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Next Termthe IDE for your AI agents

Next Term vs Solo

Solo, built by Aaron Francis, the creator of faster.dev and Database School, calls itself “the meta-harness for coding agents”: a desktop workspace where the command-line agents you already have, such as Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Pi, run beside your project’s dev stack. Solo starts the dev server, queue workers and log tails from a solo.yml your team can commit, can restart them after a crash or a file change, and shows each process’s CPU, memory and ports. Agents control it through a local MCP server, a local HTTP API and a solo command, so a lead agent can start agents from other vendors, send them work, read their output and coordinate through shared scratchpads, todos, locks and timers. It runs on macOS 11 or later and Windows 10, is built with Tauri on the system web view, is closed source and in beta, and is free for four projects and 20 processes, then $99 a year. Solo says plainly that it “does not replace your terminal or editor”. Next Term is a free, MIT-licensed, native macOS terminal and code editor where each agent runs in its own tab or split pane. It reads each agent’s status from its screen or its output, quotes Claude Code’s, Codex’s, Command Code’s and OpenCode’s questions in its notifications, adds diffs with per-hunk staging, the Git Log and blame, runs agents on your servers over ssh, and is a local MCP server through which one agent runs the others. Choose Solo to supervise your dev stack and give agents ready-made tools for working together, on a Mac or on Windows. Choose Next Term to watch, review and commit agents’ work in one native window, and to run agents on your servers.

At a glance

Section titled “At a glance”
FeatureNext TermSolo
PlatformsmacOS 13 or latermacOS 11 or later; Windows 10 (version 1809) or later, with WSL; Linux announced as coming soon
Price and licenceFree, MITFree for 4 projects and 20 processes, with every feature; Pro $99 a year; team seats; closed source
Built withSwift and AppKit, no web view; about a 33 MB downloadTauri on the system web view (WebKit on macOS); a 45 MB download for macOS; in beta (0.10.1)
Agents✓ Any agent that runs in a terminal; 21 recognised by name✓ Eight built in (Claude Code, Codex, Amp, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Copilot CLI, Kimi CLI, Antigravity CLI); any other interactive CLI as a custom tool
Tabs and split panes✓ Tabs on top or in a list down the terminal’s left or right, and splitsVertical tabs in a sidebar, one process shown at a time; workspaces, which can open in separate windows; no split panes
How status is known✓ Read from the agent’s screen for Claude Code, Codex, Command Code, Gemini CLI and OpenCode, from output timing for the rest, with nothing to set up: working, done, waiting on you (with the question, for Claude Code, Codex, Command Code and OpenCode), failed✓ Working, Planning or Idle for the eight built-in agents, from each one’s output or terminal title, which Solo calls a heuristic; an optional summariser, one of your agent CLIs, adds a one-line summary and a state such as waiting for permission; Claude Code’s own recap line serves as its summary without one
Notifications✓ When an agent finishes or needs you, quoting Claude Code’s, Codex’s, Command Code’s and OpenCode’s questions; Dock badge; ⇧⌘U goes to the agent that has waited longest, in any window✓ When a command crashes, or an agent or script sends a terminal bell or notification sequence; native notifications, in-app toasts, unread marks, an app icon badge
Agents driving agents (MCP)✓ A local MCP server on a Unix socket, with 58 tools and no account: list every tab with its agent’s state, start agents in tabs or panes, send prompts, wait, read screens, answer questions. Edits, commits and pane changes wait for your approval on the Mac. Set up for you in ten agents✓ A local MCP server with no network port for clients, and 101 documented tools: start agents, send input, read output, wait for ports, and scratchpads, todos with blockers, locks, timers and key-value storage. Also an HTTP API on 127.0.0.1 and a solo command. You turn it on in Settings
Editor and diffs✓ An editor with 112 grammars; Git Diff (⌃⌘G) of a whole branch, per-hunk stage, unstage and roll back, the Git Log and blame— Opens the external editor you choose; a Markdown editor for scratchpads and todos
Process management— A dev server runs in a tab like any other command✓ Commands from a shared solo.yml, suggested for many frameworks; restart after a crash (rate-limited) or a file change; CPU, memory and ports per process; new or changed commands from solo.yml wait until you trust them
After a quit or an update✓ Windows, tabs, splits and scrollback come back; Claude Code, Codex and Qwen Code resume by themselvesQuitting or restarting to update stops every command, agent and terminal (closing a window does not); trusted auto-start commands start again at launch, the eight built-in agents can resume their saved conversations, and output is kept for the current run only
Remote servers✓ Remote tabs over ssh, kept running in tmux or herdr, with the same status marks; under herdr, a row, a notice and an MCP id for each of its agents— Solo suggests ssh or tmux for that
AccountNone, and no telemetryNone for Free; Pro checks a licence key with soloterm.com. Sends anonymous usage events to Aptabase and may send error reports to Sentry

