Give a 48k-star project a window: herdr-gpui gained 2,100 stars in 47 days, while its author's earlier project sat at 840 after 8 months of solo work
What it is A native desktop window (Rust + GPUI, three platforms) for Herdr, a terminal-only multiplexer for AI agents. It has since been renamed Sheprd.
Why it took off Herdr users wanted a GUI, and the official team hadn't built one. This project used its author's existing old codebase to ship a finished product in the first week. It carried the Herdr name, released every day, and picked up the host's existing users and search traffic. On HN, the official app's launch thread was even recommending it in the comments.
BHow you could follow it Don't build a GUI for Herdr. Find an open-source project that has just blown up, only has one interface, and where the official team hasn't filled the gap yet. Use code you already have to build the missing interface in a week or two. Put the host's name in the project name, ship a package people can install directly, and write release notes for every version.
- Data (updated daily) · repo created 2026-09-20 · 2,128 stars
GitHub · stars Data 2026-09-28 → 2026-11-04 (38 days, 27 observations). Points before 10-28 come from deeply / archive backfill, not every day has one
Herdr is a viral open-source tool with only a terminal interface, and many users wanted a graphical one. A French veteran programmer turned his unpopular old project into a "desktop client for Herdr" and claimed that slot 40 days before the official desktop version arrived. The same code gets an order of magnitude different results depending on whether you promote it alone or ride on someone else's user base. Anyone can copy this approach, but for Herdr specifically, the official team has already filled the gap itself.
A one-line recommendation in an HN comment thread
On Oct 30, 2026, a Hacker News post titled "Herdr has released native app" reached 367 points and 271 comments. Herdr had finally released its own desktop app. In the comments, a user who had spent ten years on tmux and switched to Herdr this year wrote:
If you prefer GUIs, I can recommend herdr-gpui which connects to a herdr daemon. It has a bunch of goodies like remote phone pairing, and a built-in browser integration to send screenshots and notes to coding agents.
He recommended not the official release but a third-party project. The next day, on Oct 31, herdr-gpui gained 214 stars, its biggest single day since the repo was created (based on GitHub's daily star records).
The repo was created in Sep 20. The author, Fabien Penso, works on AI at Microsoft. 1998 years ago he founded linuxfr.org, a French Linux community, and he has 7,300 followers on X. His other project, Arbor, is also a native Rust desktop app that handles terminals, Git worktrees, and diffs. He started it in March, and it now has 840 stars.
What it is
Herdr is "tmux for AI coding agents." You can run several Claude Code or Codex sessions in it, and it helps you manage sessions, see which agents are busy, and which are waiting for you. It was open-sourced in March and now has 48,283 stars. It raised a YC batch and a $6M seed round. But it only has a terminal interface.
herdr-gpui is a native desktop window for Herdr, written in Rust with GPUI, the UI framework from the Zed editor. It runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows. It connects to the Herdr background process on your machine or a remote one, and draws sessions, workspaces, worktrees, and each agent's status (busy / waiting for you / idle) into one window. Since then it has added diff review that sends feedback straight back to the agent, browser screenshot annotation, SSH and WSL support, a plan usage panel, and an iOS version (TestFlight).
In the long launch post in Oct 19, the author boiled the pitch down to one line: "Keep the TUI. Add Herdr UI." Your sessions stay in Herdr, you don't need to change anything, you just get an extra window.
How the stars grew
| Date | stars | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 09-20 | 0 | Repo created |
| 09-28 | About 240 | Dan Kornas, an open-source recommendation account on X, posted: "Herdr GPUI is a native Rust/GPUI desktop client…" |
| 10-09 | 1,019 | Reposts on X, posts on r/herdr, and listings on AI tool directories |
| 10-14 → 10-16 | 1,224 → 1,398 | +174 in two days, website launched, two versions shipped back to back |
| 10-30 | 1,787 | Normally +20 to 40 a day |
| 10-31 | 2,001 | +214, the official app launched on HN, and the comments recommended this one |
| 11-04 | 2,128 | Back to +20 to 30 a day |
Source: GitHub daily star records; on GitHub, about 2,190 stars and about 180 forks as of 11-06.
Beyond stars, quite a few people actually installed it. For the Oct 28 release alone, the macOS package was downloaded about 3,000 times, and the Windows and Linux packages about 800 each (GitHub release counts, including some auto-updates, so this is not a count of users). In Nov 5, the author said 120 people had installed the iOS beta.
