Best Paseo Alternatives (2026)

Which Paseo alternative is best comes down to which part of Paseo you can do without. Agentastic is the strongest pick for Mac developers who want a native IDE around their agents: a code editor, Ghostty terminals, container and cloud isolation, and code review in one app. Orca is the closest cross-platform replacement, with desktop apps for macOS, Windows, and Linux plus iOS and Android companions. Conductor is the simplest chat-first Mac app, and Happy is enough if all you want is to answer Claude Code or Codex from your phone.

Paseo is a capable open-source project, and for some setups it remains the better tool; we say which ones near the end. We build Agentastic, so weigh our verdicts with that in mind. Each claim links to the vendor's own documentation, pricing page, or repository, all checked on October 5, 2026.

Paseo alternatives at a glance#

Why people look for a Paseo alternative#

Paseo's design is deliberate: a daemon owns the agents, and every client, from desktop to phone, is a window onto it. That puts remote work at the center, and it explains why some people shop around:

• You want an IDE. Paseo's own Why Paseo page says it is "not an IDE". You get agent tabs, terminals, a browser, and diffs, but you will keep a separate editor open for real code navigation.
• You only work on one Mac. The desktop app hides the daemon well, but the relay, pairing, and daemon settings only earn their keep when agents run elsewhere.
• You prefer a native app. Paseo's desktop client uses Electron and its phone app React Native, a sensible cross-platform choice that not every Mac user wants.
• You want more isolation than a worktree. A Paseo workspace is either a local directory or a git worktree. You can run the whole daemon in Docker, but there is no per-task container mode.
• You want a vendor behind the tool. One developer builds Paseo, funded by sponsors and Paseo Hub. Many users see that independence as the point; teams that need a support contract look at commercial products.

1. Agentastic: best native Mac IDE for mixed agents#

Agentastic wraps the official agent CLIs in a full development environment written in Swift for macOS. Unless you pick another mode, every task starts in a fresh git worktree, and the agent's own interface runs in a Ghostty terminal drawn on the GPU. For 30 of the agents, you can flip that terminal into a structured chat view.

• Best for: Mac developers who mix Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Cursor, and other CLIs and want editing, browser testing, and review in one window.
• Platforms: macOS 14 and up on both Mac architectures; the iPhone app, for iOS 18 or later, is a public TestFlight beta.
• Agents: 55 definitions out of the box; register any other terminal command yourself.
• Isolation: a worktree by default, or a Docker or Apple container, a dev box reached over SSH, or a cloud sandbox billed to your own Modal, Fly.io, or Vercel account.
• Price and license: a free download with closed source; your agent and cloud providers bill you directly.

Where it beats Paseo: you can read and change code next to the agents in an editor with language servers; agents can operate the in-app browser through dev browser commands; risky tasks can run in their own container; Claude, Codex, CodeRabbit, or Greptile can review the diff before merge; a Linear or Sentry issue can launch a run; and a Kanban board tracks every worktree.

Where Paseo beats it: Paseo runs on Windows and Linux, has Android and web clients, works headless on a server with no GUI at all, is open source, and takes voice input on-device. It also runs a teardown step when you archive a workspace, a cleanup Agentastic leaves to you.

2. Conductor: best chat-first Mac app#

Conductor, from Melty Labs, is a Mac app for running several agents at once through a chat interface. It supports four of them: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and OpenCode. A task lives in its own workspace, meaning its own branch, files, terminal, and diff, and the app walks it from review to pull request, merge, and archive. Workspaces can also be created from a GitHub or Linear issue.

• Best for: Mac users who want a narrow, chat-first loop for the four agents it supports.
• Platforms: macOS only for now; the install page offers a sign-up for Windows and Linux news. An iOS app ships with Pro.
• Agents: the four named above.
• Isolation: a git worktree per workspace; cloud workspaces run in Vercel sandboxes on paid plans.
• Price and license: local workspaces cost nothing. At $50 a month, Pro unlocks cloud workspaces, multiplayer, the beta API, and the phone app; Teams runs $60 per user per month. No source code is published.

Where it beats Agentastic: Conductor hosts the cloud sandboxes for you, teammates can prompt the same workspace live, and the company holds a SOC 2 Type II attestation.

Where Agentastic beats it: you watch each agent's own CLI rather than a transcript, choose from 55 agent definitions, and can put a task in a container, while Conductor's FAQ says its local agents run unsandboxed with your permissions. Cloud runs and the iPhone app need no subscription, and an Agentastic session on an SSH host outlives a closed laptop; local Conductor sessions end when the app quits.

Paseo vs Conductor#

They solve the same problem from opposite ends: Paseo optimizes for reach and openness, Conductor for a focused Mac workflow with hosted cloud and team features for sale.

Pick Paseo if your agents live on a Linux box or you want Android. Pick Conductor if you are on a Mac, its four agents cover you, and you would rather pay for managed sandboxes than run your own machines.