Choose Solo if…

Section titled “Choose Solo if…”
  • You use Windows, or a Mac older than macOS 13. Solo runs on macOS 11 or later and Windows 10, where a project’s commands, terminals and agents can run inside a WSL distribution. Next Term needs macOS 13 or later.
  • Your agents need your running app beside them. Solo keeps the dev server, queue workers, log tails and tunnels running from a solo.yml your team shares, suggests commands for many frameworks when you add a project, can restart them after a crash or a file change, shows CPU, memory and ports per process, and takes back processes left running after a crash. Agents read those processes’ output over MCP instead of starting copies of their own.
  • You want ready-made tools for agents working together: shared Markdown scratchpads, todos with blockers, locks, timers that wake a lead agent when its workers go idle, key-value storage and prompt templates, through MCP, the HTTP API or the solo command.
  • You want one place to script. The same controls are an MCP server for agents, a REST API on 127.0.0.1 for your tools, and a command line with JSON output for shell scripts.

Choose Next Term if…

Section titled “Choose Next Term if…”
  • You want to review and commit where the agents run. Next Term has an editor, Git Diff (⌃⌘G) for everything a branch changed, side-by-side diffs with per-hunk stage, unstage and roll back (⌥⌘G), the Git Log (⌥⌘L) and blame. Solo’s documentation describes no code editor, diff or git view; it opens the editor you choose.
  • You want the waiting mark and the question with nothing to set up. Next Term reads Claude Code, Codex, Command Code, Gemini CLI and OpenCode’s state from their own screens, and from output timing for 16 more agents, with no model involved. When Claude Code, Codex, Command Code or OpenCode waits on you, the notification quotes its question. Solo marks its built-in agents Working, Planning or Idle by itself, and its optional summariser, a call to an agent CLI you choose, adds a state such as waiting for permission; an agent’s notification comes when the agent sends a bell or a notification sequence itself.
  • You want several agents in sight at once. Next Term splits a tab into panes side by side or stacked. Solo shows the selected process in one terminal pane per window, and its own comparison with cmux lists split panes as missing.
  • You run agents on your servers. Remote tabs (⌥⌘T) open over your ssh configuration and keep running in tmux or herdr while your Mac sleeps. Solo does not manage remote hosts.
  • You want your session back after an update. Windows, tabs, splits and scrollback come back after an update or a quit, and Claude Code, Codex and Qwen Code resume by themselves. Solo stops every process when it quits or restarts to update, then starts its trusted auto-start commands again at launch, and each built-in agent can resume its saved conversation when you start it.
  • You want your agents to see your editor. Five agents connect to Next Term as their IDE: your selection goes with the next prompt, and the proposed edits of four of them (all but OpenCode) open as diffs to accept or reject.
  • You want a free, MIT-licensed, native app, with no project limit, no licence check and no telemetry, about a 33 MB download.
  • You want your own tasks in the apps you already use. Tasks › Send Tasks To sends a project’s tasks to its todo folder, Reminders, Things, a Shortcut, Todoist or OmniFocus, or opens a filled-in GitHub, GitLab, Linear, Trello or Azure Boards issue in your browser, saved only when you submit it there. Solo’s todos, with blockers, are a tool for agents working together.
  • You want your agents’ API keys out of plain-text config files. Secrets keeps them sealed on your Mac; agents use a key by name, after you approve with Touch ID or your password, and never get its value back.

