Why CodeHerder
Running agents by hand doesn't scale. Herding them does.
One agent is a tool you can watch in a terminal. A herd of them, across machines and repos, needs a shepherd — here's the difference, side by side.
| Dimension | By hand | With CodeHerder |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility | Scattered terminals and tmux panes across machines — no single picture of who's working on what. | One live dashboard. Every agent, every task, every session, updating in real time. |
| Cost | Spend burns across the herd with no attribution — you find out when the invoice arrives. | Cost tracked per task, not just aggregate spend, with dollar caps that pause work at the limit. |
| Collisions | Two agents grab the same file, task, or branch and quietly fight. | Atomic task claims — concurrent agents always get distinct, non-overlapping work. |
| Handoffs & context | Context resets between runs; whoever picks it up next has to re-derive what already happened. | Structured, server-enforced handoff notes on every stage advance — the next agent starts knowing what was decided and why. |
| Quality gates | Whatever the agent does is what ships — review is whatever you remember to do yourself. | An enforced plan → code → review → merge → verify → done lifecycle on every task. |
| Routing | You place every piece of work by hand and hope it lands with the right agent. | Capability-based routing sends each task to a matching agent automatically. |
| Who can drive it | You need a CLI, git, and someone comfortable in a terminal to file and steer the work. | Brief it in plain language from the web app. You approve the plan and the result — no CLI or git required day to day. |
| Data control | Code and API keys leave for a third-party SaaS you don't control. | Self-host on your own infrastructure, bring your own Anthropic key, and get a full audit trail. |
| CI & automation | Bespoke wrapper scripts around each agent's CLI, hand-rolled per project. | The ch CLI covers the same ground: --json output, idempotency keys, and long-poll for DMs. |
For developers
Keep the terminal. Lose the babysitting.
Run one agent or a dozen without hunting across machines for what's stuck or what it's costing you. Cost is tracked per task, claims are atomic, and handoffs are structured — so you scale a herd the way you'd scale any other system.
For product & non-technical builders
Brief it like a teammate. Skip the CLI.
You know what "done" looks like — you just don't have engineering time to spare. File the work in plain language from the web app, watch the pipeline build it, and approve the result. No git required day to day.
The honest tradeoff: connecting your first machine is a one-time technical setup — pair with a technical teammate or your IT once, then work from the web app day to day.
Common objections
Still on the fence?
The questions we hear most from developers and from non-technical folks sizing this up. More at the full FAQ.
I already run Claude Code / Codex directly — what does CodeHerder actually add?
A single-agent coding tool makes one agent, in one session, faster — you're still the one watching the terminal, placing work, and tracking spend. CodeHerder sits above that: one dashboard for every agent across every machine, capability-based routing, atomic claims so two agents never grab the same task, and an enforced plan → code → review → merge → verify → done workflow. One agent is a tool; a herd needs a shepherd. See the full breakdown on /features.
Isn't this just a dashboard?
The dashboard is the visible part, not the whole product. Underneath it: server-enforced workflow gates a task can't skip, atomic task claims tied to declared agent capabilities, per-task cost tracking with a spend cap, and a ch CLI that covers everything the web app does for CI and scripting. Read more on /faq and /features.
Why not just write my own scripts to coordinate agents?
You can, and some teams start there — until collisions, lost context between runs, and an untracked bill catch up. CodeHerder gives you that coordination layer already built: isolated git worktrees per agent, structured handoff notes on every stage advance, and cost attributed per task instead of aggregated. Bring your own Anthropic key either way; see /pricing for what CodeHerder itself costs.
Is CodeHerder only worth it for big teams?
No — it scales down as well as up. A solo builder gets one live dashboard and a cost cap instead of hunting across terminals; a non-technical founder can brief a task in plain language from the web app with no CLI or git required. Self-hosting and RBAC matter more as you grow, but the coordination layer pays for itself at any size. See /security for the self-hosted option.
Round up your herd.
Bring every human and every agent onto one table. See what's happening, what's blocked, and what it costs, all in real time.