Where users come from
Almost all of it came from Herdr. The name contains herdr, the GitHub tags include herdr, the early installers were literally named Herdr-xxx.dmg, and the domain was initially herdrui.dev. A Herdr user searching for "herdr gui" or "herdr desktop" would see this as the first result. The post in the r/herdr subreddit was titled "I love Herdr but wanted a GUI closer to what I had in mind, so I built a native…", and the HN recommendation was also posted under a Herdr thread.
The author posts a long write-up on X for every release. In 47 days he shipped more than 40 versions, tagged by date (v20261102.1, v20261102.2), almost one a day, each with release notes. One reply said: "Herdr GPUI has basically replaced all my CLI Herdr usage." The rapid updates became material for sharing in their own right.
It's easy to install. Signed and notarized macOS installer, Windows installer, deb/rpm, the AUR package for Arch, Homebrew, and in-app auto-updates. Someone who sees a recommendation can click once and start using it, and stars turn into installs.
What I didn't find: paid promotion, a Show HN post by the author, or media coverage. The spread stayed within this small circle of Herdr users.
Why this one broke out
Plenty of people in the Herdr ecosystem want a GUI, which itself shows the demand is real:
| Project | What it does | Stars (11-06) |
|---|---|---|
| herdr-gpui (now Sheprd) | Native desktop, three platforms | About 2,190 |
| herdrdev/herdr-app | Official desktop app, 10-30 release | 2,051 (7 days +1,986) |
| devswha/ovis | Web / mobile interface | 1,892 |
| AltanS/collie, eliasstravik/shepherdr, ZingerLittleBee/Heeler | Phone, tablet, iOS | 768–1,584 |
| missuo/herdrm | Native macOS client, available since August | 790, single-digit stars per day |
| roamgate, herdr-studio, zenix, flockbook and others | Assorted GUI clients | 22–322 |
herdrm came out a month earlier with the same idea, but it only does Mac and updates slowly, stalling at 790. herdr-gpui won on three things:
- It started as a finished product. It was built on Arbor, which had six months of work behind it. Swapping in a connection to the Herdr background process was enough, so it could ship signed installers and three-platform builds in the first week. While others were still writing prototypes, it was already usable as a daily tool.
- It didn't ask users to change anything. "Keep the TUI" meant zero migration cost for Herdr users. Arbor required people to replace their whole workflow and got 8 stars in 840 months. The same features, plugged into Herdr, got 2,100 stars in 47 days. The difference wasn't the features. It was having an existing user base to draw from.
- Speed. A new version every day, with feature density an order of magnitude above comparable tools. Add the author's standing in the Rust and open-source communities, and recommenders were willing to share it.
After the official release
When the official desktop app came out on Oct 30, the slot of "Herdr's only decent GUI" was gone. The official app also uses GPUI, and its interface can be customized in JS. It gained nearly 2,000 stars in 7 days.
The author responded quickly: around Nov 3 he renamed it Sheprd, moved it to the sheprd-labs organization, added a line at the top of the README reading "Unaffiliated project. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Herdr," and bundled herdr-core in the installer so Herdr no longer had to be installed first. I didn't find out whether Herdr's official team asked for the rename.
This effectively turns it from "Herdr's window" into an independent multi-agent workbench, head-to-head with products like Orca (116k stars), cmux (29k stars), Paradev (16k stars), and Conductor. On HN, someone complained about the category: "30 million of these and they all look basically identical." After Oct 31, its daily growth has fallen back to 20 to 30.
If it were you
The takeaway: The playbook is worth learning, but don't chase Herdr's specific slot. "Build the interface a hot open-source project is missing" is a clear, repeatable way to get stars, but the window only stays open until the official team fills the gap itself, and herdr-gpui's window lasted only 40 days.
Who it suits: People who already have a half-finished or unpopular project that can be turned into a client, plugin, or interface for a big project within a week or two, and who can ship every day, writing release notes on X and Reddit each time.
Who it doesn't suit: People who have to start from scratch (by the time you finish, the official team or someone else has taken the slot), and people who want to build an independent big product and won't ride on someone else's name.
