Herdr is joining Y Combinator’s F26 batch, according to a blog post from its sole developer, Can. The announcement confirms that Herdr, a runtime for CLI coding agents, has been accepted into the accelerator program. Can explained that after four months of considering career options and reflecting on software engineering practices, he realized he had become the bottleneck in advancing the project. This led him to build Herdr as a solution for managing agents directly within the terminal environment, which he views as the foundational workspace for developers. The Herdr runtime enables agents to run persistently in terminal panes, organized by tabs and projects, allowing them to operate for hours or days without interruption. Can emphasized that the runtime remains free and open-source, having recently shifted its license from AGPL to Apache-2.0 to encourage broader adoption without restrictions. While the TUI (terminal user interface) has been central to Herdr’s usability — offering agent tracking, project-based organization, and minimal notifications — Can noted that the runtime’s design allows others to build clients on top of it. He cited examples such as a Raycast extension, Stream Deck integrations, and an iOS app, along with over 500 plugins developed within a month of the marketplace launch. Despite this ecosystem growth, Can intends to keep the core runtime lean and focused, relying on extensions for additional features like themes, workflows, and enterprise setups. He expressed excitement about forming a small team to maintain the runtime’s performance, reliability, and extensibility while continuing to support the open-source version. The goal is to connect currently disconnected machines running Herdr instances, enabling seamless agent operation across environments. Can concluded by thanking the community for helping Herdr reach 25,000 stars and 340,000 downloads, stating that the project’s next phase will balance open-source stewardship with targeted product development.
Key facts
- Herdr is joining Y Combinator’s F26 batch
- The Herdr runtime remains free and open-source under Apache-2.0
- Can is the sole developer behind Herdr
- Herdr has reached 25k stars and 340k downloads
- Over 500 plugins were created within one month of the marketplace launch