Best Conductor Alternatives (2026)

The best Conductor alternative for most Mac developers is Agentastic: it keeps Conductor's one-worktree-per-task model, runs any of 55 built-in agent definitions (or any terminal command) in native terminals, and adds container, SSH, and cloud isolation in a free app. On Windows or Linux, pick Orca or Emdash. For a scriptable, source-available workspace, pick Superset, and if you only ever use one provider, Claude Code Desktop or the Codex app may be all you need.

Conductor, built by Melty Labs, does its job well, and a later section covers when to keep it. We make Agentastic, so every claim here comes from the vendor's own docs, pricing page, or GitHub repository as of October 5, 2026, with sources at the bottom.

Conductor alternatives at a glance#

Tool	Best for	Platforms	Agents	Isolation	Price / license	Main tradeoff
Conductor (for reference)	Chatting with a few agents on a Mac	macOS (iOS app with Pro)	Four harnesses: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode	Worktree per workspace; hosted cloud on Pro	$0 local, $50/mo Pro; proprietary	Mac-only, short agent list
Agentastic	Mixing many agents in a native Mac app	macOS 14 or newer; iPhone beta	55 built-in agent definitions, custom commands too	Worktrees, Docker or Apple Container, SSH hosts, your own cloud	$0; proprietary	No Windows or Linux app
Superset	Scriptable, terminal-first workspace	macOS; experimental Linux build	22 built in plus any CLI agent	Worktrees; remote hosts through a relay	Free for one user, Pro $20/user/mo; ELv2	Remote access and automations need Pro
Orca	Open source on Mac, Windows, and Linux	All three desktop OSes; iOS and Android betas	~40 preset CLIs, any other CLI	Worktrees, SSH worktrees, orca serve	$0; MIT	Electron; experimental cloud
Emdash	Open-source ADE with SSH remotes	macOS, Windows, Linux	25+ agents	Worktrees, SSH, scripted environments	Free; Apache 2.0	Smaller community than Orca
Paseo	Steering agents from any device	macOS, Windows, Linux, web, iOS, Android	Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, OpenCode, 30+ more	Worktrees behind a daemon you host	Free; Apache 2.0	More moving parts
Nimbalyst	Visual planning around agent sessions	macOS, Windows, Linux; mobile	Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Copilot	Git worktrees	Free for individuals; MIT	More workspace than coding cockpit
Claude Code Desktop	Claude-only parallel sessions	macOS, Windows; Linux beta	Claude Code	Optional worktree per session; cloud, SSH	Paid Claude plan	Claude only
Codex app (ChatGPT desktop)	Codex-only parallel chats	macOS, Windows, Linux	Codex	Worktrees with Local handoff	Included in ChatGPT plans	Codex only
Claude Squad	Minimal terminal orchestration	Any terminal with tmux	Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Aider, custom	tmux session plus worktree	Free; AGPL-3.0	No GUI, browser, or editor

Why people look for a Conductor alternative#

Conductor does one loop well: describe a task, get an isolated workspace, chat with an agent, check the diff, open the pull request. People start shopping when they hit one of these limits:

• It's Mac-only. Conductor's install guide says Windows and Linux builds aren't available yet, so a team with mixed laptops can't standardize on it.
• It runs four agents. The harness list is Claude Code, Codex, Cursor (through Cursor's API, with an API key), and OpenCode. Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, Amp, Droid, or an in-house agent need another tool.
• Cloud is hosted and paid. Cloud workspaces come with Pro at $50 a month, run in Conductor-managed Vercel sandboxes, and keep chat messages on Conductor's servers. The same pricing FAQ says you can't run workspaces on your own machines yet.
• Local agents run unsandboxed. Conductor's FAQ says agents get your user account's permissions and suggests a separate machine or VM if you want more protection. There's no container mode.
• GitHub is assumed. Setup checks for a GitHub login, and repositories for cloud workspaces must come from GitHub.
• Every session is a chat. If you'd rather watch and type into the agent's own terminal interface, a terminal-first tool will feel more natural.

Is there Conductor for Windows or Linux?#

No. As of October 2026, Conductor ships only for macOS and offers a sign-up for Windows and Linux news. Its cloud workspaces do run on Linux, but they are sandboxes you drive from the Mac app or the iPhone app, not a Linux desktop client.

