Shepherdr 3.1.20 Released as Mission Control for Herdr-Core Coding Agents

Shepherdr 3.1.20 has been released as an open-source MIT-licensed plugin that serves as a mission control layout for the Herdr desktop application and herdr-core engine. The tool is designed to help users manage multiple coding agents across machines from a phone, tablet, or desktop interface without requiring hosted cloud services.

Core Architecture and Operation

The software operates by organizing projects into spaces within a sidebar, each equipped with its own Assistant. When a user provides natural language instructions to an Assistant, the system converts the input into individual tasks.

• Worktree Isolation: Every task runs as a standard herdr-core agent within its own isolated git worktree and branch, ensuring changes remain outside the primary checkout until explicitly merged.
• Task Status Panels: The interface categorizes tasks by operational states, including *Needs you*, *Ready*, *Merging*, *Working*, *Queued*, *Scheduled*, *To do*, and *Done*.
• Interactive Cards: Agents prompt users with decision cards when permissions or choices are required.

Customization and Add-Ons

Shepherdr is constructed using modular Herdr add-ons. Users can toggle features such as Artifacts, Voice, Reactions, Task browsing, Autopilot, and web app synchronization directly through the Shepherdr settings menu. Custom mods and themes remain untouched during updates, with the system preserving backups of replaced files.

System Requirements and Verification

Running Shepherdr requires a terminal-compatible setup on macOS or Linux. Prerequisites include:

• Herdr app version 0.1.12 or newer
• herdr-core version 0.1.17 or newer
• Python 3.8+
• Git
• An installed and signed-in agent command-line interface such as Claude Code or Codex

Optional integrations include GitHub CLI (`gh`), `agent-browser`, Chrome, and an ElevenLabs API key for voice features. A validation utility, `shepherdr doctor`, is provided to check installed files, helper links, and program dependencies.