Claude Squad is a terminal app that manages several coding agents in separate workspaces, using tmux for the sessions and git worktrees for the code. If you want the same idea in a desktop app, with a task board and line-by-line review, Friday is free and MIT licensed. Facts about Claude Squad are from its own README, read on 4 November 2026.
Why would you look for a Claude Squad alternative?
Your work shouldn’t own your day, and a row of terminal panes is a lot to keep in your head. Claude Squad does a clear job well: it gives each agent its own tmux session and its own worktree on its own branch, so several agents can work on one repository without colliding.
People look elsewhere when they want a window instead of a terminal, a board that shows what each agent is doing, or review that goes back to the agent. Despite the name, Claude Squad also runs other agents: its README lists Codex, Gemini and Aider, and its description adds OpenCode and Amp.
How does Friday compare with Claude Squad?
| Friday | Claude Squad (from its own README) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A free desktop app that runs your coding agents side by side on your own computer | A terminal app, started with cs, that manages multiple agents in separate workspaces |
| Isolation | Each agent can work in its own git worktree | tmux for each session and a git worktree per session, each on its own branch |
| Planning | A task board that agents take tasks from | A list of sessions; the README describes no board |
| Agents | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and 13 more by name, plus any ACP agent | Claude Code, Codex, Gemini and Aider, with OpenCode and Amp in its description |
| Agents working together | Agents message each other, and when one hits its usage limit the task moves to another with a record of what the first did and changed | We did not find this in its README |
| Review | Each run’s changes line by line, with notes sent back to the agent, and git built in | Keys to commit and push a session’s branch and to check it out; we did not find line-by-line notes in its README |
| Install | The desktop app for macOS, Windows or Linux, or npx github:splashxmoon/friday | Homebrew or an install script; it needs tmux and the GitHub CLI. Its README lists no supported systems |
| Licence and price | MIT; free, no account; anonymous usage counts you can turn off | AGPL-3.0; the README mentions no price. Read each licence before you use it at work |
Last checked: 4 November 2026
Check its GitHub page for what has changed since 4 November 2026. At that date its latest release was v1.0.20, from 20 August.
Where is Claude Squad stronger?
It is small and stays in the terminal. Its README lists keys to pause a session and resume it, and a one-key commit and push for a session’s branch, and it is widely used: its repository has several thousand stars, many more than Friday’s.
If you live in the terminal and want something light that does one job, it is a good fit, and Friday is the heavier app.
When is Friday the better pick?
If you want to see all your agents and their tasks on one board rather than in separate panes, review each run’s changes line by line and send notes back to the agent, and have agents message each other and hand a task on when one hits its usage limit. If you want a desktop app on Windows, macOS or Linux with no tmux to set up.
Friday’s agents run on your computer, so they stop if it sleeps. See how to run multiple coding agents at once for the by-hand version with git worktrees.
What is Friday?
Friday is a free, open-source (MIT) harness for coding agents that work as a team. It runs on your own computer with no account: the desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, or one command with Node.js 22 and Git.
- Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and 13 more coding tools (16 by name, plus any ACP agent) run side by side on their own plans and sign-ins.
- One agent splits a job into a task board, the others pick up tasks, and every finished task is checked before it counts as done.
- Agents message each other as they work, and each can work in its own copy of the repository.
- When a tool runs out of usage mid-task, the task moves to the agent best placed to finish it.
- Review each run’s changes line by line, with git built in.
- No account; anonymous usage counts you can turn off; it listens on 127.0.0.1 only.
Install it with npx github:splashxmoon/friday or from GitHub; see the docs. Friday Team, the hosted version for several people in one session, is available to companies: talk to us.