If your desktop isn't a Mac, these tools install natively:

Tool	Windows	Linux	Notes
Orca	Installer	AppImage, .deb, .rpm	MIT; broadest feature set
Emdash	Installer or portable	AppImage, .deb, .rpm (x64 and ARM64)	Apache 2.0
Paseo	x64 and ARM64	AppImage, .deb, .rpm	Also a web client and a headless server
Nimbalyst	Yes	Yes	MIT; visual editors around Claude Code and Codex
Claude Code Desktop	Yes, including ARM64 and WSL sessions	Beta	Claude only
Codex (ChatGPT desktop app)	Yes	Yes	Codex only
Superset	Planned, no date	Experimental AppImage	Its CLI runs on Linux
Agentastic	No	No	Drives agents on Linux machines over SSH

Claude Squad is a terminal program rather than a desktop app; it publishes macOS, Linux, and Windows builds, but needs tmux and the GitHub CLI wherever it runs. Agentastic's own coding agent, the agentastic CLI, also runs on Linux and WSL, but the Agentastic workspace itself is Mac-only.

1. Agentastic: best Conductor alternative for Mac power users#

Agentastic is a native Swift app for macOS that runs coding agents in parallel, one git worktree per task, the same model Conductor uses. The difference is range. It ships 55 built-in agent definitions, from Claude Code and Codex to Cursor, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, Amp, and Droid, and any other terminal command can be added as a custom agent. Agents run in GPU-accelerated Ghostty terminals, and 30 of the 55 can also run as a structured chat.

• Best for: developers on a Mac who switch between providers or need a stronger boundary than a worktree.
• Platforms: Macs running macOS 14 or newer, Intel or Apple Silicon. A companion iPhone app is in public TestFlight beta and needs iOS 18.
• Isolation: a worktree per task by default; Docker or Apple Container when you need a harder boundary; SSH machines; or cloud sandboxes that bill to a Modal, Fly.io, or Vercel account you control.
• Price and license: no charge, and not open source. Your costs are the agent subscriptions you already have, plus cloud compute if you use it.

Where it beats Conductor: agent choice; containers and SSH dev boxes; cloud runs without a paid tier; any git repository, not only GitHub; Linear and Sentry issues that start runs; an editor with LSP; a built-in browser that agents drive through the dev browser CLI; and code review by Claude, Codex, CodeRabbit, or Greptile.

Where Conductor beats it: managed cloud sandboxes with nothing to configure, live multiplayer sessions, and enterprise options such as SAML SSO, SCIM, and a SOC 2 Type II report. Agentastic's docs don't cover any of those. Conductor also gives each local workspace a block of ten ports through CONDUCTOR_PORT, and Agentastic has no documented equivalent.

2. Superset: closest terminal-first workspace#

Superset (superset.sh, unrelated to the Apache Superset BI tool) is a desktop app for running CLI agents in parallel worktrees. It's terminal-first where Conductor is chat-first, and it's built to be driven by other software: scripts can use its command-line tool or TypeScript SDK, and agents can control it through an MCP server.

• Best for: developers who want the agent workspace itself to be scriptable.
• Platforms: macOS on Apple Silicon or Intel. The install docs call the Linux AppImage experimental, and there's no Windows build.
• Agents: 22 built-in agents, including Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Copilot, Cursor Agent, Amp, and Droid, plus a chat panel and custom commands.
• Isolation: each workspace is a git worktree, and .superset/config.json holds the commands to run on creation, on deletion, and from the Run button. Remote hosts connect through Superset's relay.
• Price and license: the free tier is for a single user working locally. Remote hosts, scheduled automations, the Linear and Slack integrations, and the iPhone app are in Pro, at $20 a seat each month or $15 on annual billing. The code is public under the Elastic License 2.0.

Where it beats Agentastic: you can read its source, there's an experimental Linux build, it runs teardown scripts when a workspace is deleted (Agentastic doesn't run teardown scripts automatically), and its SDK targets CI and custom tooling.

Where Agentastic beats it: native Swift instead of Electron, container isolation, cloud agents on your own accounts, and remote machines, scheduled runs, Linear issues, and the iPhone beta in the free app rather than behind Pro. Superset's iPhone app needs both Pro and iOS 26.

