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Rudder
Pricing
- Model
- Free
Summary
Running a single coding agent is manageable. Running three in parallel, each touching overlapping files, with no visibility into what's queued, what's running, or what's ready to review — that's where most terminal-based agent setups fall apart. Rudder is a CLI dashboard built to solve exactly that.
Rudder wraps Claude Code and Codex agents in a terminal UI that lets you spin up multiple workers in isolated git worktrees, track their progress in parallel, review their output, and merge back to main — all without leaving the terminal. The DAG-based planning layer means complex tasks get broken into steps with explicit dependencies, not a flat prompt you hope executes in order. The worktree isolation model is the real structural win: agents don't step on each other's changes. The ceiling appears when your workflow needs integrations outside the terminal — there is no API surface and no web UI, so anything requiring programmatic triggers or a shared team dashboard requires a different tool entirely.
Bottom line: Pick Rudder when you are a solo developer or small team running Claude Code or Codex and need parallel agent coordination without file conflicts; look elsewhere when your team needs a shared UI, webhook triggers, or agent runs initiated outside the terminal.
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Pros
Sign in to edit- DAG-based task planning breaks complex jobs into dependency-ordered subtasks, so agents don't start a step that depends on unfinished upstream work — avoiding the silent failures that plague flat prompt-and-hope execution.
- Isolated git worktrees per agent mean parallel workers can't produce mid-run merge conflicts, so you get clean, reviewable diffs instead of a tangled working directory when multiple agents finish at different times.
- Built-in review gates before merge keep you in the loop on every agent output before it touches main, so autonomous execution doesn't silently introduce regressions the way fully hands-off agent runs can.
- Free and self-hosted with no cloud dependency, which means no usage billing surprises when you scale up the number of parallel agents on a large task.
- Live terminal interaction with both Claude Code and Codex from a single dashboard, so you don't need to context-switch between separate terminal sessions to monitor or intervene in running agents.
Cons
Sign in to edit- No API surface means agents cannot be triggered by external events — no webhooks, no CI integration, no programmatic scheduling. Teams that need agent runs kicked off by a PR event or a deployment hook have to wire that themselves or switch to a platform that exposes trigger endpoints.
- Support is bounded to Claude Code and Codex. If your team moves to a different coding agent provider, Rudder's orchestration layer does not travel with you — you rebuild your workflow on whatever the new provider supports.
- Terminal-only UI with no shared team dashboard means Rudder is a single-operator tool. As soon as two engineers need visibility into the same agent queue simultaneously, the model breaks — teams at that point typically move to a hosted orchestration platform with multi-user access.
About
- Platforms
- macOS, Linux, Unix-like terminals; Node.js 20+
- API Available
- No
- Self-Hosted
- Yes
- Last Updated
- 2026-08-14T05:59:05.216Z
Best For
Who it's for
- Developers using Claude Code or Codex who want multi-agent orchestration
- Projects needing reviewed, mergeable agent worktrees
- Terminal users wanting a dashboard for agent management
What it does well
- Running multiple coding agents in parallel for complex tasks
- Planning and executing DAG-based workflows with review
- Isolated task execution with easy merge back to main
- Live terminal interaction with Claude Code or Codex
Integrations
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Sign Up to ContributeFrequently Asked Questions
- Is Rudder free?
- Yes — Rudder is fully free to use. There is no paid tier.
- Is Rudder open source?
- Yes. Rudder is open source.
- Can I self-host Rudder?
- Yes. Rudder supports self-hosting on your own infrastructure.
- What platforms does Rudder support?
- Rudder is available on: macOS, Linux, Unix-like terminals; Node.js 20+.
Curated lists that include this category
Rudder is an open-source CLI tool installed globally via npm. Its core workflow: you define a task, Rudder’s planning layer breaks it into a DAG of subtasks with explicit dependencies, then dispatches those subtasks to isolated worker agents — each running in its own git worktree. You watch progress in a terminal dashboard, step in to review agent output, and merge completed work back to main. The whole loop runs locally with no cloud dependency.
The worktree isolation model is what separates Rudder from simply opening multiple terminal tabs. Each agent works in its own branch of the repo, which means two agents editing different modules cannot produce merge conflicts mid-run. When an agent finishes, you get a discrete, reviewable diff — not a pile of uncommitted changes across your working directory. That review gate before merge is the mechanism that keeps autonomous execution from silently corrupting your codebase.
Rudder fits tightly into a specific workflow: a developer already using Claude Code or Codex who wants to parallelize work across a large refactor, feature build, or multi-file task without losing the ability to inspect and approve each agent’s output. It breaks down when you need agents triggered by external events, shared dashboards across a team, or integrations with CI pipelines — there is no API surface, and the tool is built for terminal-first, single-operator use. Teams that outgrow the single-user model typically move to a platform with a hosted orchestration layer and webhook support.
Installation is a single npm global install. The vendor describes support for live terminal interaction with both Claude Code and Codex, which means the tool’s agent support is bounded by those two providers — swapping to a different coding agent requires the provider to offer a compatible terminal interface.