nodeterm is a source-available terminal manager that turns terminals and agent sessions into draggable nodes on an infinite canvas, with every project doubling as a Trello-style board of live Claude Code sessions.
The bet is spatial memory: sessions you can see, place, and zoom into survive restarts and scattered workflows better than a stack of hidden tabs.
What it is #
An Electron app for macOS (arm64, x64), Linux (x64), and Windows (x64, beta) where a right-click adds a terminal or an agent node, each running in its own persistent tmux session (the app ships its own tmux, so sessions resume with claude --resume).
Node kinds cover terminals, agents (Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, Gemini, GitHub Copilot, opencode, Grok, Cursor, or custom), sticky notes linked to agents as context, a Monaco editor, and diffs; groups bind to git worktrees for agent-per-branch layouts.
Agent nodes carry live transcripts, subagent cards, a per-node context meter, and a “needs you” state that lights the MacBook notch and posts notifications.
The same canvas runs three ways: the desktop app, a self-hosted browser app (Server Edition) with zero open ports, and an iOS companion that attaches to the same live sessions.
By Enes Kirca as an indie project, repository created 2026-06-15, BUSL-1.1 licensed with each release converting to MIT four years after publication.
Status #
Active: 2,287 stars, 264 forks, and 55 open issues and pull requests as of 2026-11-01 (GitHub API), pushed 2026-10-31, with 70 releases through v0.4.5 (2026-10-24) and a Trendshift listing on the README. The installer download badge reads 16.7k across all releases as of 2026-11-01.
Zero Hacker News stories found as of 2026-11-01; the footprint is the repository, the download badge, and the nodeterm.dev docs.
Strengths #
- The canvas is a genuinely different organizing model: terminals, agents, notes, and diffs as one spatial map beats window management for scattered multi-project work.
- Session durability is engineered in: shipped tmux, restart restoration, power-and-sleep guards during agent runs.
- The zero-open-port Server Edition and iOS companion extend the same canvas to browser and phone without exposing your machine.
Cautions #
- BUSL-1.1 is source-available, not open source: a competing-product restriction applies until each release ages into MIT.
- The README admits the project costs about $2,000 a month to run and leans on a ten-spot sponsor tier, a funding-risk signal for an indie single-maintainer app.
- Claude Code is the first-class board citizen; other CLIs are agent nodes without the board-and-comments integration.
Pricing #
The desktop app is free. A Founding Sponsor tier costs $200 per month with ten spots (one taken as of 2026-11-01), buying a logo placement and priority feature requests.
Price history #
| Date | Plan | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-01 | Founding Sponsor | recorded at $200/month, 10 spots, 1 taken (baseline) |
Compared to #
- tuios: the Go terminal window manager with per-pane agent state and an Inbox; nodeterm is the canvas-and-iOS counterpart with a visual map.
- herdr: the Rust daemon multiplexer owning terminals and restoring layouts; nodeterm adds the spatial layer and the self-hosted browser mode.
- cmux: Manaflow’s macOS terminal for parallel agents; nodeterm crosses to Linux and Windows beta and adds the Server Edition.
Bottom line #
Recommended for engineers whose scattered, multi-project workflows defeat tab stacks and who want to see every session at once. Not for teams needing PR-centric review surfaces, and not for anyone requiring an OSI-approved license today.
Changes #
- 2026-11-01 - Created.
See also #
- tuios - the per-pane agent-state TUI sibling
- herdr - the daemon multiplexer contrast
- cmux - the macOS terminal-for-agents peer
- Vibe Kanban - the board-first web alternative
References #
https://api.github.com/repos/eneskirca/nodeterm - stars, license, and activity as of 2026-11-01
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eneskirca/nodeterm/HEAD/README.md - the canvas model, node kinds, Server Edition, sponsor tier, and license terms
https://nodeterm.dev/ - the product site
https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=%22nodeterm%22&tags=(story,show_hn)&hitsPerPage=5 - the zero-story Hacker News footprint as of 2026-11-01