{"slug": "tern", "name": "Tern", "category": "ai-coding", "category_name": "AI coding tools", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.987, "rising": 3.0, "first": "2026-10-14", "latest": "2026-10-30", "why": "It's hard to find a decent terminal on Windows (corporate device) but this is the best I've found so far.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It's hard to find a decent terminal on Windows (corporate device) but this is the best I've found so far.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "tern.sh", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://tern.sh", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Tern", "tern"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 804800672, "item_id": 50300042, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50300042", "by": "indemnity", "date": "2026-10-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "started using Tern", "excerpt": "In this vein I\u2019ve started using Tern (https://stencil.so/tern), but it\u2019s closed beta, from the creator of Oh My Pi. This space seems to be heating up, everyone wanting to build the single pane of glass for agentic work.", "context": "", "use_case": "Single pane for agentic work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr has released native app"}, {"id": 804556928, "item_id": 50284808, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50284808", "by": "scotth", "date": "2026-10-29", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Early days, but I'm finding it very nice to use.", "excerpt": "Worth it. Check out tern, if you get the chance. Made by the omp folk(s). Early days, but I'm finding it very nice to use.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini 4 Carbon"}, {"id": 801527841, "item_id": 50095490, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50095490", "by": "LaurensBER", "date": "2026-10-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's hard to find a decent terminal on Windows (corporate device) but this is the best I've found so far.", "excerpt": "Interesting and I'll definitely give this a try, the client/server and plugin system do look very powerful. However, I've been using OMP in combination with Tern (the terminal) lately and it's an incredibly smooth operation. It's hard to find a decent terminal on Windows (corporate device) but this is the best I've found so far.", "context": "Windows user on a corporate device", "use_case": "terminal on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenCode 2.0"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "LaurensBER", "context": "Windows user on a corporate device", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50095490", "date": "2026-10-14"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["single pane for agentic work", "terminal on windows"], "compared": [], "makers": [{"id": 786509088, "item_id": 49156818, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156818", "by": "trjordan", "date": "2026-08-03", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "we're building a version (https://tern.sh)", "excerpt": "I like the idea of devtools being open source. I also like them to work, and that's what I value more that philosophical purity. Take his side project, Meat. I've been chewing on this problem for a while. It's a real problem right now: it sucks to read all this LLM-generated code. It's worthwhile to have an LLM summarize it for you. The problem with that is this particular problem resists vibe coding. I've talked to ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Devtools must be open source"}, {"id": 782744352, "item_id": 48921522, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48921522", "by": "trjordan", "date": "2026-07-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Disclosure: we're working on this too.", "excerpt": "100% important. But what decisions do you care about seeing? The whole point of the agent is to make decisions for you. If you want to make every little detailed decision, just write the code. The whole art of this problem is figuring out which decisions matter to you, and how to surface them. (Disclosure: we're working on this too. https://tern.sh)", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Grepathy \u2013 Claude made a decision nobody approved"}, {"id": 777168352, "item_id": 48573022, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48573022", "by": "trjordan", "date": "2026-06-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "First product compares the code to the prompts and highlights places the agent made decisions you weren't involved in", "excerpt": "We're working on it, thought it's all early. I'd love feedback: https://tern.sh First product compares the code to the prompts and highlights places the agent made decisions you weren't involved in: https://tern.sh/docs/tours/", "context": "", "use_case": "Reviewing AI agent decisions", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI demands more engineering discipline. Not less"}, {"id": 733846192, "item_id": 45865387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45865387", "by": "trjordan", "date": "2025-11-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "and what we're baking into the product", "excerpt": "For sure. One of our first posts was called \"You Have To Decide\" -- https://tern.sh/blog/you-have-to-decide/ And my process now (and what we're baking into the product) is: - Make a prompt - Run it in a loop over N files. Full agentic toolkit, but don't be wasteful (no \"full typecheck, run the test suite\" on every file). - Have an agent check the output. Look for repeated exploration, look for failures. Those imply c", "context": "", "use_case": "Agentic code migrations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Toolkit to help you get started with Spec-Driven Development"}, {"id": 733841536, "item_id": 45865096, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45865096", "by": "trjordan", "date": "2025-11-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We're thinking a lot about this at https://tern.sh", "excerpt": "I don't think we ever get away from the code being the source of truth. There has to be one source of truth. If you want to go all in on specs, you must fully commit to allowing the AI to regenerate the codebase from scratch at any point. I'm an AI optimist, but this is a laughable stance with current tools. That said, the idea of operating on the codebase as a mutable, complex entity, at arms length, makes a TON of ", "context": "", "use_case": "agentic implementation from specs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Toolkit to help you get started with Spec-Driven Development"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45798473", "title": "Toolkit to help you get started with Spec-Driven Development", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50298436", "title": "Herdr has released native app", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50276792", "title": "Gemini 4 Carbon", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50094994", "title": "OpenCode 2.0", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156111", "title": "Devtools must be open source", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48920537", "title": "Show HN: Grepathy \u2013 Claude made a decision nobody approved", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 3}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 804800672, "item_id": 50300042, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50300042", "by": "indemnity", "date": "2026-10-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "started using Tern", "excerpt": "In this vein I\u2019ve started using Tern (https://stencil.so/tern), but it\u2019s closed beta, from the creator of Oh My Pi. This space seems to be heating up, everyone wanting to build the single pane of glass for agentic work.", "context": "", "use_case": "Single pane for agentic work", "switched_from": "", "story": "Herdr has released native app"}, {"id": 804556928, "item_id": 50284808, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50284808", "by": "scotth", "date": "2026-10-29", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Early days, but I'm finding it very nice to use.", "excerpt": "Worth it. Check out tern, if you get the chance. Made by the omp folk(s). Early days, but I'm finding it very nice to use.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini 4 Carbon"}, {"id": 801527841, "item_id": 50095490, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50095490", "by": "LaurensBER", "date": "2026-10-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's hard to find a decent terminal on Windows (corporate device) but this is the best I've found so far.", "excerpt": "Interesting and I'll definitely give this a try, the client/server and plugin system do look very powerful. However, I've been using OMP in combination with Tern (the terminal) lately and it's an incredibly smooth operation. It's hard to find a decent terminal on Windows (corporate device) but this is the best I've found so far.", "context": "Windows user on a corporate device", "use_case": "terminal on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenCode 2.0"}]}