herdr vs nanoclaw
The two are close in size: 35.4k stars for herdr, 30.7k for nanoclaw. Over the days we have tracked them herdr moved +54.7% and nanoclaw +3.6%, so herdr is growing faster right now.
They split the axes: herdr leads on customization, nanoclaw on context depth and noise control and model freedom.
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 terminal-first agent multiplexer that runs as a single Rust binary with detachable sessions, tmux-style interaction, and a plugin marketplace.
- Stars
- 35.4k
- Tracked growth
- +54.7%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 9h ago
- Language
- Rust
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost to run
- Free, local install
Provides compact, auditable agent runtime with true OS-level container isolation so agents run in separate containers with explicit mounts instead of one large shared process.
- Stars
- 30.7k
- Tracked growth
- +3.6%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 11h ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Your API key (Anthropic/OpenAI) or local models
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 | herdr | nanoclaw |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● No repo context | ●●●●● Related files access |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● None mentioned | ●●●●● Basic gating |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Plugins & config | ●●●●● Code-based customization |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Runs fully local | ●●●●● Self-hostable |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Other/unspecified | ●●●●● Bring-your-own key |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● One-command start | ●●●●● One-script install |
Which one to pick
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)
Pick nanoclaw if…
Privacy-first — run agents in isolated Docker containers on your own machine with per-agent mounts and the option to use local or BYO models.
- Context depth: Related files access (3/5 against 1/5)
- Noise control: Basic gating (3/5 against 1/5)
- Model freedom: Bring-your-own key (5/5 against 1/5)
What people want from each one
herdrdev/herdr
nanocoai/nanoclaw
Hacker News: Show HN: NanoClaw – “Clawdbot” in 500 lines of TS with Apple container isolation drew 533 points and 224 comments.
Questions people ask
Is herdr better than nanoclaw?
They split the axes: herdr leads on customization, nanoclaw on context depth and noise control and model freedom. herdr is worth picking when local-first & easy setup — install one binary to run detachable, terminal-native agent sessions with plugin support and a socket API.
Which of herdr and nanoclaw keeps my code private?
herdr: Runs fully local (5/5). nanoclaw: Self-hostable (4/5).
What does each one cost to run?
herdr: Free, local install. nanoclaw: Your API key (Anthropic/OpenAI) or local models.
Full profiles: herdrdev/herdr and nanocoai/nanoclaw. Everything else in Runtimes & sandboxes.