes. agent read reads the resolved terminal stream, and agent rename names an already detected agent.

agent explain asks the running server to classify the same bottom-buffer detection snapshot used by screen detection, so live output reflects the server’s active manifest cache. Because this uses the agent.explain socket method, restart or hand off to an updated server after upgrading Herdr before using live explain. Use --file PATH --agent LABEL to explain a saved fixture locally instead. The default output shows the agent, final state, manifest source and version, matched rule with its region evidence, and any fallback, skip, or warning reasons. Add --verbose for visible evidence flags, cached remote version, local override shadowing, remote update status, and the full evaluated-rules list with matcher and region evidence. Add --json for issue reports or tests.

Use pane send-text, pane send-keys, pane run, and terminal attach for ordinary terminals, servers, tests, shells, or low-level terminal control. Use pane run when you want to submit a command with Enter.

Direct terminal attach

herdr terminal attach <terminal_id> [--takeover]
herdr terminal session control <target> [--takeover] [--cols N] [--rows N]
herdr terminal session observe <target> [--cols N] [--rows N]
herdr terminal title set <title>
herdr terminal title clear

Detach from direct attach with ctrl+b q. Send literal ctrl+b with ctrl+b ctrl+b. terminal session control opens a writable live terminal stream for a pane, terminal, or agent target. It prints the same newline-delimited terminal.frame and terminal.closed records as observe mode. It reads newline-delimited JSON commands on stdin: terminal.input, terminal.resize, terminal.scroll, and terminal.release. One controller can own a terminal at a time; use --takeover to replace it. terminal session observe opens a read-only live terminal stream for a pane, terminal, or agent target. It prints newline-delimited JSON terminal.frame records with base64-encoded ANSI bytes, then a terminal.closed record when the server closes the stream. Multiple observers can watch the same terminal without taking input, resize, scroll, or takeover authority. terminal title clear restores Herdr’s default outer terminal window title.

Output waits

Wait for output in a pane:

herdr pane wait-output <pane_id> (--match <text> | --regex <pattern>) [--source visible|recent|recent-unwrapped] [--lines N] [--timeout MS] [--raw]

Use pane wait-output for normal commands and servers. Use agent wait for coding agents.

pane wait-output checks the selected snapshot immediately, including output that already exists, then polls until it matches. The default source name is recent; matching treats it as unwrapped recent output from the latest 80 rendered terminal rows. --lines changes that row limit. --match finds a literal substring on one line, and --regex uses Rust regular-expression syntax and also matches one line at a time.

pane wait-output, agent wait, and agent prompt --wait wait indefinitely when --timeout is omitted. A timeout or server error is emitted as JSON on stderr with exit status 1. CLI usage errors exit with status 2.

Integrations

herdr integration install pi
herdr integration install omp
herdr integration install claude
herdr integration install codex
herdr integration install copilot
herdr integration install devin
herdr integration install droid
herdr integration install kimi
herdr integration install opencode
herdr integration install kilo
herdr integration install hermes
herdr integration install qodercli
herdr integration install cursor
herdr integration install mastracode
herdr integration uninstall pi
herdr integration uninstall omp
herdr integration uninstall claude
herdr integration uninstall codex
herdr integration uninstall copilot
herdr integration uninstall devin
herdr integration uninstall droid
herdr integration uninstall kimi
herdr integration uninstall opencode
herdr integration uninstall kilo
herdr integration uninstall hermes
herdr integration uninstall qodercli
herdr integration uninstall cursor
herdr integration uninstall mastracode
herdr integration status [--outdated-only]

Plugins

Plugin commands install and run local executable workflow plugins. A plugin is a manifest plus out-of-process commands; Herdr owns the host surface and plugins own their implementation language.

Install, list, and remove plugins:

herdr plugin install <owner>/<repo>[/subdir...] [--ref REF] [--yes]
herdr plugin list [--plugin ID] [--json]
herdr plugin uninstall <plugin_id|owner/repo[/subdir...]>
herdr plugin enable <plugin_id>
herdr plugin disable <plugin_id>

plugin install accepts GitHub shorthand only, such as ogulcancelik/herdr-plugin-examples/worktree-bootstrap. It uses git, shows a trust preview in interactive terminals, runs supported manifest build commands, and stores GitHub installs in a Herdr-managed directory. Use --yes for noninteractive installs. Reinstalling a GitHub-managed plugin replaces that managed checkout. Installing over a locally linked plugin is refused. Plugin manifests must declare min_herdr_version; install and link fail when the plugin requires a newer Herdr binary. plugin list is human-readable by default; pass --json for the raw API response.

