corral-herdr 0.9.0

Round up your projects into herdr workspaces.

corral sets up a herdr workspace for any project under a root directory. Each workspace gets a utility tab (file manager, shell and git UI by default) and one or more agent tabs, each named for the model and effort it runs: Sonnet•medium, Opus•high, Sol•xhigh. Use the TUI to browse projects and act with single keys, or the CLI (with --json) for scripts and coding agents.

                                     corral 0.4.0 • ~/Code
────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────
  Project               WS  Agents        Branch    │ shop/api
○   ~                                               │ ~/Code/shop/api
●   blog                w2  ● Sonnet med  main      │
○ ▾ shop                                  main      │ kind     git repo, nested in the shop repo
● ├─ api                w1  ● Opus xhi    develop   │ branch   develop  2 changed
○ ├─ infra                                main      │
○ └─ web                                  feat/cart │ workspace w1 'shop/api'  2 tabs
○ ▸ Archive/ · 3 repos                              │   ● Opus•xhigh  working  claude-opus-xhigh
○   dotfiles                              master    │
────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────
$ up blog
workspace w2 'blog' -> /Users/you/Code/blog
  added  blog (yazi / shell / lazygit)
  added  Sonnet•medium (claude-sonnet-medium, w2:p4)
ready: w2
  done
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
space Fold  o Open  a Add agent  u Utility  s Stop  x Close WS  r Reveal  / Filter  g Refresh  U Upgrades  , Settings

Install

corral needs herdr 0.8 or later. Install it one of two ways; either gives you the corral command.

Homebrew

brew install chocs-cat/tap/corral-herdr

The formula lives in the chocs-cat/tap tap and brings its own Python. It's named corral-herdr because homebrew/core's corral is the Pony package manager, which also installs a corral command, so the two can't be installed together.

PyPI

uv tool install corral-herdr

This installs the corral-herdr package from PyPI into its own environment. It needs Python 3.11 or later; pipx install corral-herdr works the same way.

The utility tab's tools

The default utility tab runs two programs corral doesn't bundle: yazi, a terminal file manager (browse, preview, open and rename the project's files), and lazygit, a terminal UI for git (stage, commit, branch, rebase and push with single keys). A pane whose program isn't installed opens a plain shell. corral can install them for you, with Homebrew, pacman, or go install for lazygit:

corral tools            # what each does, and whether it's installed
corral tools install    # install the missing ones

The TUI's settings screen (,, then the Utility tab) has an Install button for each, and the TUI mentions them at start-up when they're missing.

Upgrading Claude Code and Codex

The agent CLIs corral starts, its harnesses, are Claude Code (claude) and Codex (codex). corral upgrades each the way it was installed: a Homebrew cask or formula with brew upgrade, an npm global package with npm install -g, otherwise its own update command.

It checks for a newer version where the upgrade would come from: Homebrew's API for a cask or formula, the npm registry otherwise (for a native Claude Code install, on the update channel in its settings).

corral harnesses             # installed and latest versions, how each was installed
corral harnesses upgrade     # upgrade them (or name one: corral harnesses upgrade codex)

A harness already on the latest version is left alone. In the TUI, U opens the upgrades screen: each harness's installed and latest version, how it was installed and the upgrade command, with an Upgrade button for each and one for all. The settings screen's Harnesses tab sets your own upgrade command for a harness ([harnesses.<name>] command in the config file). Agents already running keep their version until restarted.

Use

corral                                  # the TUI
corral up ~/Code/api                    # build the workspace, or focus it if it exists
corral up ~/Code/api --agent opus/high --agent sol/xhigh
corral tab opus/high                    # an agent tab in the workspace you're in
corral tab sonnet --new                 # another one: Sonnet•medium-2
corral stop "Opus•high"                 # by tab label, agent name or pane id
corral close courses --dry-run          # what closing would take with it
corral reveal shop/api                  # open its folder in Finder (xdg-open on Linux)
corral ls                               # projects, workspaces, agents
corral models                           # the models and their effort levels
corral harnesses upgrade                # upgrade Claude Code and Codex

Every command takes --json: the result goes to stdout as JSON, progress to stderr. Exit codes: 0 ok, 1 a target failed, 2 usage/config error, 3 herdr not running. --json, --root and --config go before or after the command (corral --root ~/Work ls).

