Problem: I run several AI CLIs at once (Claude Code, Codex, Qwen). Two things kept breaking overnight runs: an agent quits after an hour (network error, or it just decides it's done), and sub-agents fudge their reports when they hand work back. The existing tools let me see many agents. None of them made one agent responsible for the others.
What Polter does: it's a Ghostty fork with an MCP layer. Any MCP-capable CLI can be the supervisor. It opens tabs, starts other CLIs, types into them, reads their screens. Workers report into a group chat and a shared task list. If a worker's screen goes quiet, the supervisor is told. If the supervisor goes quiet, Polter pokes it.
Here's what that actually looks like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u-pgdNeqCc
How it compares (from each project's README/docs, Sept 2026 — correct me if I got something wrong):
| Polter | Claude Code Agent View | cmux | herdr | Claude Squad | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works with any CLI (Codex, Qwen, opencode…) | Yes | No, Claude Code sessions only | Yes | Yes | Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Aider |
| Agents can drive the terminal (read screen, type, open tabs) | Yes, via MCP | No | Yes, via CLI + socket | Yes, via socket | No |
| One agent supervises others (roles, task list, group chat) | Built in | No (you supervise) | You build it on the API | You build it on the API | No |
| Stopped worker → someone is notified | Supervisor agent is told; it can restart | You are notified; unexpected exits auto-restart | You are notified | You are notified (state in sidebar) | Not mentioned |
| Supervisor itself gets nudged if idle | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Needs API keys | No, uses your CLIs' own login | No | No | No | No |
| Platform | macOS, Windows (63/72 actions), Linux from source | Wherever Claude Code runs | macOS only | macOS, Linux, Windows beta | macOS, Linux |
| Offline / no account | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Honest gaps: only Claude Code is tested end-to-end as supervisor. Codex/Qwen/opencode work fine as workers; their supervisor path is untested. Windows is missing 9 actions. It's a fork, so upstream Ghostty updates get merged with some lag.
What Polter won't do: answer permission prompts for an agent, unlock a tab you've locked, or bypass a CLI's own permissions. Those are hard-coded, not prompts.
MIT licensed: https://github.com/Lugia123/polter
