Orca vs Herdr: a desktop app or a terminal runtime for coding agents, and where Caprock fits

Orca and Herdr both run Claude Code, Codex and other coding agents side by side, free and open source, on macOS, Windows and Linux, and both keep the agents running when you close them. Orca is a desktop cockpit built around git worktrees, with a code editor, a built-in browser, managed SSH servers and phone apps. Herdr is a cockpit inside the terminal you already use that puts several machines in one list over SSH. Each shows the agents it started; neither sells a paid plan.

What Orca and Herdr each are

• Orca (MIT, from Stably AI) calls itself an agent development environment: an Electron app where each task gets its own git worktree. You fan a prompt out to several agents, compare what they did and merge the one you want, with VS Code's editor, a Chromium browser and GitHub, Linear and Jira boards in the same window. Since 1.4.224 each SSH host runs a managed Orca server, marked beta. It has no pricing page; its enterprise page is a contact form (read 27 October 2026).
• Herdr (Apache-2.0, from Herdr, Inc.) is one Rust binary that runs in whatever terminal you use: workspaces, tabs and panes, each agent in a real terminal, and a sidebar that marks each one idle, working or blocked. It lists 18 agents as supported, 5 of which report their own state, and agents can drive it through its CLI and socket API. It took a $6M seed led by Bessemer on 8 September 2026 and sells nothing; Herdr Cloud is a waitlist.

Orca vs Herdr, side by side

When you close it, and when the machine restarts

Both keep working without their window. Orca's terminals belong to a background daemon, so quitting the app does not stop an agent mid-task; Herdr's belong to a background server you detach from with ctrl+b q. After a reboot neither has the old processes: Orca restores the layout and scrollback, and Herdr restores the layout and resumes the sessions of agents whose integration is installed.

Remote machines and the phone

• Orca runs worktrees on a remote box over SSH, with port forwarding. Its phone apps pair through Orca Relay, which needs a sign-in, or directly over your LAN or Tailscale.
• Herdr keeps saved SSH machines in the same window as your local work, each with its own server, and a lost connection to one leaves the others up. On a phone you open any SSH client and run Herdr there; it has no mobile app of its own.

Herdr alternatives: Orca, cmux and Caprock

• Orca — an app instead of a terminal, with an editor, a browser and phone apps: Orca vs Caprock.
• cmux — a native macOS terminal with a browser pane; Windows is a waitlist: Herdr vs cmux.
• Caprock — the ledger: every agent on the machine, who is waiting on you, each limit, what each pull request cost, and your phone with no account.

What each one sees

Orca shows live status for the agents it started, "through the agent combobox rather than typing the binary by hand"; other agents' transcripts reach its session history after a scan, "if the CLI writes a transcript", without a cost on that page. Its usage tracking is per account on the local host, and a user who runs agents on SSH hosts wrote that "the token/cost analytics are local-only file scrapers" (#12005, open). Herdr reads the screen of its own panes; its docs say other agents "just show up as plain terminals", and it has no cost or limit view. Neither has a team view or a cost per pull request. Everything in this paragraph was read 27 October 2026.

Where Caprock fits

Caprock is the ledger people keep beside either. It records every agent session on the machine whether or not it started it: the claude from your own terminal live, Codex, OpenCode, DeepSeek Harness and Hermes Agent from the history they write. Each turn is priced at list price per repository, each pull request shows its checks and what the agents spent on it, and Claude's and Codex's windows sit beside the cost, one per sign-in (three per agent free), with a warning before the limit. For a team, a server the team hosts adds the same up by repository, pull request and release, with no prompts in the payload. Its tabs and split panes, a phone paired by QR code with no account, and alerts through a Telegram bot you create are how you live with it. Every dollar Caprock shows is an estimate at API list price, as Claude Code's own /usage is: not a bill, and on a flat plan not money saved.

What Caprock does not do

• No SSH remotes, no cloud machines. It reaches only your other computers that run Caprock, through its relay.
• No code editor. Files open read-only in a tab; you edit in your own editor.
• No native phone app. The phone uses its browser, which can be added to the home screen.
• No code-signed Windows installer yet. First launch on Windows needs SmartScreen's Run anyway; the Mac app is notarized.
• No cost for Grok or custom agents. Caprock starts them but does not read their turns.

Which to pick

• Orca — you want a desktop cockpit: an editor, a browser, boards, SSH hosts and phone apps, in one window.
• Herdr — you live in a terminal, work across machines over SSH, or want agents to drive the workspace themselves.
• Caprock — you want the ledger beside either: every agent on the machine, who is waiting on you, each limit, what each pull request cost, and your phone with no account. Install it.