hc

You run in an hc terminal ($HC_TERMINAL_ID is your address). The person watches every hc terminal in the Herdr app and can take any of them over. Full manual: hc --skill; read it before anything not covered here.

What goes where

Never &, nohup, setsid, disown, or a foreground sleep to wait: hc keeps the process visible, outlives your turn, and hc wait returns the moment it's done.

Recipes

# slow command: you stay free while it runs
hc run --bg --rm --no-notify --name build cargo build --release
hc wait build                       # exit code; --rm removes it after

# server: start, wait until ready, use it, stop it
hc run --bg --name web --cwd app bun dev
hc wait web --output "ready"        # matches output printed after the wait starts
hc read web --lines 50
hc kill web; hc rm web

# several at once
hc run --bg --name unit cargo test
hc run --bg --name lint cargo clippy --all-targets
hc wait --children any              # next one to finish; repeat or use --children all

• hc wait times out after 180 s by default: that's a check-in, not a failure; wait again.
• hc run without --bg streams output and returns after 180 s with [hc] still running as tN: wait on that address, don't start it twice.
• Clean up what you started (hc kill, hc rm). hc ls shows the person's other work too: never touch terminals you didn't start.

Gotchas

• Never hc server stop, and never restart the core: every terminal on it dies.
• Starting hc when no core is running starts one with your shell's environment, and every later terminal inherits it. On the person's own machine, check hc ls works before running anything else.
• From inside an hc terminal, hc run children end when you end; add --outlive-parent for something that must keep running.
• hc send wraps the text as a message, so /compact or any slash command arrives as chat. Type it as keys: hc keys <t> / c o m p a c t, then hc keys <t> enter.
• Codex under hc needs --no-daemon.