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iTerm2 Alternative Built for AI Coding Agents
iTerm2 is the free, open-source macOS terminal replacement that has been the default power-user choice since 2010.
People do not usually leave iTerm2 because it is bad. They leave because their workload changed. Running one shell and an editor is a job iTerm2 solved perfectly a decade ago. Running Claude Code in one tab, Codex in another and a test loop in a third is a different job, and the thing that breaks is not the terminal, it is your memory of what each tab was for. Forkbench keeps your shell, your aliases and your tmux exactly as they are, and puts a Thread around them: one per piece of work, carrying its plan, its notes and its keys.
| Forkbench | iTerm2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Why people switch | The workload became agents | Depth and configurability |
| Real login shell | Yes | Yes |
| Existing dotfiles and aliases | Work unchanged | Work unchanged |
| Workspace grouping | Threads with folder, notes, secrets, board | Profiles and windows |
| Survives quit and reboot | The board does | Sessions via tmux -CC |
| Secrets | Vault (Pro), sealed on your Mac | Shell environment |
| Unattended runs | Scheduled prompts and Sleep Control | No |
| Phone and web access | Talk (Pro) | No |
| 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 iTerm2 is strong
- Fifteen years of features, most of them things no newer terminal has rebuilt.
- Free and open source, with tmux control mode for sessions that survive a dropped connection.
- A configuration surface deep enough to script the terminal itself.
Where Forkbench differs
- Agents get keys without seeing them: the value never lands in the prompt or the scrollback. 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.
- Tabs stop being a flat row you have to remember. Related tabs live in one Thread with its own folder, notes and secrets.
- The plan outlives the pane. Tasks, progress notes and blockers are written to disk as they change.
- One click gives an agent its own branch on a fresh worktree, next to a git panel that always shows the focused tab.
- Run it unattended. Schedule a prompt for when your quota comes back, and keep the Mac awake with the lid shut.
The bottom line
The switch is cheap to test because nothing about your shell changes. Install Forkbench, open a Thread on a repo you are working in, and run the agent you would have run in iTerm2. If the board and the vault do not earn their place in a week, iTerm2 is still there and still free.
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Comparison based on publicly available information as of mid-2026. Spot something out of date? Tell us.