Windows

Install

In PowerShell, on x86_64 or ARM64:

irm https://sheprd.org/install.ps1 | iex

The script downloads the zip for your architecture, checks its published SHA-256, installs sheprd.exe and sheprd-launcher.exe under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Herdr UI, adds that directory to your user PATH, and creates a Sheprd Start menu shortcut. It never starts or stops terminal daemons. The folder keeps its old name so existing installs keep working.

Prefer a regular installer? Each release has Sheprd-VERSION-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc-setup.exe and Sheprd-VERSION-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc-setup.exe. They install the same files to the same place for the current user, without administrator rights, and add an uninstaller under Settings > Apps.

Both add Open in Sheprd to folders in File Explorer. On Windows 11 it is under Show more options. To remove everything the script added (settings and daemon sessions are kept):

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://sheprd.org/install.ps1))) -Uninstall

Updates

A signed copy updates itself from Check for Updates: it downloads the new installer, checks it against the release's signed manifest and its Authenticode publisher, runs it silently, and reopens. Only the copy in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Herdr UI updates itself. See Updates.

The launcher and the command line

sheprd.exe is a console program, because it is also the command line agents and scripts run. Open the app with sheprd-launcher.exe, the Start menu shortcut's target, which starts it without a console window. Pinning a running window to the taskbar pins the launcher as Sheprd.

The app runs once per user: a second plain launch brings the running window forward. Settings > General > Launch at login, off by default, opens it when you sign in. Task Manager's Startup apps can switch that off too, and the setting then says where to turn it back on.

Local Herdr

Sheprd connects to the Herdr daemon on this machine through the named pipe the Windows daemon binds. When it starts a local herdr server, it looks for herdr.exe; the daemon survives the app, and no console window appears. Configuration and state live in %APPDATA%\herdr and %LOCALAPPDATA%\herdr.

sheprd COMMAND reaches the running app over a named pipe that only your Windows user can open and that rejects remote clients. See the command line.

If the app reports an access error connecting to the local daemon or locking its config, open the log (sheprd logs) and include the nearby operation, kind, and raw_os_error fields in an issue. This is a known, still unresolved report (issue #357).

WSL distributions

A Herdr daemon inside a WSL distribution is reachable as a device. Choose Add Device… in the device picker: it lists the installed distributions (Docker Desktop's own excluded) and, for the one you pick, checks Herdr inside it and saves it once a compatible copy answers. Install Herdr inside the distribution first; Sheprd never installs or upgrades it there. A stopped server is started on the first connection.

Terminals, the sidebar, and the session list then work as they do for an SSH host. A distribution also gets:

• CPU and memory in the status bar and on its sidebar row. Its CPU figure is what its processes use, and its memory is what WSL has given it.
• Plan usage, read from the distribution's own agent sign-ins, which never leave it.
• Listening ports, opened at http://localhost:<port> with no tunnel, since WSL forwards them to Windows. The device menu offers no port forwarding.
• Agent checkpoints, run with Git inside the distribution.
• File drops pasted as the distribution's own paths: C:\Users\me\a.txt becomes /mnt/c/Users/me/a.txt. Nothing is copied, so a file of any size is ready at once.

Right-click a distribution's sidebar header to remove it, which only forgets it here. Teleport is not offered for distributions. Worktree scripts do not run on WSL.

SSH hosts

Saved SSH hosts work through OpenSSH for Windows: the optional-feature copy at %SystemRoot%\System32\OpenSSH\ssh.exe first, otherwise the first ssh.exe on your PATH. Add Device lists SSH host first, then WSL. It asks before trusting an unknown host key and saves a host that already runs a compatible Herdr. Sessions on the host can be listed, created, and deleted. CPU and memory, plan usage, and listening ports work as on macOS and Linux.

Where Windows differs:

• No terminal setup. A host that needs a password prompt, your key installed, or Herdr installed, updated, or restarted cannot be set up from the dialog. It says what is needed and asks you to run herdr machine add TARGET in a terminal, then add the device again.
• No connection sharing. Windows OpenSSH has no ControlMaster, so each connection authenticates on its own. Keep a key in the OpenSSH Authentication Agent service (ssh-agent).
• ProxyJump and ProxyCommand come from your SSH config and run as Windows OpenSSH runs them.
• No Forward port… in a device's menu. A listening port found on the host still opens.
• No uploads. Files and images dropped or pasted on an SSH pane are not copied yet.

The window and taskbar

Every window keeps the title bar Windows draws, so its buttons, Snap Layouts, drag-to-snap, and the window menu are the system's own. The title bar follows the app's light or dark theme. On Windows 11 a translucent window blurs with acrylic or Mica (Settings > Theme > Window), and accent = "system" takes the accent from Windows. See Appearance.

Shortcuts use Ctrl, not the Win key, with the Linux defaults (Ctrl+Shift+T, Ctrl+Shift+P, Ctrl+Shift+Q). See Keyboard.

• Taskbar badge. While agents are done or blocked, the taskbar button shows their number, 9+ past nine.
• Taskbar progress. The button fills while a window copies files to an SSH host, teleports a worktree, moves a pane, or installs an update.
• Jump list. Right-click the taskbar button or Start menu entry for Recent workspaces and a Show DEVICE task per device. Recent workspaces appear only while Windows' Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer setting is on.
• Links. The installers register sheprd:// links for your user, and the older herdr-gpui:// ones keep working. sheprd://open?path=C:\src\repo shows a local checkout, and sheprd://device?id=ID switches to a device. A link never runs a command, and network paths are refused.

Screen readers

Narrator and NVDA can read the main window. They get:

• the terminal as a document named Terminal, with the rows on screen and the selection;
• the menu bar and its menus, with each item's name, shortcut, and state;
• the title bar buttons, the tab strip as a tab list named Tabs, and the activity bar;
• the sidebar's search field, Workspaces and Agents lists, and buttons;
• the status bar's readings and buttons;
• context menus and dialogs by their titles.

Settings, Logs, and the Orchestrator name their controls too. With a Windows contrast theme on, the app's own marks and labels use its High contrast level; terminal colors are unchanged.

Tab belongs to the terminal, so the rest of the window is reached a region at a time. F6 moves from the terminal to the title bar, the sidebar, and the status bar, then back; Shift+F6 goes the other way. Inside a region, Tab and Shift+Tab move between controls, Enter or Space uses one, and Escape returns to the terminal. F10 opens the menu bar.

Still missing: most rows and buttons inside the larger dialogs and pickers (Add Device, the command palette's results, themes, checkpoints, fan-out, Teleport, pull requests), the Orchestrator's detail pane and dispatch dialogs, and the font and color pickers in Settings have no screen reader roles yet.

Saved sign-ins

GitHub sign-ins are kept in Windows Credential Manager, listed under Windows Credentials in Control Panel. They stay on this computer for your Windows account only and never roam to other computers in a domain. Signing out in the app removes them. There is no private-file store on Windows, so allow_plaintext_credentials changes nothing, and GH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN still take precedence for the main account.

A crash leaves a minidump and a text report beside the log. Nothing is uploaded.

Not available on Windows yet

• Cloud machines, from every provider, containers included.
• Teleport, Smart Dispatch, fan-out, and pane moves to other devices (Work across machines).
• From SSH hosts: terminal setup, connection sharing, port forwarding from the menu, file and image uploads, agent checkpoints, and process lists.
• Choosing an agent in the New worktree dialog's Opens in row.
• Scanning this machine's own listening ports.