Rating · evidence to 26 Sept 2026
75
- Provisional
- Trust B
- Open source
The Register / Orchestrators & meta-harnesses / cmux
Register entry · Orchestrators & meta-harnesses · updated 26 Sept 2026
cmux
Manaflow, Inc. · Orchestrators & meta-harnesses
cmux is a Swift/AppKit terminal for macOS that uses libghostty for rendering and is aimed at people running several coding-agent CLIs at once. It adds vertical workspace tabs showing git branch, PR status and ports, notification rings when an agent needs attention, split panes, a scriptable in-app browser, SSH workspaces and wrappers for Claude Code and Codex. It is GPL-3.0-or-later and free; an iOS companion app is in beta.
What reviewers and users praise
- Users and reviewers like the agent notifications and vertical-tab organisation (HN, Flavio Copes, Better Stack)
- Programmable CLI/socket API lets agents drive terminals and the browser (Artem Zhutov, HN)
- Fast release cadence with visible fixes, e.g. a memory-leak fix shipped the same day it was diagnosed (GitHub #4529)
What they criticise
- macOS only; several users moved to cross-platform tools for Linux/WSL (HN)
- Repeated complaints about RAM use, lag when scrolling and freezes over SSH (HN, GitHub #4529)
- Its Claude/Codex wrappers have changed agent safety defaults (forced bypass-permissions in v0.64.0; Codex hook-trust bypass issue open) (GitHub #3547, #8136)
Experts vs the crowdneeds both scores
Experts75
Crowd—
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Use it via | Desktop app, CLI, Mobile app |
| Runs on | macos |
| Licence | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Updated | Evidence collected 26 Sept 2026 |
How the rating was worked out
Weights for Orchestrators & meta-harnesses: adoption 40%, experts 30%, crowd 30%. Pillars without enough evidence are left out and the others re-weighted. The method.
| Adoption & momentumweight 40% | 76 | GitHub stars 27k → 74 · 8 releases in 90 days → 80reach × 0.7 + momentum × 0.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Expertsindependent reviews · weight 30% | 75 | 3 independent reviews (3 positive · 0 mixed · 0 negative), averaged toward 50 for small samples. |
| Crowdcommunity sample · weight 30% | — | Community sample from a single platform |
| Rating | 75 | Provisional: low confidence (2 of 3 pillars, 13 community posts). |
Evidence checks. 2 GitHub issues not counted as sentiment. How evidence is checked.
Trust & safety
Seven dimensions graded A–D from documented facts. Overall: B.
n/e
Permission model
cmux is a terminal; agents keep their own permission modes. However cmux launches Claude Code and Codex through wrappers that inject hooks: v0.64.0 forced Claude Code into bypass-permissions mode (fixed same day, #3547) and the Codex wrapper passes --dangerously-bypass-hook-trust (open issue #8136; can be disabled via a defaults setting). source
n/e
Data access scope
No cmux-specific file-access scoping; agents in panes have the user's shell access. Browser import can copy cookies and sessions from 20+ browsers when the user chooses to. source
A
Data storage
Runs locally as a macOS app; no required cloud storage of code. Privacy policy says analytics exclude terminal commands, output and transcripts; content only moves between devices the user pairs. source
n/e
Data retention & training
Privacy policy (updated 2026-07-14) states retention periods (masked session replays deleted after 90 days, analytics kept up to 24 months, crash reports only as long as needed) and an in-app opt-out, but says nothing about AI training; terminal content is not collected. source
C
Incident history (24 months)
No CVEs or published advisories found. Two safety-relevant defects: an update that forced Claude Code into bypass-permissions mode (May 2026, fixed within a day) and an open issue that the Codex wrapper bypasses hook trust for all enabled hooks (July 2026, open with workaround). source
D
Compliance
No SOC 2 / ISO 27001 attestations found on the site or privacy policy. source
A
Transparency
GPL-3.0-or-later with a dated public changelog. source
The experts
3 named independent reviews found; dated reviews from the last 12 months are scored.
- positive
cmux is a terminal for this workflow, rather than an agent orchestrator with a terminal attached.
Flavio Copes · 13 Aug 2026 · flaviocopes.com - positive
cmux is not just another terminal; it is a dedicated platform for the next generation of software development
Stanley Ulili (Better Stack) · 6 Mar 2026 · betterstack.com - positive
The tool that changed this for me is cmux - a terminal workspace manager.
Artem Zhutov · 16 Mar 2026 · artemxtech.substack.com
The crowd
13 coded posts from hackernews.
5 positive3 mixed5 negative
- negative
I loved using cmux for several weeks until I saw the ram usage.
comment · 7 Aug 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - negative
sometimes whole cmux freezes for 2-10 seconds when a ssh session is open.
Cmux SSH Lagging (Ask) · 13 Aug 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - negative
the answer: cmux gui is broken, use cmux-tui in a single tab
comment · 13 Aug 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - negative
Why cmux is so lagging when scrolling, also it uses more CPU than Ghostty
Ask HN · 26 May 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
I love working with cmux on my macbook but there's no good alternative on linux
Show HN: colm (cmux alternative) · 19 Sept 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
CMux has good native AI Agent notifications. So it works well in that capacity too.
comment · 25 Sept 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
cmux is really nice for this.
comment · 1 Aug 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
It's really powerful but you need to update your instruction file so your coding harness know
comment · 24 Jul 2026 · news.ycombinator.com
Pricing
As published, checked 26 Sept 2026.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| cmux (open source) | Free | Free and GPL-licensed; an optional 'Founder's Edition' supports development (price not stated on the homepage). |
Recent changes
- 17 Sept 2026
v0.64.25 (latest stable): iOS access and Cloud VM creation fixes. source
- 14 Sept 2026
v0.64.23: published cmux SDKs (including a Rust SDK, cmux-sdk) and iOS workspace groups. source
- 3 Aug 2026
v0.64.21: cmux-tui gains browser terminal backends; iOS transport work. source
- 19 Jul 2026
v0.64.20: reduced typing latency in large workspaces; public App Store lane for the iOS app. source
- 14 Jul 2026
Privacy policy updated covering analytics, Sentry replays and device pairing. source
Ranked alongside
Other ranked entries in Orchestrators & meta-harnesses.
OrcaStably AI78
SupersetSuperset Inc.70
HerdrHerdr (Can Celik; YC F26)68
T3 CodePing Labs (ping.gg / T3 Tools)67
Vibe KanbanBloop (company shut down April 2026; now community maintained)60Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these, observed up to 26 Sept 2026.