Projects and labels

Every directory in the root is a project. So is every git repo nested up to scan_depth levels inside one (shop/api), along with the plain folders that lead to one (Archive/2024/). With nested_folders = true (or Nested folders in the settings), every other folder up to scan_depth levels below a top-level folder is a project too (scratch/drafts/), except folders inside a git repo, which belong to that repo's project. A project's workspace is labelled with its path relative to the root, so two nested repos that share a name don't collide. Hidden directories and dependency/build folders (node_modules, vendor, dist, …) are skipped.

Your home directory is a project too: it heads the list as ~, and its workspace is labelled ~ (quote it on the command line: corral close '~').

TUI keys

Configure

Press , in the TUI for the settings screen. Its tabs cover the project root (with a folder browser), the agent tabs a new workspace gets, the utility tab's three panes and their sizes, the model matrix and effort levels, the commands that upgrade Claude Code and Codex, and a few advanced options. Saving writes the config file and keeps its comments and layout. If the root doesn't exist when the TUI starts, the settings screen opens so you can choose one.

From the command line:

corral config init      # writes a commented ~/.config/corral/config.toml
corral config show      # the settings in effect

The file lives at $CORRAL_CONFIG, else $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/corral/config.toml, else ~/.config/corral/config.toml (on macOS too). Every key is optional.

root = "~/Code"                     # also --root / $CORRAL_ROOT
scan_depth = 3
nested_folders = false              # also list plain nested folders
default_agents = ["sonnet/medium"]

[utility]                           # "" = plain shell
top = "yazi"
bottom_left = ""
bottom_right = "lazygit"
top_percent = 50                    # the top pane's share of the height
bottom_left_percent = 35            # the bottom-left pane's share of the bottom row

hide_models = ["5.6-sol"]           # built-in models you don't want offered

[[models]]                          # a custom model; any herdr agent kind
key = "gem"
tool = "gemini"
display = "Gemini"
args = ["--model", "gemini-3-pro"]
efforts = ["low", "high"]           # the levels offered, lowest first

Models

Built-in models come from the agent CLIs installed on the machine, so they keep up with new releases without a corral update:

• Claude Code: its model aliases, opus, sonnet, fable and haiku (each always means the latest model of that name), plus any other alias claude --help names, with the effort levels claude --help lists.
• Codex: the models codex debug models lists, each with its own effort levels. The newest of each family gets the short key (sol, astra, luna); older ones keep their version (5.6-sol).

When a CLI isn't installed or can't be read, corral's packaged list stands in: the same Claude aliases with low to max; GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6 Luna. hide_models drops built-ins you don't use.

Custom models are the file's [[models]], offered after the built-ins. One with a built-in's key replaces that built-in. A custom model's efforts default to those of its agent's first built-in model. corral models shows where each model comes from; the settings screen's Models tab lists the two kinds separately.

Agent skill

skills/corral/SKILL.md teaches coding agents to drive corral through its --json CLI. The repo is also a Claude Code plugin marketplace:

/plugin marketplace add chocs-cat/corral
/plugin install corral@corral

Or copy skills/corral into your agent's skills directory.

Develop

uv sync
uv run pytest
uv run ruff check . && uv run ruff format --check .
uv run ty check

Tests run against an in-memory fake herdr (tests/fake_herdr.py); nothing touches a real herdr session. See CONTRIBUTING.md for commit conventions and the release process, the issues for the roadmap, and docs/decisions.md for settled design questions.

License

MIT