Conductor vs Superset#

	Conductor	Superset
Interface	Chat-first	Terminal-first, with an optional chat panel
Agents	Four harnesses	22 built in, plus any CLI agent
Cloud and remote	Managed sandboxes on Pro ($50/mo)	Your own hosts through a relay on Pro ($20/user/mo)
Automation	Conductor API for cloud workspaces (beta, Pro)	CLI, SDK, and MCP server; scheduled automations on Pro
Mobile	iOS app on Pro	iPhone app on Pro, iOS 26+
License	Closed source	Source-available (ELv2)

3. Orca: best open-source, cross-platform alternative#

Orca is an MIT-licensed agent IDE from Stably AI that runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It covers most of Conductor's loop and adds more: a worktree per task, terminals, a Monaco editor, a Chromium browser with Design Mode, diff comments you send back to the agent, and an orca CLI. Its GitHub repository had about 85,800 stars on October 5, 2026.

• Best for: teams that aren't all on Macs, or that need an OSI-approved license.
• Platforms: macOS, Windows, and Linux (install guide), plus an iOS app on the App Store and an Android APK, both in beta.
• Agents: roughly 40 preconfigured CLIs on its supported-agents page; any other CLI runs in a terminal.
• Isolation: worktrees with orca.yaml setup scripts and .worktreeinclude copies, SSH worktrees, and a self-hosted Orca server. Per-workspace cloud VMs sit under Settings → Experimental and run on your own provider account.
• Price and license: free and open source; enterprise support by contact.

A detail Conductor users will like: Orca's setup scripts accept CONDUCTOR_ROOT_PATH as an alias, so an existing setup script may run unchanged.

Where it beats Agentastic: Windows, Linux, and Android support, an open-source license, and a large community.

Where Agentastic beats it: native Swift with Ghostty instead of Electron with xterm.js; containers and cloud agents that are finished features, not an experimental recipe; and runs that start from Sentry errors or get reviewed by CodeRabbit or Greptile, neither of which Orca's docs mention. Also worth knowing: new Orca launches skip each agent's permission prompts unless you change that in Settings → Agents.

4. Emdash: open-source ADE with remote machines#

Emdash is General Action's open-source (Apache 2.0) ADE, backed by Y Combinator, with builds for macOS, Windows, and Linux and a git worktree for each task. It pulls issues from Linear, Jira, GitHub, Notion, and Asana, previews apps in a built-in browser, schedules recurring agent runs, and connects to remote machines over SSH.

• Best for: cross-platform teams that want issue intake and SSH remotes in an open-source app.
• Platforms: macOS (including a Homebrew cask), Windows, and Linux on x64 and ARM64, per its README.
• Agents: 25+ coding agents, detected when installed.
• Isolation: worktrees, SSH hosts, and setup and teardown scripts that can provision local, remote, or cloud environments. Hosted Emdash Cloud is sales-led.
• Price and license: free; Apache 2.0, with about 5,900 GitHub stars.

Where it beats Agentastic: it runs on Windows and Linux, and the source is open.

Where Agentastic beats it: a native Swift app instead of an Electron one, built-in containers, cloud agents on Modal, Fly.io, or Vercel without writing provisioning scripts, and more agent definitions.

5. Paseo: best for steering agents from any device#

Paseo splits the product in two: a daemon that runs your agents, and clients that connect to it. The desktop app bundles a daemon; on a headless box you install the server through npm or Nix, and clients connect over an end-to-end encrypted relay or directly over your network.

• Best for: people who want to start and steer agents from a phone, a browser, or a second computer.
• Platforms: macOS 13+, Windows (x64 and ARM64), Linux, iOS, Android, and web (downloads).
• Agents: Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, OpenCode, and 30+ others.
• Isolation: git worktrees on whichever machine runs the daemon, including a Docker deployment.
• Price and license: free; the repository moved to the Apache 2.0 license in August 2026.

Where it beats Agentastic: reach. There are clients for Android, the web, Windows, and Linux, and the server runs wherever you put it.

Where Agentastic beats it: depth on the Mac, with Ghostty terminals, an LSP-backed editor, and container isolation in one native app.

6. Nimbalyst: best for visual planning around agents#

Nimbalyst is an MIT-licensed workspace that puts Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Copilot sessions next to visual editors for markdown, mockups, Excalidraw diagrams, data models, and spreadsheets, with a built-in task tracker and git worktrees.

• Best for: people whose work starts in specs, sketches, and diagrams.
• Platforms: desktop apps for all three major OSes, plus iOS and Android.
• Price and license: free for individuals; the Teams plan is $20 per user per month and free while in beta.