How to do it:
- Choosing a host: look for one whose stars have grown fast in the last month or two (tens of thousands), that has only one interface (only terminal, only web, no mobile), where people keep asking in issues and Reddit for another kind of interface, and that isn't on the official roadmap yet.
- Put the host's name directly into your project name and GitHub tags, so anyone searching "host + gui / app / mobile" sees you first. Make the first sentence of the README say clearly "you don't need to change anything."
- Ship installable packages in the first version (signed, Homebrew, auto-update). Don't just release source code.
- Post release notes on X for every version, and submit to the host's subreddits and awesome lists. Every time the host makes a big release (hits HN, raises funding, ships a new version), show up in the comments and discussion threads. That's your biggest traffic day.
When to act: As early as possible, before the host officially releases a similar interface. Once the host says in its roadmap or issues "we're working on a desktop / mobile version," the remaining time is measured in weeks.
Signs you've misjudged it: Two weeks after launch, stars are still stuck at two or three hundred, and nobody in the host's community is sharing it. Or the official team beats you to a similar interface. In that case, either rename, bundle your own core, and break away from the host (as Sheprd did), or accept it and treat it as a portfolio piece. For Sheprd itself: if its daily growth drops to single digits in November after the rename, that means the benefit of this playbook ended once it left the host.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one herdrdev/herdr-app (Herdr's official desktop app) Open source 2026-10-30 public release (repo created 10-16) 2,051 stars, +1,986 in 7 days, 367 points on HN Official release, with a UI customizable in JS. Once it came out, herdr-gpui lost its "only GUI" status and was forced to rename to Sheprd and bundle herdr-core missuo/herdrm Open source 2026-08-19 790 stars, single-digit daily growth Also a native client, but macOS only, with far fewer features and a much slower update rhythm devswha/ovis (formerly the herdr web UI) Open source 2026-09-17 1,892 stars Browser/mobile client, not native desktop AltanS/collie / eliasstravik/shepherdr / ZingerLittleBee/Heeler Open source 2026-06~09 768–1,584 stars Mobile/PWA/iOS only, no desktop stablyai/orca Open source 2026-03 116,539 stars Standalone Electron ADE, project/worktree first; herdr-gpui is native Rust, no runtime swap manaflow-ai/cmux Open source 2026-01 28,710 stars A Ghostty-based macOS terminal; herdr-gpui runs on all three platforms and reuses the Herdr daemon ParadevAI/Paradev (formerly Superset) Open source 2025-10 15,983 stars Standalone agent IDE; herdr-gpui even ships superset/orca-style sidebar layouts Conductor / T3 Code / Paseo / JetBrains Air Other 2025–2026 Not verified Standalone multi-agent workbench, requires changing your workflow Zed agent panel Big-company features 2025 Zed itself is big Also GPUI, but as built-in editor features penso/arbor (the author's earlier project) Open source 2026-03 840 stars in 8 months Nearly the same product, but built independently with no host user base, so it never took off - Where users come from
- Verified Parasitic on the host ecosystem (Herdr 48k stars, r/herdr, the name/topics/install packages all say Herdr): early release artifacts named Herdr-xxx.dmg, domain herdrui.dev, topics include herdr; searching 'herdr gui' returns it first
- Verified X repo recommendation: Dan Kornas's 2026-09-28 post introducing Herdr GPUI got 240 stars that day and passed 1,000 two weeks later
- Verified Author's own long X post: 10-11 official post and 10-19 "Herdr UI: more connected, more in control"; replies include users saying they've replaced the CLI Herdr with it
- Verified HN comments on the host's big launch: 10-30 HN "Herdr has released native app" with 367 points; commenters recommended herdr-gpui; 10-31 gained 214 in a single day
- Verified Reddit r/herdr: a post titled "I love Herdr but wanted a GUI closer to what I had in mind, so I built a native…" exists; engagement not found
- Verified AI tool aggregators / SEO long tail: listing pages on SkillFed 09-26, mondary.design 09-29, aiidelist 10-06, toolhubdaily 10-11 and others
- Verified Signed installers for all platforms + AUR + auto-update: 40+ versions on GitHub releases, a single macOS DMG at ~3,000 downloads, and an AUR herdr-gpui package
penso/herdr-gpui (now Sheprd, sheprd-labs/sheprd): why it could take off
Research date 2026-11-06. Data from our GitHub database (repo_profile / repo_day), the GitHub API, HN Algolia, Jina/Exa search, and X page scraping.
