Coral vs Claude Squad: never miss a waiting session
Claude Squad starts agents in worktrees. Coral tells you the moment any of them waits on you, in your notch or on your iPhone, and works right alongside it.
Updated
Pick Coral if your sessions keep waiting on you. Claude Squad is a free terminal app that starts agents side by side in tmux and git worktrees, but you only see that one needs you when you’re looking at its screen. Coral puts every waiting agent in your Mac’s notch and on your iPhone, and you answer with one key or tap without attaching to anything.
You don’t have to choose. Claude Squad runs the normal claude command, so Claude Code loads your own hooks, Coral’s included. Keep Claude Squad for spinning up sessions, and let Coral tell you which one is stuck.
As of October 2026, from the Claude Squad repo.
Summary
| Claude Squad | Coral | |
|---|---|---|
| Tells you when a session needs you | Shows in the session’s preview, when you’re looking at the TUI | Yes. The notch, a soft chime, the longest wait on top, even while you’re in another app |
| Answer a permission prompt | Attach to the session and answer in the terminal | One key (1, 2 or 3) in the notch, ⌘Z to take it back |
| iPhone and Apple Watch | No, it’s a terminal app | Yes. Alerts and every conversation on Free; answers go straight to the agent on Pro |
| Keep sessions moving | -y auto-yes accepts Claude Code and Aider prompts automatically (experimental) | Approval rules (Pro) repeat answers you chose, never for rm -rf, a force push or scripts |
| Agents it covers | The sessions it started | Claude Squad sessions, other terminals, your editor, the Codex app |
| Worktree per task | Yes. One tmux session and one git worktree per task | Not built in. Use Claude Squad or git worktree, and Coral sees those agents |
| Price | Free, open source (AGPL-3.0) | Free forever; Pro $8 a month billed yearly or $12 monthly |
Why developers pick Coral
- You don’t have to look. With six sessions going, the one waiting on a permission prompt is easy to miss while you’re attached to another. Coral lists it under Needs you in the notch, the one that has waited longest first, with a chime.
- Answer without attaching. Press 1, 2 or 3 in the notch. You see what the agent wrote just before asking and every option in full. Plans from Claude Code get a “Ready to code?” card with the plan below it.
- A safer middle ground than auto-yes. Auto-yes means nobody reads the prompt. Coral’s approval rules (Pro) approve the same kind of request you already approved, and never destructive commands, commands that run scripts like
npm run, paths outside the project, or edits to build files likepackage.json. - Your iPhone and Apple Watch. Step away from the desk and still know. Alerts when an agent needs you or finishes, and every conversation to read, are Free. You can answer from your phone on Free too; it waits on your Mac until you press Return there. On Pro it reaches the agent right away, signed with a Face ID protected key and encrypted end to end.
- Every agent in one list. Claude Squad sessions sit next to the agent in your editor, the Codex app, Copilot CLI, OpenCode and the Grok CLI. Worktrees join their repo, so five sessions on
hawkins/webgroup under one project. - No account, nothing uploaded. No Coral account and no Coral server that sees your code. See Privacy and security.
Coral also shows what’s left of your Claude Code, Codex, Copilot and Grok plans with U, including when a limit runs out at your pace. On Pro, agents on your SSH servers and dev containers show up like local ones. See Servers and Features.
Using Claude Squad and Coral together
Coral connects to Claude Code with hooks in ~/.claude/settings.json. Any claude process reads that file, including the ones Claude Squad starts in tmux.
- Start sessions in Claude Squad as usual, with
norN. - When one asks for permission or has a question, it shows under Needs you in the notch. Answer there with one key.
- Messages you type in Coral are typed into the tmux session, so they arrive as yours.
- Show terminal opens the session in tmux. Claude Squad sessions are often detached while you’re in the TUI; then Coral shows a note, and you attach from Claude Squad with
↵.
If you use auto-yes anyway, Coral still tells you when each session finishes, which is when you want to read the diff.
Where Claude Squad fits
Claude Squad is a good fit if you live in one terminal window and want sessions made for you:
- It makes the worktrees. One key gives you an isolated branch with a running agent. Coral doesn’t create worktrees or split work across agents.
- Everything in the TUI. Switch sessions, read diffs, commit and push with
swithout leaving it. - Any command-line agent. Gemini CLI, Aider, or anything you can start with
-p. Coral doesn’t support Gemini CLI or Aider. - Linux too. Releases ship for macOS and Linux, and Windows with tmux under WSL. Coral is Mac only.
Which should you pick
| Your situation | Pick |
|---|---|
| You keep finding a session that has waited 20 minutes | Coral, alongside Claude Squad |
| You want to answer agents from your iPhone or see alerts on your Watch | Coral |
| You want sessions to keep moving without auto-yes on everything | Coral (Pro approval rules) |
| You also run agents in your editor or the Codex app | Coral |
| You want a fast way to spin up isolated agents from the terminal | Claude Squad, with Coral for the waiting |
| You run Gemini CLI or Aider, or you’re on Linux | Claude Squad |
For the full setup, worktrees and tmux included, see how to run multiple Claude Code agents. For tmux over SSH, see Claude Code over SSH and tmux. For a desktop app with review built in, see Coral vs Conductor. All comparisons are on /compare.
Questions
Does Coral work with Claude Squad?
Yes, for Claude Code. Claude Squad runs the regular claude command in tmux, which loads the hooks Coral installs in your user settings. Waiting sessions show in the notch, and you answer them there. Show terminal can’t jump into a detached tmux session, so attach from Claude Squad.
Is Coral a Claude Squad alternative?
For the waiting, yes, and it works best next to Claude Squad. Coral doesn’t make worktrees. It tells you which agent needs you and lets you answer from the notch or your iPhone, wherever the agent runs.
Is Claude Squad free?
Yes. It’s open source under AGPL-3.0 with no paid plan. Coral has a free plan with no end too: the notch, one-key answers and iPhone and Apple Watch alerts.
What does Claude Squad’s auto-yes do?
cs -y makes every session accept Claude Code and Aider prompts automatically, and it’s marked experimental. Coral’s approval rules (Pro) are narrower: they repeat answers you chose and never cover destructive commands.
What does Coral cost?
Coral is free. Pro is $8 a month billed yearly or $12 monthly, with a 7-day free trial, or Founder Lifetime as a one-time payment. See Pricing.