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Forkbench vs Claude Squad
Claude Squad is an open-source terminal program (tmux plus git worktrees) for running several coding agents side by side.
Updated
Claude Squad is a free tmux interface that keeps several agents in separate worktrees. Forkbench is the full control room: a live pulse per agent, a red flag when one needs you, a shared board of claimed tasks, a kernel folder lock, keys agents never see, and sign-off that stays with you.
A session list tells you what is running. It does not tell you which agent is burning through work, which one quietly stopped to ask a question, or what any of them is allowed to touch. Forkbench does.
| Forkbench | Claude Squad | |
|---|---|---|
| Agents locked to your project folders | Yes. The macOS kernel seals off the rest of your home folder, per Thread | Git worktrees only |
| API keys the agent never sees | Yes. The Vault runs the command and the agent only gets the result | No secrets handling |
| Every agent at a glance | Yes. A live pulse on every tab and the task each agent claimed | A session list |
| Know when an agent is stuck | Instantly. It turns red and the Thread counts who needs you | Open each session to check |
| Share one job with a teammate or client | Yes. Invite them to one Thread, never your machine | No |
| Human sign-off before work counts as done | Always. Agents report, only you accept | No |
| Works with | Any CLI agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor CLI, Gemini CLI, Aider, your own scripts | Any terminal CLI |
| Price | Free | Free, open source |
Why developers pick Forkbench
- See at a glance which agent is busy and which one needs you, without cycling through panes.
- A board where each agent claims a task, so nobody duplicates work.
- A kernel folder lock and a Vault, so the squad stays inside the job.
- Nothing counts as done until you accept it.
What Claude Squad does well
- Free and open source (AGPL).
- Pure terminal workflow for people who never want to leave tmux.
The verdict
Claude Squad is a genuinely useful free wrapper around tmux if you already live there and just want your sessions named. A named list still will not tell you which agent is stuck, stop two of them reading the same key, or let you accept a task as done, and that is what Forkbench's live pulse, needs-you flag and Vault actually give a squad doing real work.
Claude Squad questions
I like tmux. Do I lose it?
No. Every Forkbench tab is a real login shell, so tmux, vim, fzf and your aliases work exactly as before.
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Comparison based on publicly available information, checked on the date above. Spot something out of date? Tell us.