Best open-source tools to run multiple AI coding agents in parallel: Orca, herdr and Squadra
Once one coding agent is useful, the next step is obvious: run three. One refactors, one writes tests, one chases a bug. Then reality hits. They edit the same files, you lose track of which terminal is waiting for an answer, an SSH drop kills an hour of work, and nobody reviews what the agents wrot
Posted on Oct 29 • Originally published at dedupedai.com
Once one coding agent is useful, the next step is obvious: run three. One refactors, one writes tests, one chases a bug. Then reality hits. They edit the same files, you lose track of which terminal is waiting for an answer, an SSH drop kills an hour of work, and nobody reviews what the agents wrote.
A new group of open-source tools fixes exactly this. Three of them cover most needs:
Setup commands below come from each README. For the full comparison, see our best AI repos for running several coding agents in parallel page.
Orca's README describes it as a way to "run Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode or Pi side by side, each in its own worktree, tracked in one place." It works with any CLI agent: if it runs in a terminal, it runs in Orca.
The core idea is git worktrees. Each agent gets its own checkout of the repo on its own branch, so two agents can never overwrite each other's edits. The README's headline workflow: fan one prompt across five agents, compare the results, and merge the winner.
Install on macOS with Homebrew. Note the full cask name; the README warns that bare orca is an unrelated cask:
brew install --cask stablyai/orca/orca Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Upgrade later with:
brew upgrade --cask stablyai/orca/orca Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode On Arch Linux:
yay -S stably-orca-bin Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Windows and other platforms download a build from the releases page or onorca.dev.
Features that matter once you run several agents:
We break down that last one in our script agent workflows with the Orca CLI card, and the rest on the main Orca use cases page.
herdr calls itself "the runtime your coding agents live on." It is a single Rust binary, no Electron, that runs inside whatever terminal you already use. It does not wrap or replace Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or OpenCode; it owns their terminals.
curl -fsSL https://herdr.dev/install.sh | sh Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Or use brew install herdr or mise use -g herdr. Windows has a PowerShell installer in the README.
herdr Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Run your agents in panes, split as needed, and walk away. ctrl+b q detaches; running herdr again reattaches. If you know tmux, the prefix keys will feel familiar, and mouse click, drag and split work too.
If your main pain is losing work on remote servers, start with our keep agents running after SSH drops card. herdr is Apache 2.0 licensed.
Orca and herdr manage where agents run. Squadra manages how they work together. It gives several Claude Code, Codex and Cursor windows one shared registry of tasks, messages, checks and decisions, all stored locally. Its rules are strict on purpose:
It needs Python 3.12+ and Git, and is tested on macOS and POSIX systems. The quickest install is inside Claude Code:
/plugin marketplace add dagoSte/squadra /plugin install squadra@squadra Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode For Codex, in a terminal:
codex plugin marketplace add dagoSte/squadra codex plugin add squadra@squadra Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode If you want the squadra command on your PATH, use the standalone installer, which keeps a backup so you can roll back:
git clone https://github.com/dagoSte/squadra.git cd squadra python3 -B scripts/install.py \ --backup " $HOME /.local/state/squadra/install-backup-001" export PATH = " $HOME /.local/bin: $PATH " squadra --version Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode You mostly talk to it in plain words. Start a Claude window as coordinator with a prompt like the README's: "Use squadra for this project. Use the registry at /path/to/registry. Find the other windows and introduce yourself." Open the other windows on the same registry, give the coordinator a first task with a way to check it, and watch progress in the local dashboard:
squadra dash --root /path/to/registry --open Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Each task moves through confirmation, work, an executed check, a review by another window and closure by the coordinator. It also tracks tokens per window and model across Claude Code and Codex. Squadra is MIT licensed with no account needed.
They are not mutually exclusive. herdr inside an SSH session plus Squadra for the review rules is a reasonable stack.
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