Herdr GPUI

Herdr GPUI is an unaffiliated, open-source native client for a Herdr daemon that the user installs separately. Built in Rust with GPUI, it paints the daemon's terminal cells, split panes included, without running another terminal emulator or wrapping the TUI. The repository's latest release is v20261003.1, published 2026-10-03.

What It Is

Herdr GPUI is a desktop front end for Herdr sessions. It lets you view terminal sessions, workspaces, Git worktrees, and agent activity from your local Herdr daemon (or a saved SSH host). The project states it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Herdr or herdr.dev.

How it connects

The daemon owns the terminals and all session state. The GUI attaches to the daemon's binary client socket using bincode frames, renders the surfaces it is sent, and sends semantic input back. Closing or detaching the GUI leaves the daemon and its terminals running. The app starts an already-installed local herdr server when the target session is absent, but never installs or upgrades a daemon.

Browser tabs are the exception: web pages shown beside a workspace's terminals belong to the GUI alone, and agents in panes can open them with herdr-gpui browser open URL.

Install paths and platforms

On macOS 14.2 or newer it installs through a Homebrew cask (signed, notarized universal app), and the in-app updater runs brew upgrade for cask installs. Releases also provide a macOS .dmg, Linux packages (.deb, .rpm, Arch package, tarball for x86_64 and ARM64; require glibc 2.39+ and Vulkan), a Nix flake, and experimental Windows zips. Windows is documented as experimental and not a supported platform. It can also be built from source with just run.

Performance work

A just test-perf benchmark uses a dense 160x50 terminal fixture with 40 workspaces and 40 agents, measuring hover and scroll event-to-scene time. The README reports on an M4 Max that glyph caching and background batching reduced release hover p95 from about 51 ms to 12 ms, and scrolling from 56 ms to 14 ms. It measures CPU scene construction, not GPU completion.