Use both

Section titled “Use both”
  • Open the same folder in both. Let Solo run the dev stack from solo.yml, and review, stage per hunk and commit the agents’ changes in Next Term (nxtrm . opens the folder).
  • Agents in Solo can use Next Term’s MCP server. Solo launches the agents you installed with the configuration you already have, and Next Term registers its server in that configuration for ten agents, including Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI. An agent with Next Term’s server registered can start more agents in Next Term tabs, wherever it runs.
  • Point one orchestrator at both. An agent in a Next Term tab can have Solo’s MCP server too: Solo’s Settings set it up for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and others, and agents outside Solo can choose a Solo project and register for its todos, scratchpads and locks. It can then read and restart the dev stack through Solo, and run and watch agents through Next Term.

Questions

Section titled “Questions”

Is Solo a terminal?

Section titled “Is Solo a terminal?”

Yes, among other things. Solo’s documentation calls it, at its core, a very good terminal: commands, agents and shells all run in a full terminal emulator, listed as vertical tabs in a sidebar. It also describes itself as the workspace around your tools, and says it “does not replace your terminal or editor”: it opens a project in the terminal app and editor you choose. Next Term is the terminal, with agents in its tabs and panes next to the editor.

How do the two know an agent needs you?

Section titled “How do the two know an agent needs you?”

Solo reads Claude Code, OpenCode, Copilot CLI, Kimi CLI and Antigravity CLI from their output, Codex and Amp from changes to their terminal title, and Gemini CLI from its title, marks each running agent Working, Planning or Idle, and says that this “is a heuristic”. Its optional auto-summarisation sends a snapshot of the terminal to an agent CLI you choose, which returns a one-line summary and a state such as waiting for permission; Claude Code’s own recap line becomes its summary with no summariser set up. An agent raises a notification when it sends a terminal bell or notification sequence. Next Term reads Claude Code, Codex, Command Code, Gemini CLI and OpenCode’s state from their screens and other agents’ from output timing, and quotes the question Claude Code, Codex, Command Code and OpenCode ask.

Does Solo make a worktree for each agent?

Section titled “Does Solo make a worktree for each agent?”

Solo links worktrees and clones of a repository to its main project, so they share todos, scratchpads and prompt templates while their commands and agents run in the right checkout, and linked checkouts do not count towards the four free projects. Its documentation does not say it creates worktrees. Neither makes one for every agent by itself. Next Term shows a repository’s worktrees with the agents working in each, marks a tab whose agent works in another worktree than its window shows, and makes one when you choose Open in New Worktree… in the branch popup.

Does either one need an account or send data?

Section titled “Does either one need an account or send data?”

Solo Free needs no licence check. Pro checks your licence key with soloterm.com and then works offline for up to 14 days after each check. Solo sends anonymous usage events to Aptabase, may send error reports to Sentry, and checks for updates. Next Term has no account, no telemetry and no analytics. It checks GitHub once a day for its own updates (and for updates to skills you installed from GitHub) and fetches your projects’ git remotes, and each can be turned off; Security and privacy lists what leaves your Mac.

Is Solo open source?

Section titled “Is Solo open source?”

No. Solo’s terms forbid reverse engineering and redistribution, and its own comparison with cmux lists open source as something Solo does not have. Next Term is MIT-licensed.

Read more

Section titled “Read more”

Sources

Section titled “Sources”

Checked October 2026 against Solo’s own site and documentation, version 0.10.1. Products change quickly; if something here is out of date, please open an issue.

Next Term is free and open source under the MIT licence. Made by Mishuk Adhikari. This site uses no cookies, no trackers and no third-party requests.