ADEs I am keeping
Orca, Coldtea, and Herdr—
and what stood out in each.
I have been testing agent development environments, or ADEs. My shortlist is Orca, Coldtea, and Herdr, in that order. Each earned its place for a different reason.
These are notes from using them: session management in Orca, the comment feature in Coldtea, and the clean terminal interface in Herdr.
1. Orca: session management
Orca was my favourite for managing agent sessions.
I’ve also used it on my phone. The agent was working through a design specification while the mobile view kept the session and its input controls within reach.
2. Coldtea: comments
Coldtea’s add-comment feature was the part I loved. Sometimes a particular interaction is what sticks with you after trying a tool. For Coldtea, that was it.
3. Herdr: a clean terminal interface
Herdr stood out for its clean TUI, or terminal user interface. I did struggle with the setup in iTerm2, so that caveat belongs alongside the good first impression.
What are you using, and do you still use an IDE? This shortlist captures where I am with these tools, with room for that answer to change.