Bottom line
It is a third-party native desktop shell parasitic on a 48k-star breakout open-source project (Herdr, YC-backed, $6M seed round). Herdr started as TUI-only, many users wanted a GUI, and this author already had a ready Rust/GPUI worktree desktop app (Arbor, 840 stars) to adapt. Shipping nearly a version a day let it claim the "Herdr GUI" slot before the official desktop version arrived. When the official app launched on HN, commenters even recommended this one as an alternative, picking up a spillover of traffic (10-31 +214 in a single day).
What it is
- A native desktop client written in Rust + GPUI (Zed's UI framework). It connects to a local or remote Herdr daemon and draws terminal sessions, workspaces, Git worktrees, and agent status (busy / waiting on you / idle) into a native window. Later additions include diff review with "send to agent," browser annotation, SSH/WSL/cloud machines, plan usage tracking, and iOS TestFlight (README, github.com/sheprd-labs/sheprd).
- The pitch in the author's words: "Keep the TUI. Add Herdr UI." No runtime swap, just one more window (author's 10-19 launch post, x.com/fabienpenso/status/2112081563940946050).
- Timeline: 2026-09-20 database created → first called Herdr GPUI, then Herdr UI (domain herdrui.dev) → 10-30 official Herdr desktop app released → 11-03 renamed Sheprd around then, moved to the sheprd-labs org, README adds an "Unaffiliated project" notice, and bundles herdr-core so the official Herdr no longer needs to be installed separately 1 (README; author 11-03 tweet "Last one on the renaming of Herdr GPUI", x.com/fabienpenso/status/2117457929494487524).
- Author Fabien Penso: a Microsoft AI engineer who founded linuxfr.org in 1998, with 7.3K followers on X. Other projects include Moltis (a local AI gateway, 2.6K+ stars) and Arbor (840 stars on GitHub) (X profile, LinkedIn, pen.so).
Growth data
| Date | stars | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 09-20 | 0 | Repo created |
| 09-28 | 240 | Dan Kornas posted an introduction the same day (a historical spike on the GitHub repo) |
| 10-09 | 1,019 | The first 3 weeks ran on X reposts + aggregator sites + r/herdr |
| 10-14→10-16 | 1,224→1,398 | +174 in two days, matching the 10-14/10-16 release and the 10-11 website launch |
| 10-30 | 1,787 | Steady daily growth of 20–40 |
| 10-31 | 2,001 | +214, single-day peak; same day, the official herdr-app +767 and the main herdr repo +339 |
| 11-04 | 2,128 | Fell back to 20–30 per day; GitHub API today shows 2,188 stars / 179 forks |
(Source: GitHub repo_day; GitHub API 2026-11-06)
- Usage reference: for v20261028.1, the macOS DMG got 3,031 downloads, the Windows installer/zip about 800, and the Linux package about 830. The in-app update manifest was fetched about 58k times (GitHub releases asset counts, including auto-update checks, so not a user count). The iOS TestFlight build had 11-05 120 downloads (author's post).
- Release cadence: 47 days produced 40 versions (tagged by date, e.g. v20261102.1/.2), nearly one a day (GitHub releases).