Where it beats Agentastic: cross-platform desktop apps and visual editors for planning artifacts.

Where Agentastic beats it: far more agents, terminal-first control, and container, SSH, and cloud modes that Nimbalyst's site doesn't describe. See Nimbalyst alternatives.

7. Claude Code Desktop: best if you only use Claude#

Anthropic's Claude Code Desktop runs several Claude sessions side by side. Choose the worktree option for a Git session and it gets its own checkout under .claude/worktrees/. Sessions can also run in Anthropic's cloud, over SSH, or in WSL on Windows, and the app includes a terminal, a file editor, diff review, and app previews.

• Best for: Claude-only workflows that want the vendor's own app.
• Platforms: macOS and Windows, with Linux in beta.
• Price: requires a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise).

Where it beats Agentastic: first-party support, cloud sessions that count against your Claude plan with no separate compute charge, and Windows and Linux apps.

Where Agentastic beats it: running Codex, Gemini, Cursor, and dozens of other agents next to Claude, and having one provider review another's work. See Agentastic vs Claude Code Desktop.

8. Codex app: best if you only use Codex#

OpenAI's Codex now lives in the ChatGPT desktop app, which runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Start a chat in a worktree, let it run in the background, and hand it off to your local checkout when you want to test it yourself. Local environments can run setup scripts, and the ChatGPT mobile app can steer chats on a connected computer.

• Best for: Codex-only workflows.
• Price: Codex is included in ChatGPT plans, from Free upward, and also works with an API key.

Where it beats Agentastic: first-party integration, plus Windows and Linux.

Where Agentastic beats it: running Codex beside other agents, containers, and cloud runs on your own accounts. See Agentastic vs the Codex app.

9. Claude Squad: best minimal terminal option#

Claude Squad is a Go TUI, installed as cs and licensed AGPL-3.0. Every task it starts gets its own tmux session and git worktree. Claude Code is the default program, and named profiles let you launch Codex, Gemini, Aider, or anything else instead. Compared with Conductor, it trades the GUI for a keyboard-driven TUI and accepts any CLI agent you give it.

• Best for: tmux users who don't want a desktop app.
• Requirements: tmux and the GitHub CLI; release builds for macOS and Linux.
• Price and license: free; AGPL-3.0, with about 8,600 stars.

Where it beats Agentastic: it's lightweight and lives entirely in a terminal, so you can run it on a Linux server you've SSHed into.

Where Agentastic beats it: everything around the terminal, including an editor, a browser, review agents, and one window that shows every agent at once. See Claude Squad alternatives.

What about Vibe Kanban and cmux?#

Vibe Kanban still shows up in these lists. Bloop, the company behind it, announced its shutdown in April 2026. The project continues as community-maintained open source, and its hosted features, such as shared issues and organizations, were retired as it moved to a fully local design. It still works, but weigh that status before you move a team onto it; our Vibe Kanban alternatives guide covers the options.

cmux is a native, GPL-licensed Mac terminal built for agents rather than a worktree manager, so it replaces Conductor only if you're happy to script worktrees yourself. See Conductor vs cmux.

When to stay with Conductor#

Stay if most of these are true:

• Your agents are Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or OpenCode, and you don't expect that to change.
• You prefer a chat transcript to a terminal.
• You want cloud sandboxes without setting up a Modal, Fly.io, or Vercel account, and $50 a month is fine.
• Your team wants live multiplayer sessions, shared organization workspaces, or SAML SSO and SCIM.
• Your repositories live on GitHub.

Conductor also ships quickly: its changelog added an iOS app on October 2, 2026, a few days after adding ChatGPT sign-in for Codex.

How to choose#

Work through these in order; the first one that rules tools out usually decides it.

1. Operating system. Windows or Linux rules out Conductor and Agentastic, and Superset for now. Choose Orca for the broadest feature set, Emdash for an Apache-licensed app with SSH remotes, or Paseo if you also want web and Android clients.
2. Which agents you run. One provider: start with Claude Code Desktop or the Codex app. Several providers on a Mac: Agentastic or Superset.
3. How much isolation you need. Worktrees are enough for most code changes. If agents install packages, run databases, or need network limits, use containers or remote machines. Agentastic ships both; Orca and Emdash reach remote hosts over SSH.
4. Where long runs should live. For managed cloud, use Conductor Pro or Claude Code Desktop's cloud sessions. For your own accounts or machines, use Agentastic, Orca, Emdash, or Paseo.
5. Your license requirements. For OSI open source, choose Orca, Emdash, Paseo, Nimbalyst, or Claude Squad. Superset's code is public under the Elastic License 2.0, which allows inspection and self-hosting under its terms but isn't OSI-approved.

