Agent HUD vs Vibe Island
Both put your coding agents at the top of your Mac, with their status, requests and quotas in the notch. Vibe Island covers a long list of agents, jumps precisely into terminals and watches agents on remote servers. Agent HUD adds token and cost history, any screen edge, and iPhone and Apple Watch apps, where Agent HUD Remote lets you answer requests away from the Mac.
Updated 2026-10-30
What does Vibe Island do?
Vibe Island is a Mac app that lists 30 agents on its home page, among them Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and Kiro. In the notch you allow or deny a tool call, answer a question and review a plan with feedback. It jumps back to the session in more than 20 terminals, and in those its site names, such as iTerm2, Ghostty and Warp, to the exact split pane or tmux session.
On external displays and Macs without a notch it shows a compact floating bar at the top centre. It tracks quotas for Claude, Codex, Kimi, GLM and DeepSeek, and alerts you when the 5-hour and weekly limits reach a set level, run out or reset. SSH Remote watches agents that run on servers. Alerts reach the iPhone through the Bark app and Apple Watch through iOS mirroring; its docs say the action happens at the Mac. It describes itself as fully local, with no accounts.
What does Agent HUD do?
Agent HUD follows 18 agents, plus the GLM Coding Plan quota and approvals for the Qoder builds. Each display runs one of three modes: Notch, Simple or Dynamic, and Simple and Dynamic sit on any screen edge. On the HUD you approve, deny or always allow a request, answer a question and approve a plan. One click takes you back to the session's thread, tab or terminal pane.
It also counts tokens by agent, model, session, turn and call, with cache hits and cost estimates at list prices. Its iPhone and Apple Watch apps show quotas, token statistics and sessions on the same network without a subscription; Agent HUD Remote adds any network, conversations, decisions, notes from your wrist, alerts and Live Activities. Its built-in MCP server lets Claude Code and Codex message each other.
Side by side
| Need | Agent HUD | Vibe Island |
|---|---|---|
| Placement | Notch, Simple or Dynamic on each display. Simple and Dynamic sit on any screen edge. | The notch. A floating bar at the top centre on external displays and Macs without a notch. |
| Agents | 18, plus the GLM Coding Plan quota and Qoder approvals. Coverage differs by agent. | 30 listed on its home page. |
| Requests on the Mac | Approve, deny or always allow; answer questions; approve plans. A request left alone goes back to the agent after 10 minutes. | Allow or deny, answer questions, review plans with feedback. |
| Back to the session | One click to the thread, tab or terminal pane. | More than 20 terminals; in those its site names, such as iTerm2, Ghostty and Warp, the exact split pane or tmux session. |
| Quotas | Resets, burn rates and balances. The glow turns yellow at 70% used and red at 90%, with a warning before a quota runs out. | Claude, Codex, Kimi, GLM and DeepSeek, with alerts for the 5-hour and weekly limits. |
| Token history | Time, token kinds, agents, models, sessions, turns, calls, cache hits and cost estimates, kept for 30 days. | Its site and changelog describe quotas and balances, and no token history. |
| Agents on other machines | Reads the agents on the computer it runs on. iPhone and Apple Watch can follow several Macs. | SSH Remote watches agents on servers. |
| iPhone and Apple Watch | Apps for both. On the same network: quotas, statistics, sessions and widgets without a subscription. Agent HUD Remote: any network, conversations, decisions, wrist notes, alerts and Live Activities. | Alerts through Bark, mirrored to Apple Watch. Approving and answering happen at the Mac. |
| Systems | The release runs on macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs; the source builds for macOS 12 or later. Windows and Linux are in preview: unsigned packages for Windows 10 and 11 (x64) and x86_64 Linux, not yet tested on real machines. | Mac, built for Apple silicon. |
| How it is sold | Agent HUD Remote is an App Store subscription; nothing else needs one. Source on GitHub, Apache-2.0. | A one-time purchase for 1, 2 or 3 Macs, with a year of updates. No subscription. |
Which one fits?
Check your own agents first: each product supports each agent to a different degree. The supported agents table shows what Agent HUD reads for each one.
- Vibe Island fits if your agents are on its list and not on Agent HUD's, if you move between many terminal splits and tmux sessions, if your agents run on servers you reach over SSH, or if you prefer a one-time purchase.
- Agent HUD fits if you want the HUD on a screen edge, token and cost history down to turns and calls, decisions and replies on iPhone and Apple Watch with Agent HUD Remote, or agents that message each other.
Sources
Vibe Island's facts come from its own site, Codex page, iPhone notification docs and changelog, checked on 26 October 2026. This compares documented capabilities and is not a performance benchmark. A capability its pages do not describe is not counted as missing.
Vibe IslandVibe Island for CodexVibe Island iPhone notificationsVibe Island changelogAgent HUD source on GitHub
Questions
Can I answer an agent from my iPhone?
With Agent HUD Remote, yes: allow or deny a tool call, answer a question or approve a plan on iPhone or Apple Watch. Vibe Island's alerts reach the iPhone through Bark, and its docs say the action happens at the Mac.
Do I need a Mac with a notch?
Neither needs one. On a display without a notch, Agent HUD runs Dynamic by default, and Simple and Dynamic can sit on any edge. Vibe Island shows a floating bar at the top centre.