Competitors
Within the Herdr ecosystem (same user base)
| Product | Position | Launched | Scale | How it differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| herdrdev/herdr-app (official Herdr desktop app) | Open source | Repo created 10-16,10-30, public release | 11-06 2,051 stars, +1,986 over 7 days, HN 367 points | Official, with JS-customizable UI (like Emacs). Before it arrived, herdr-gpui was the only decent native GUI; after it arrived, herdr-gpui was forced to rename to Sheprd and pivot to a standalone workspace |
| herdrdev/herdr (the TUI itself) | Open source | 2026-03-27 | 48,283 stars | The host, not a rival; herdr-gpui's users are its users |
| devswha/ovis (formerly the herdr web UI) | Open source / web | 09-17 | 1,892 stars | Browser + phone, not native |
| AltanS/collie | Open-source PWA | 06-28 | 1,584 stars | Phone |
| eliasstravik/shepherdr | herdr plugin | 09-18 | 1,073 stars | Phone/tablet remote control |
| missuo/herdrm | Open-source macOS | 08-19 | 790 stars | Also a native macOS client, but Mac-only, slower updates, and single-digit daily growth. The most direct example of a same-category project that didn't take off |
| ZingerLittleBee/Heeler | Open-source iOS | 07-18 | 768 stars | iOS |
| powerfooI/roamgate, herdr-studio, re2zero/zenix, undivisible/herdr-gui, minchenlee/flockbook | Open source | 07–October | 22–322 stars | All are Herdr GUIs/native clients, an order of magnitude smaller |
The broader multi-agent workbench / ADE category
| Product | Position | Launched | Scale | Differences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stablyai/orca | Open source Electron | 2026-03 | 116,539 stars | Electron, project/worktree first; HN commenters called it heavy. herdr-gpui is native Rust and doesn't manage the runtime |
| manaflow-ai/cmux | Open-source Swift | 2026-01 | 28,710 stars | A Ghostty-based macOS terminal; herdr-gpui runs on all three platforms and reuses the Herdr daemon |
| ParadevAI/Paradev (formerly Superset) | Open source | 2025-10 | 15,983 stars | Standalone IDE. Its README directly offers sidebar layouts named "superset" and "orca," suggesting it is copying those products' interaction design |
| Conductor, T3 Code, Paseo, JetBrains Air | Closed source / big companies | — | — | HN quote: "30 million of these and they all look basically identical" |
| Zed's built-in agent panel | Big-company features | — | — | Same GPUI as Zed, but an editor |
| penso/arbor (the author's own earlier project) | Open source | 2026-03 | 840 stars in 8 months | Almost the same product (a native Rust desktop app for worktrees/terminal/diff), but built standalone it only got 840 stars |
Where the users came from (with evidence)
- Rode Herdr's traffic (confirmed, the key factor). Herdr had 48k stars, a 404-point HN launch, and news coverage of its YC/seed round, plus an r/herdr subreddit and an awesome-herdr list. herdr-gpui has herdr in its name, herdr in its topics, and early release artifacts named
Herdr-xxx.dmg, on the domain herdrui.dev. Anyone searching "herdr gui / desktop" saw it first. - X repo spotlight (confirmed): Dan Kornas 09-28 tweeted "Herdr GPUI is a native Rust/GPUI desktop client…" (https://x.com/DanKornas/status/2104582891254555096). The repo had 240 stars that day and climbed past 1,000+ over the next two weeks.
- The author posted long write-ups on X for each release (confirmed): 10-11 announced the site, and 10-19 posted the release notes "Herdr UI: more connected, more in control." A reply said "Herdr GPUI has basically replaced all my CLI Herdr usage" (https://x.com/fabienpenso/status/2109155136358740339). The author's profile also says "I released herdr gpui exactly 2 weeks ago, it has become my daily driver… getting traction."
- Reddit r/herdr post (confirmed to exist; content blocked by a captcha): "I love Herdr but wanted a GUI closer to what I had in mind, so I built a native…" (https://www.reddit.com/r/herdr/comments/1xbmqux/).
- Confirmed: recommended in HN's official app launch thread to explain the 10-31 spike: 10-30 "Herdr has released native app" 367 points / 271 comments. A user, flippant, wrote: "If you prefer GUIs, I can recommend herdr-gpui which connects to a herdr daemon. It has a bunch of goodies like remote phone pairing, and a built-in browser integration…" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50298436). The same day, herdr-gpui gained 214, its biggest day since we started tracking.
- AI tool aggregator / auto-generated content sites (confirmed, long tail): SkillFed (09-26), mondary.design French blog (09-29), aiidelist (10-06), toolhubdaily (10-11), ivo's home (10-17), devotd, everydev, seailife, toolhunter, herdrai.dev and others. Most are machine-written listing pages that contribute long-tail SEO.
- Distribution is broad: signed and notarized macOS DMG, signed Windows installers, deb/rpm/pkg, an AUR package (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/herdr-gpui), and in-app auto-update. That lowers the trial barrier so stars turn into real installs.
- Not found: paid promotion, Show HN posts by the team itself, or media coverage (the heise 11-02 article covered the official app, not this one).
Why it took off
- The host ecosystem had a clear gap: Herdr is a TUI, and many people wanted a GUI. The official desktop version only shipped 10-30, while herdr-gpui took the spot 9-20 and led by 40 days. Plenty of people in the ecosystem were filling the same gap (herdrm, roamgate, zenix, flockbook…), which shows the demand was real.
