Shuriken vs Warp (2026)

We make Shuriken. We tried to be fair; corrections welcome at office@shuriken.sh.

Quick answer#

Warp is two things now: an open-source terminal that works well with Claude Code and other CLI agents, and "open infrastructure for cloud software factories", where teams run fleets of agents priced per run. Shuriken is a personal harness: your agents, on your machines, on your own accounts. Different jobs, and they work fine together.

At a glance#

Warp's column is from warp.dev, its pricing, its docs and its GitHub repository, read on 2026-10-22.

What Warp does well#

A very good terminal for agents. Run claude in Warp and Warp notices. It adds a rich input editor (so writing a long prompt isn't a fight with your shell), inline code review comments, and notifications for Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode. Its docs list 16 CLI agents it supports this way.

Remote Control for your CLI sessions. Warp can publish a running agent session so you can watch and steer it from another device. That's a real answer to "my agent is waiting for me and I'm not at my desk".

Infrastructure for teams. If your company wants agents to pick up tickets, run in the cloud and hand results back across the whole development cycle, Warp's factory model is built for that: a factory.yaml that ties repositories, credentials, work sources and cloud access together, runners, and usage-based billing per run. Enterprise can run agents on its own infrastructure.

Open source. Warp's client code is on GitHub. You can read it, build it and send patches.

Where Shuriken is different#

A different job#

Warp's newest work is aimed at teams turning agents into a pipeline. Shuriken is aimed at one person who wants their own agents to keep going: on the laptop, the desktop and the server under the desk, across every subscription they pay for. We call Shuriken a harness for a reason, and we explain the word in What is an agent harness?.

Your accounts, switched for you#

If you have two Claude accounts, or Claude and ChatGPT, Shuriken uses them all. When the account in use reaches your switch point (99% by default, adjustable from 50 to 100%) or hits a limit, your chats move to the one with the most room left, on every device at once. A Claude Code chat moves mid-task, on its next request, and leaves a "Switched to …" card so you know. Details on source switching. Only add accounts you own and are entitled to use.

Parallel chats with a branch each#

Every chat (except the one Main chat) gets its own branch in its own git worktree, so five agents can work on one repo without stepping on each other. Activity shows subagents, background commands and workflow phases live. Finish runs your checks and merges, or opens a pull request with auto-merge.

Built around your machines#

Agents, code and chat history stay on your computers and servers. Our cloud links devices and relays end-to-end encrypted messages; it runs no agents. If your laptop has to stay up, Cocaine mode keeps a Mac running with the lid closed.

Voice, a browser and a queue#

Three things we use every day that a terminal doesn't try to be:

• Voice. Your speech is turned into text on your own computer by NVIDIA Parakeet by default, or by a live provider on your own key. You see a live transcript while you talk, and text you paste mid-sentence lands where you were.
• A browser beside the chat. Your running app opens next to the agent. Turn on Design mode, click an element, write what to change, and the agent gets the element's details and a cropped screenshot.
• The queue. Type the next three things while the agent works on the first. Messages run in order; edit, reorder or remove them. Shuriken 5.1 added Steer, which sends one into the running turn.

Where Warp is ahead#

Warp's cloud runs agents when every machine you own is off; Shuriken can't. Warp has Remote Control and mobile steering for CLI sessions today; our native phone apps are planned for November 2026 (the web app works now). And Warp's terminal is open source, which matters if you want to read or change your tools.

Pricing#

Warp prices are in US dollars per month; Shuriken's are in euros, VAT included for EU consumers.

The difference is what you're paying for. Warp's paid plans include model usage. Shuriken's never do: Claude Code runs on your Claude plan, Codex on your ChatGPT plan. (Claude Code in Warp's terminal also uses your own Claude sign-in, since it's the same CLI.)

Using them together#

This is the easy part, because Shuriken already knows about Warp.

1. Run your agents in Shuriken, each chat on its own branch.
2. When you want to poke at a chat's work in a terminal, choose Open in › Warp. Shuriken opens that chat's worktree in Warp.
3. Run your tests, start claude there for a quick side question, or use Warp's own agent features on the same files.

Warp is one of 44 Open in targets, next to Terminal, iTerm, Ghostty, VS Code, Cursor, Zed and the JetBrains IDEs. We wrote up the whole list in Open anywhere: 44 targets.

If Warp is your terminal and you want a harness behind it, download Shuriken.