harnessrouter vs herdr
herdr is much bigger: 40.3k stars against 2.4k. Over the days we have tracked them harnessrouter moved +321.5% and herdr +76.1%, so harnessrouter is growing faster right now.
They split the axes: harnessrouter leads on context depth and model freedom, herdr on customization and setup ease.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
A single-container, self-hosted runtime implementing the Unified Harness Protocol that runs multiple agent harnesses locally with your keys and no telemetry.
- Stars
- 2.4k
- Tracked growth
- +321.5%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 16m ago
- Language
- Python
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost to run
- Your API key; provider billing applies
A terminal-first agent multiplexer that runs as a single Rust binary with detachable sessions, tmux-style interaction, and a plugin marketplace.
- Stars
- 40.3k
- Tracked growth
- +76.1%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 9h ago
- Language
- Rust
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost to run
- Free, local install
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | harnessrouter | herdr |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis | ●●●●● No repo context |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● Minimal controls | ●●●●● None mentioned |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Integration & policies | ●●●●● Plugins & config |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Self-hosted (provider keys) | ●●●●● Runs fully local |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Bring-your-own-key | ●●●●● Other/unspecified |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● Docker + API key | ●●●●● One-command start |
Which one to pick
Pick harnessrouter if…
Privacy-first — a one-container, self-hosted agent runtime that keeps keys and data on your infrastructure while supporting many provider backends.
- Context depth: Whole-repo analysis (5/5 against 1/5)
- Model freedom: Bring-your-own-key (5/5 against 1/5)
Pick herdr if…
Local-first & easy setup — install one binary to run detachable, terminal-native agent sessions with plugin support and a socket API.
- Customization: Plugins & config (5/5 against 3/5)
- Setup ease: One-command start (5/5 against 3/5)
What people want from each one
HarnessRouter/harnessrouter
herdrdev/herdr
Questions people ask
Is harnessrouter better than herdr?
They split the axes: harnessrouter leads on context depth and model freedom, herdr on customization and setup ease. harnessrouter is worth picking when privacy-first — a one-container, self-hosted agent runtime that keeps keys and data on your infrastructure while supporting many provider backends.
Which of harnessrouter and herdr keeps my code private?
harnessrouter: Self-hosted (provider keys) (4/5). herdr: Runs fully local (5/5).
What does each one cost to run?
harnessrouter: Your API key; provider billing applies. herdr: Free, local install.
Full profiles: HarnessRouter/harnessrouter and herdrdev/herdr. Everything else in Runtimes & sandboxes.