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Forkbench vs Wave Terminal
Wave Terminal is an open-source, cross-platform terminal that puts graphical widgets, file previews and AI chat into blocks inside the terminal window.
Wave and Forkbench both think the terminal should do more than draw text, and then go in opposite directions. Wave puts things into the terminal window: graphical blocks, file previews, widgets, an AI chat. Forkbench leaves the terminal alone and builds around it, so the pane stays a plain real shell and the structure lives in the workspace: the Thread, the board, the notes, the vault.
| Forkbench | Wave Terminal | |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal model | Plain real shell, structure outside it | Blocks and widgets inside it |
| AI model | Bring your own CLI agent | Built-in chat, bring your own key |
| Platform | macOS 13+ only | macOS, Linux, Windows |
| Task board that survives a reboot | Yes, per Thread | No |
| Secrets handling | Vault (Pro), sealed on your Mac | Inherits the shell environment |
| Notes agents can read | Notebooks, end-to-end encrypted, free and synced | No |
| Remote and multi-Mac | Yes (Pro) | No |
| Open source | Closed | Yes |
| Price | Free; Pro €30/mo; Team $30/seat, dropping to $20 at scale | 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 Wave Terminal is strong
- Open source, and it runs on macOS, Linux and Windows.
- Graphical blocks and widgets are genuinely useful for inspecting files and output inline.
- Built-in AI chat with your own API key, no separate CLI needed.
Where Forkbench differs
- A key in Vault (Pro) is used by agents that never see 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.
- The pane stays a plain login shell, so tmux, vim and your prompt behave exactly as they do in any terminal.
- Bring your own agent. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Aider and your own scripts run side by side, on the AI subscriptions you already pay for.
- A task board that outlives the terminal, with agents claiming and handing off.
- Remote access to a running agent from the web or your phone.
The bottom line
If you want the terminal itself to become a richer surface, and you want that on Linux and Windows too, Wave is the more ambitious take and it is open source. If you would rather your shell stay a shell and have the structure live around it, in a board that outlasts the session and a vault your agents cannot read, that is Forkbench.
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.