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Herdr joins Y Combinator's F26 batch, keeps runtime open source

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Herdr joins Y Combinator's F26 batch, keeps runtime open source

Can, who describes himself as the only person behind Herdr, wrote in a blog post that four months ago he was job hunting and thinking about the future of software engineering when he realized he was the bottleneck in managing his own coding agents. He did not want to install another app or learn a separate tool just to manage his agents; he wanted something that fit how he already worked, so he built a runtime instead.

Herdr is a runtime for CLI coding agents that treats the terminal as the agent's home: a terminal pane belongs to an agent, a pane belongs to a tab, and a tab belongs to a project. Agents can run for hours or days, so panes stay persistent regardless of where they run. The runtime's interface is a terminal UI (TUI) that ships bundled with Herdr: installing Herdr on a VPS and connecting over SSH brings the UI with it, and running herdr --remote user@host installs the tool remotely in a couple of seconds depending on network speed. Around this bundled TUI a plugin ecosystem grew: more than 500 plugins appeared on Herdr's marketplace within one month of its release, including a Raycast extension, a Stream Deck integration with buttons for Herdr, and an iOS app that can drive a full agent session from a phone, all built by users rather than by Can.

As a solo project, Herdr reached 25k GitHub stars and 340k downloads, which Can says became more than one person could keep up with. Herdr is now joining Y Combinator's F26 batch, and Can plans to build a small team focused on keeping the runtime healthy, robust, fast, easy to run anywhere and more extensible. The runtime itself, what people already use, stays free under the Apache-2.0 license; Can says he recently relicensed it from AGPL to Apache specifically so anyone could use it without restriction.

Looking ahead, Can wants to connect the separate machines people already run Herdr on today, such as a laptop, a VPS for a long job, or a sandbox for risky or ephemeral agents, since those machines currently stay disconnected from each other. He says he does not want to rush new features and intends to keep the core small, moving everything else into extensions built on top of the open runtime, including styles, flows, company setups and themes.

Key facts

  • Herdr, a terminal-based runtime for managing CLI coding agents built solo by a developer known as Can, is joining Y Combinator's F26 batch.
  • The open-source Herdr runtime stays free under the Apache-2.0 license; Can says he recently relicensed it from AGPL to Apache so it could be used without restriction.
  • As a solo project, Herdr reached 25k GitHub stars and 340k downloads before joining YC.
  • More than 500 third-party plugins, including a Raycast extension, a Stream Deck integration and an iOS app, appeared on Herdr's marketplace within one month of its release.
  • Can started building Herdr four months ago, after realizing while job hunting that he was the bottleneck in managing his own coding agents.

Why it matters

Herdr is a case of a single developer turning a personal tool into a funded company without walling off what already works: instead of shipping another standalone agent, as many companies now do, Can built a runtime that other agents and interfaces plug into, and he is keeping that runtime open source even as Herdr becomes a YC-backed company. It reflects a broader shift in how people manage CLI coding agents that now run for hours or days at a stretch, where the bottleneck has moved from writing code to supervising the agents that write it.

Who it affects

Developers who run coding agents for long stretches across a laptop, a VPS or a sandbox are the direct audience, since Herdr's pitch is keeping those agents organized and persistent regardless of where they run. It also affects the plugin builders around Herdr, whose Raycast extension, Stream Deck integration and iOS app already exist on top of the runtime, and it affects Can himself, who is moving from solo maintainer to hiring a small team.

How to use it

The Herdr runtime and its bundled TUI are installed by putting Herdr on a machine and connecting over SSH, or by running herdr --remote user@host, which installs the tool remotely in a couple of seconds depending on network speed. Inside Herdr, a terminal pane belongs to an agent, a pane belongs to a tab, and a tab belongs to a project, and further capability comes through a marketplace of third-party plugins. The runtime is licensed Apache-2.0, so it can be used and built on freely without a licensing fee.

How solid is it

The material comes directly from a blog post Can published himself to announce the YC move, so the figures, 25k stars, 340k downloads, more than 500 plugins, are self-reported by the founder rather than independently verified. The post gives no funding amount, valuation, YC partner names or planned headcount for the new team.

Risks and caveats

Herdr is moving from a one-person project to a funded team, a transition that has strained other open-source tools before, and Can gives no timeline or detail for the harder part of his roadmap, connecting the laptops, VPS instances and sandboxes people already run Herdr on into a single system; that remains a stated intention rather than a built feature. Can also says he is deliberately not rushing new features to keep the core lean, so several of the ambitions in the post are not yet realized.

“The runtime, what you use right now, stays free. Apache-2.0.”

— Can, Herdr founder