- The author had a ready base: Arbor (started in March, also a native Rust worktree/terminal/diff desktop app) had been in development for half a year. Turning it into a Herdr client mostly meant connecting the backend to the Herdr daemon. That's how a signed DMG, three-platform packages, and full features were ready in the first week, which standalone projects couldn't match.
- The positioning didn't compete with the host: "Keep the TUI. Add Herdr UI." It didn't change the runtime, and sessions stayed in the daemon, so Herdr users had zero switching cost. Arbor standing alone required people to change their workflow, and in 8 months it only got 840 stars. After hooking into Herdr, it passed 47 stars in 2,100 days. The gap came from borrowing someone else's user base.
- Shipping speed was itself promo material: a new version nearly every day, and each one came with a long release write-up on X. Features piled up fast (diff review sent back to agents, browser annotation, SSH/WSL/Azure, usage panel, iOS). Replies praised it as "fast, polished, used every day."
- The author's personal credibility: a Microsoft AI engineer, linuxfr founder, and Moltis author with 7.3K followers. Existing standing in the Rust/open-source crowd, and X repo-recommendation accounts were willing to share it.
- Rode a big event from the host: the official app launch hit 367 points on HN, comment threads recommended this one, and it added +214 in a single day.
Differentiation
- Compared with other GUIs in the Herdr ecosystem: native (Rust/GPUI, not Electron or a PWA), three platforms (most rivals only did macOS or mobile), and an order of magnitude more features and faster updates. That's why it won within the ecosystem (herdrm is also a native Mac client, but sits at 790 stars with single-digit daily gains).
- Compared with standalone ADEs like Orca, cmux, and Paradev: it wasn't a standalone product to begin with. It was a skin on Herdr, and its differentiator was "don't change the runtime." That is why it took off. The features alone didn't do it. The same features in Arbor didn't take off.
- Risk: once the official app shipped, this differentiator mostly disappeared. The author's response was to rename it Sheprd, bundle herdr-core, and move toward a standalone workspace plus iOS. That effectively leaves the host and builds an ADE of its own, putting it head-to-head with Orca, cmux, and Conductor. After 10-31, daily gains fell back to 20–30.
How many people saw it / did anyone copy it
- Visibility: it was spreading within small circles. Word of mouth stayed in the Herdr user community (r/herdr, comments on Herdr threads on HN, Rust/agent circles on X, auto-generated listing sites). No media ran standalone coverage and no major account wrote about it. The author's posts reached the thousands of views (the TestFlight post had 1,268 views). Revenue is not involved.
- Copycats: there are many Herdr GUI clients, but most came before or at the same time (herdrm 08-19, roamgate 08-07, herdr-studio 09-11), so they aren't copies of it. Later ones like re2zero/zenix ("A GPUI-native desktop frontend for herdr") and minchenlee/flockbook (10-10, "Unofficial native macOS app for Herdr") clearly share the same idea. The official herdr-app also uses GPUI, overlapping in direction.
What others can borrow
- Build the interface an already-viral open-source project lacks (GUI, mobile, or web). Naming it after the host and putting the host in the topics gives you a ready user pool and search traffic. The bigger the host and the slower the official team is to fill the gap, the longer the window.
- When you have a product that didn't catch on, consider turning it into a client or plugin for a large ecosystem rather than pushing it standalone (Arbor → herdr-gpui is exactly this).
- Actually ship signed installers and auto-update, not just source code. Publish long release notes for every version, so that "updates are fast" becomes promo material.
- Decide in advance what you'll do once the official team catches up: either earn their acceptance or, like this project, prepare a rename and a way to detach from the host (an embedded core).
Unknowns
- No day-by-day data exists for the early 240 stars or the sources from 09-20 to 09-28. The stargazer timestamp API returned 404, so it couldn't be retrieved.
- The Reddit post's publish time and engagement couldn't be read (blocked by a captcha).
- Whether the rename to Sheprd was required by the official Herdr team (trademark or confusion) is unclear. No explicit statement was found; the README only added a non-affiliation disclaimer.
- Download counts include auto-updates and CI pulls, so the number of real active users is unknown.
- Whether it keeps growing after the rename and separation from Herdr depends on the curve after November.