Plugin installation and enabled state are global to the current user. A plugin installed, linked, enabled, or disabled through one Herdr session is immediately available with the same state in every session.

Local development:

herdr plugin link <path> [--disabled]
herdr plugin unlink <plugin_id>

plugin link accepts a plugin directory containing herdr-plugin.toml or a direct manifest path. It is still the right command while authoring or testing a plugin from a local checkout. plugin unlink unregisters the plugin and leaves files alone. plugin uninstall unregisters a plugin and also removes Herdr-managed GitHub checkout files. For GitHub installs, uninstall accepts either the plugin id or the same owner/repo[/subdir...] shorthand used by install. Actions, event hooks, panes, and link handlers are declared in the manifest; runtime action registration is not part of v1.

Config directory:

herdr plugin config-dir <plugin_id>

plugin config-dir prints the plugin’s config directory, creating it (and seeding it from legacy plugin config locations when present) if needed. Use it in setup docs and shell scripts to point users at a stable path for .env files and other user-editable config, separate from the managed plugin checkout.

Actions:

herdr plugin action list [--plugin ID]
herdr plugin action invoke <action_id> [--plugin ID]

plugin action invoke starts the manifest command for an installed, enabled, platform-compatible plugin action and prints the started command log record in the JSON response. Use the qualified action id (plugin.id.action) when more than one plugin uses the same action id. Local action ids cannot contain dots, so qualified ids remain unambiguous even when plugin ids contain dots.

Logs:

herdr plugin log list [--plugin ID] [--limit N]

Managed terminal panes:

herdr plugin pane open --plugin ID --entrypoint ID [--placement overlay|popup|split|tab|zoomed] [--width SIZE] [--height SIZE] [--workspace ID] [--target-pane PANE] [--direction right|down] [--cwd PATH] [--env KEY=VALUE] [--focus|--no-focus]
herdr plugin pane focus <pane_id>
herdr plugin pane close <pane_id>

plugin pane open requires the plugin to be linked, enabled, and compatible with the current platform. It starts a manifest-declared [[panes]] command as a Herdr-managed terminal pane. The manifest default is overlay, which opens a temporary zoomed overlay over the active pane. It can also open as a split, a new tab, a zoomed pane, or a session-modal popup that does not change the tab layout. --width and --height set the outer popup dimensions in terminal cells or percentages such as 80%; omitted dimensions default to half the terminal size, and values smaller than the popup minimum are clamped. A popup is not a Herdr pane, does not export HERDR_PANE_ID, and does not participate in pane or agent APIs. Native non-terminal plugin panes are a later surface.

--env KEY=VALUE can be repeated on process-launching commands. It applies to the newly launched process only. Herdr-managed variables such as HERDR_SOCKET_PATH, HERDR_BIN_PATH, HERDR_ENV, HERDR_WORKSPACE_ID, HERDR_TAB_ID, HERDR_PANE_ID, HERDR_PLUGIN_ID, HERDR_PLUGIN_ROOT, HERDR_PLUGIN_CONFIG_DIR, HERDR_PLUGIN_STATE_DIR, HERDR_PLUGIN_ENTRYPOINT_ID, and HERDR_PLUGIN_CONTEXT_JSON stay authoritative when they conflict with caller-provided env.

Read sources

Source	Meaning
visible	Current rendered screen. Best for UI feedback loops.
recent	Recent scrollback with terminal wrapping.
recent-unwrapped	Recent scrollback without soft wrapping. Best for logs.
detection	Bottom-buffer snapshot used by agent screen detection.

These meanings apply to reads. For pane wait-output only, both recent and recent-unwrapped search the unwrapped recent snapshot; recent remains the default spelling.

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
HERDR_CONFIG_PATH	Override the config file path.
HERDR_SESSION	Select a named session for CLI commands.
HERDR_SOCKET_PATH	Low-level socket path override.
HERDR_ENV	Set to 1 inside Herdr-managed pane processes.
HERDR_PANE_ID	Public pane id for the running pane process.
HERDR_TAB_ID	Public tab id for the running pane process.
HERDR_WORKSPACE_ID	Public workspace id for the running pane process.
HERDR_LOG	Set log filter, for example HERDR_LOG=herdr=debug.
HERDR_DISABLE_SOUND	Disable sound playback even when sound notifications are enabled.