How to switch from Conductor to Agentastic#

The worktree model is the same, so most of the move is about scripts and CLIs.

1. Install Agentastic. Grab the DMG from the download page, or install with Homebrew: brew install agentasticai/tap/dev. You'll need macOS 14 or newer.

2. Install your agent CLIs in your shell. Conductor bundles its own Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode. Agentastic launches the CLIs it finds in your shell environment, so install them and sign in once:

   bashCopy

   curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash # Claude Code npm install -g @openai/codex # Codex

   Cursor and OpenCode are built-in definitions too, and each agent's page lists its install command.

3. Push open Conductor work. Conductor workspaces are ordinary git worktrees, usually under ~/conductor/workspaces/<repo>/. Commit and push the branches you want to keep, and they're available in Agentastic like any other branch.

4. Open the repository. Press Cmd+O, or run open -a "Agentastic.dev" ~/src/my-app. The Quick Start tours the workspace.

5. Port the setup script. Move scripts.setup from .conductor/settings.toml (or conductor.json in older repositories) into .agentastic/setup.sh, rename the variables, and turn any files-to-copy entries into copy lines:

   bashCopy

   #!/bin/bash # .agentastic/setup.sh, ported from scripts.setup in .conductor/settings.toml set -euo pipefail # Former files-to-copy entries for f in .env .env.local; do if [ -f "$AGENTASTIC_MAIN_REPO_PATH/$f" ]; then cp "$AGENTASTIC_MAIN_REPO_PATH/$f" "$AGENTASTIC_WORKTREE_PATH/$f" fi done pnpm install

   Then run chmod +x .agentastic/setup.sh. The script runs whenever a worktree is created; if it fails, the worktree is still created and you can re-run setup from the Worktree Setup task. The setup scripts guide has more examples.

6. Recreate run scripts as tasks. Conductor's run scripts become repository shell tasks in .agentastic/settings.json or under Settings → Add Task. There's no CONDUCTOR_PORT, so set a PORT in each task's environment variables, as shown in the Tasks docs.

7. Handle the archive script yourself. Agentastic doesn't run teardown scripts automatically, so do that cleanup before you remove a worktree.

8. Launch the first task. In Agent Home, choose the repository and base branch, select an agent, leave isolation on Worktree, and send. Select several agents to run the same prompt in parallel.

9. Replace Conductor Cloud if you used it. Add a Modal, Fly.io, or Vercel Sandbox account under Settings → Cloud, or an SSH dev box with File → Add Remote. For scripted launches, install the dev CLI from Agentastic → Command Line Integration.

Conductor variable	Agentastic equivalent
CONDUCTOR_ROOT_PATH	AGENTASTIC_MAIN_REPO_PATH
CONDUCTOR_WORKSPACE_PATH	AGENTASTIC_WORKTREE_PATH
CONDUCTOR_DEFAULT_BRANCH	AGENTASTIC_BASE_BRANCH (closest match)
CONDUCTOR_PORT	None; set PORT per task

New worktrees land in a sibling <repo>-worktrees/ folder by default, or inside the repository or a global folder if you change it under Settings → Agents; see Git worktrees.

Sources#

First-party pages reviewed on October 5, 2026:

• Conductor: homepage, pricing, install, FAQ, harnesses, Cloud, environment variables, settings file, API, changelog
• Superset: homepage, pricing, docs FAQ, GitHub
• Orca: homepage, ways to run Orca, orca.yaml reference, GitHub
• Emdash: homepage, GitHub
• Paseo: downloads, docs, GitHub
• Nimbalyst: pricing, GitHub
• Claude Code Desktop: documentation
• Codex: ChatGPT desktop app, worktrees, pricing
• Claude Squad: GitHub
• Vibe Kanban: shutdown announcement

Continue the research:

• Agentastic vs Conductor, feature by feature
• Superset alternatives and Orca alternatives
• AI coding agent orchestration tools, the wider roundup