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Forkbench vs tmux
tmux is a terminal multiplexer that splits one terminal into many panes and windows, and keeps sessions alive on the machine after you disconnect.
This is the comparison people actually mean when they ask how to run several agents at once, because tmux is the default answer and it is a good one. It splits one terminal into many, and a session survives you closing the window. Forkbench is not a replacement for tmux in the sense of taking it away. tmux runs inside a Forkbench tab and behaves normally. The difference is what is being kept alive: tmux keeps the shell, Forkbench keeps the work.
| Forkbench | tmux | |
|---|---|---|
| What survives | The task board, notes and blockers | The shell session |
| Runs inside Forkbench | Yes, unchanged | n/a |
| Seeing the whole fleet | One board | Tab between panes |
| Agents coordinating | Claim, lease, hand off | Nothing built in |
| Cross-vendor hand-off | Yes, no vendor on a task | Not applicable |
| Secrets handling | Vault (Pro), sealed on your Mac | Shell environment |
| Remote access | Web and phone (Pro) | SSH, then attach |
| Platform | macOS 13+ | Everywhere |
| Price | Free; Pro €30/mo | Free |
| Credentials an agent can use but never read | Vault (Pro) holds it, and it goes to the one command that needs it, so it never reaches the prompt, the command line or the transcript. A seatbelt, not a guarantee: an agent you authorise for a command could still print what it was handed. | Not a terminal feature. A key in your shell or in a .env is readable by anything you run, agents included. |
Where tmux is strong
- Free, everywhere, and stable for two decades.
- Sessions survive a disconnect, which is what makes it the standard for remote work.
- Scriptable, composable, and it runs on any machine you can ssh into.
- No app to install if you are already on the box.
Where Forkbench differs
- A key in Vault (Pro) reaches the one command that needs it, never the pane where anything can read it.
- Folders the macOS kernel enforces. A Thread can be locked to the folders the job is about, applied as each shell starts and inherited by every process it spawns, so an agent cannot read or write outside them. Builds still run and the network is untouched.
- A pane surviving is not the same as the work surviving. If an agent's context is gone, an attached-but-idle shell is not much help. The board keeps the plan, the progress notes and the blockers.
- You see the fleet instead of tabbing through panes to find who is blocked.
- Agents claim tasks and hold a lease, so no two work the same thing, and any vendor's agent can claim any task.
- A live git panel, one-click worktrees, and answering a blocked agent from your phone.
The bottom line
Keep tmux. It is the right tool for keeping a shell alive on a machine you are not sitting at, and it works inside Forkbench unchanged. What tmux does not do is tell you what your agents are doing, stop two of them from picking up the same task, or keep a token out of their reach. Forkbench adds that layer on top rather than replacing what you already know.
Keep reading
- How keys, notes and boards are actually protected, including where each defence stops.
- Keeping API keys away from AI coding agents
- Every comparison
Comparison based on publicly available information as of mid-2026. Spot something out of date? Tell us.