Herdr is joining Y Combinator. The runtime stays open
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Herdr, an open-source CLI agent runtime with 25k stars, is joining Y Combinator.
Founder Can, the solo developer behind Herdr, explains the decision to join YC. The runtime, which provides persistent terminal panes for CLI coding agents, will remain free and Apache-2.0. The TUI stays bundled and first-class. The project has reached 25k GitHub stars and 340k downloads, with over 500 plugins after one month. YC funding will allow building a small team and connecting agents across machines while keeping the core lean. Future features include multi-client support and a sandbox for ephemeral agents.
What commenters are saying
Many commenters express mixed feelings: enthusiasm for Herdr's utility but concern that YC and VC funding will lead to enshittification, citing the example of Warp. Some suggest maintaining forks or alternatives like tmux, Workmux, or zmx. Others note that YC can support small, focused companies without enshittifying. A few commenters report technical issues with Herdr (MCP auth state failures) and have already switched back to tmux.