Compare
mprocs Alternative for Running AI Coding Agents
mprocs runs several commands at once and gives each one its own pane of output you can interact with. It was renamed to dekit in 2026 and is now a process manager for dev and production; the legacy CLI still answers to dekit mprocs. MIT, Rust, around 2,700 stars.
Updated
mprocs runs several commands side by side, each with its own output pane, and was renamed to dekit in 2026. It is a process manager and does not claim to be more. Forkbench is a Mac app for coding agents: a git worktree each, keys the commands use and the agents never hold, and a board that outlives the session.
Two things worth knowing before the table. First, mprocs has been renamed: the repository now lives as dekit, the legacy README is kept for reference, and the old command survives as dekit mprocs, so if you are searching for mprocs today that is where you will land. Second, mprocs is a good tool and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. It runs several commands in parallel, shows each one's output separately and lets you interact with them, which is exactly what it says. The reason people end up looking for an alternative is usually not that it does its job badly, but that the processes they are now running are coding agents, and agents need things a process runner has no reason to provide.
| Forkbench | mprocs | |
|---|---|---|
| Why people look | The processes are now coding agents, and agents collide | Happy running dev servers and workers side by side |
| What it is | A Mac app for running coding agents, one Thread per piece of work | A process runner and manager, in one binary |
| Name today | Forkbench | Renamed to dekit; the legacy CLI is still dekit mprocs |
| Keeping agents out of each other's files | One-click git worktree per agent | Separate panes, one working directory |
| Credentials | Vault (Pro): the command gets the value, the agent gets the result | Your environment, as usual |
| Folder scope the kernel enforces | Yes, per Thread | Not what it does |
| What survives the session | A durable board and notes per Thread, through quit and reboot | Processes survive the terminal under the dekit daemon |
| Platform | macOS 13+ | Linux, macOS, Windows |
| Open source | Closed | MIT |
| Price | Free; Pro €30/mo; Team $30/seat, dropping to $20 at scale | Free |
Where mprocs is strong
- It does one thing and does it well, in a single small Rust binary, MIT licensed, on Linux, macOS and Windows. Forkbench is macOS only.
- It is free and it is open source, with around 2,700 stars and a maintainer still shipping: the rename to dekit came with dependency ordering, readiness waits and restart-with-backoff.
- As dekit it now runs your whole stack under a long-lived daemon, so closing the terminal does not take your processes with it, and the same binary works on your laptop and your server.
- You can drive it from a CLI, a TUI, an API or a script, and install it with brew, npm, cargo, scoop or a one-line script.
- If what you actually want is your dev server, your API and your worker in one window, this is the right tool and Forkbench is a much bigger answer than the question deserves.
Where Forkbench differs
- Each agent gets its own git worktree in a click, so two of them work on separate branches in separate directories and never edit the same file at once. Panes side by side do not stop that collision; separate checkouts do.
- Put the key in Vault and the command that needs it receives the value while the agent receives the result, so the key stays out of the prompt, the command line and the transcript. It is containment rather than a guarantee: a command you authorised can still print what it was handed. 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 a build script and a dependency's install hook are inside the same boundary.
- A board that outlives the session. Tasks, progress and blockers survive closing a pane, quitting the app and rebooting, so a second agent picks the work up where the first one left it. The board and the notes are free.
- Reaching a running agent from somewhere else. Talk answers a blocked agent from the web or your phone, and work follows you across the Macs on your account. Both are part of Pro.
The bottom line
If the things you are running are processes, keep mprocs, or follow it to dekit: it is small, free, MIT, cross-platform, and it now keeps your stack up under a daemon with dependency ordering, which is more than most people need. The reason to look further is that agents are not processes. Two of them in adjacent panes are still one working directory apart, they read whatever your shell can read, and everything they worked out disappears with the window. Forkbench answers those three: a worktree each, keys used by the command and never held by the agent, and a board that is still there tomorrow.
mprocs questions
Has mprocs been renamed?
Yes. The project is now dekit, its site is dekit.run, and the old README is kept in the repository for reference under the note that the legacy CLI is still available as dekit mprocs. It also grew while it was at it: dependency-ordered startup, readiness waits, restart with backoff, and a long-lived daemon so closing the terminal no longer stops everything.
Can I just run several coding agents in mprocs panes?
You can, and it works until two of them touch the same file, because panes divide the output and not the working directory. Forkbench gives each agent its own git worktree in a click, so they are on separate branches in separate directories, and puts them on one backlog where a task is claimed under a lease so no two pick up the same work.
Is Forkbench a process manager?
No, and dekit is better at that. Forkbench is a Mac app for running coding agents: each piece of work gets a Thread with its own folders, plan, notes and keys, agents run in real login shells inside it, and the board they work from outlives the session. If you want your dev server, API and worker supervised in one place, use dekit.
Keep reading
Sources
Comparison based on publicly available information, checked on the date above. Spot something out of date? Tell us.