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Forkbench vs WezTerm
WezTerm is a GPU-accelerated, cross-platform terminal written in Rust, with a built-in multiplexer, Lua configuration and an SSH client.
WezTerm is what you pick when you want one terminal on every machine you touch and you are willing to write Lua to shape it. The multiplexer is built in, so you can detach and reattach sessions over SSH without tmux. Forkbench overlaps on none of that and is not trying to. It is a Mac-only terminal whose organising idea is the coding agent: what it is working on, what it may read, and what happens to the work when the pane closes.
| Forkbench | WezTerm | |
|---|---|---|
| Real login shell | Yes, a generic PTY per tab | Yes |
| Platform | macOS 13+ only | macOS, Linux, Windows |
| Multiplexer | No, use tmux if you want one | Built in, detach and reattach |
| Config | App settings | Lua scripting |
| Built for coding agents | Yes, the whole design | No |
| What survives a quit | The task board and its notes | The shell session, via the mux |
| 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 | Talk, web and phone (Pro) | SSH to your own mux |
| 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 WezTerm is strong
- One terminal on macOS, Linux and Windows, configured identically everywhere.
- A built-in multiplexer with detach and reattach over SSH, so no tmux is needed.
- Lua configuration, which is as programmable as terminal config gets.
- Free and open source, with several image protocols supported.
Where Forkbench differs
- Keys an agent can use and never read, with optional Touch ID. Vault is part of Pro.
- 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 unit of organisation is a piece of work, not a pane layout. A Thread carries its folder, notes, secrets and backlog.
- The board persists rather than the session. WezTerm reattaches a shell; Forkbench keeps the plan, the progress notes and the blockers.
- Cross-vendor by construction. No task records which agent wrote it, so Claude Code and Codex hand off to each other.
- Reach a running agent from the web or your phone.
The bottom line
If you work across Linux and Windows as well as a Mac, WezTerm is the pragmatic choice and Forkbench cannot follow you there. If you are on a Mac and the sessions you keep reattaching to are coding agents, ask what you actually want back when you reattach. WezTerm gives you the shell. Forkbench gives you what the agent had figured out.
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.