3. Orca: closest cross-platform match#

Stably AI's Orca comes closest to Paseo's reach among open-source tools: the desktop app installs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, the phone companion is on the iOS App Store with an Android APK alongside, and orca serve runs headless on a Linux server. Inside the app, every agent works in its own worktree with split terminals, a Monaco-based editor, a Chromium browser that has a design mode, and diffs you can annotate for the agent.

• Best for: teams split across operating systems that want Paseo's reach in a more IDE-shaped app.
• Platforms: all three desktop systems, with phone apps for iPhone and Android.
• Agents: about 40 ship with presets; anything else that runs in a terminal also works.
• Isolation: a git worktree per agent, plus SSH worktrees on remote machines.
• Price and license: free; MIT.

Where it beats Agentastic: it isn't limited to the Mac and the iPhone, and its MIT license lets you fork it.

Where Agentastic beats it: Agentastic is built in Swift rather than Electron, and its containers and cloud sandboxes are regular features, while Orca keeps per-workspace cloud VMs under Settings → Experimental. Agentastic can also start a run from a Sentry issue and hand the diff to CodeRabbit or Greptile. Before switching, note one default: Orca starts agents with their permission-bypass flags, which Settings → Agents can turn off.

4. Superset: best for driving the workspace from scripts#

Superset, the agent workspace at superset.sh rather than the Apache data tool, gives each task a git worktree and runs Claude Code, Codex, or any other CLI agent inside it. Around the terminals you get a file editor, a diff viewer, a browser with DevTools and a design mode that agents can also drive, pull-request review that forwards selected lines to an agent, and a CLI, SDK, and MCP server.

• Best for: Mac developers who want to automate the orchestration layer itself.
• Platforms: built for macOS; its README labels the Linux AppImage experimental and offers no Windows download.
• Agents: 22 presets, plus custom commands for any other CLI.
• Isolation: a git worktree per task.
• Price and license: a single user gets local workspaces, the app, and the CLI for free. Pro adds remote access, automations, Linear and Slack hooks, and the phone app for $20 per seat a month, or $15 if billed annually. The repository is public, but under the Elastic License 2.0, which restricts offering the software as a hosted service.

Where it beats Agentastic: you can audit its source, try it on Linux, and build your own tooling on its SDK.

Where Agentastic beats it: a Swift app instead of Electron, 55 agent presets to Superset's 22, per-task containers, and SSH machines, cloud agents, Linear issues, and the iPhone app without a paid seat.

5. Emdash: open-source desktop app with issue intake#

Emdash is General Action's Apache-licensed desktop app, backed by Y Combinator, for running agents side by side in separate worktrees on macOS, Windows, or Linux. According to its docs, it detects 34 CLI agents, pulls tickets from trackers such as Jira, Linear, and GitHub, previews apps in a built-in browser, schedules recurring runs, and keeps remote sessions alive over SSH with tmux.

• Best for: Windows and Linux users who want a desktop app rather than a daemon, with tickets flowing straight to agents.
• Platforms: macOS, Windows, and Linux, with ARM64 packages for Linux.
• Agents: 34 CLI agents, picked up automatically once installed.
• Isolation: a git worktree per task; remote projects over SSH.
• Price and license: free under Apache 2.0; Emdash Cloud is sold through its sales team.

Where it beats Agentastic: Windows and Linux users can install it, and anyone can read or fork the code.

Where Agentastic beats it: there's an iPhone app (Emdash documents no mobile client), container isolation, cloud sandboxes on accounts you already have with Modal, Fly.io, or Vercel, and a native Swift interface where Emdash uses Electron.

6. Nimbalyst: best for visual planning#

Nimbalyst, formerly Crystal, pairs agent sessions with WYSIWYG editors for markdown, mockups, Mermaid and Excalidraw diagrams, data models, and CSV files. A session kanban board and a task tracker that agents read and update sit in the same workspace.

• Best for: people who sketch the plan before they prompt.
• Platforms: desktop builds for macOS, Windows, and Linux; the phone app is iOS-only.
• Agents: Claude Code and Codex, with OpenCode and Copilot in alpha.
• Isolation: an optional git worktree per session.
• Price and license: the individual tier is free and MIT-licensed; Teams is priced at $20 per user per month, though its beta is free.

Where it beats Agentastic: visual editors well beyond markdown, Windows and Linux apps, and real-time collaboration on shared documents.

Where Agentastic beats it: much broader agent coverage, isolation you don't have to switch on per session, and containers, SSH hosts, and cloud sandboxes when a worktree isn't enough. Our Nimbalyst alternatives guide goes deeper.

7. Happy: best if you only need your phone#

Happy is an open-source remote for Claude Code and Codex. You start happy claude or happy codex instead of the bare CLI, and the same session becomes reachable from iOS, Android, or the web, with end-to-end encryption and push notifications when the agent needs you.

• Best for: one or two long-running sessions you want to answer from your phone.
• Platforms: iOS, Android, and web clients, a CLI on your computer, and an optional macOS app.
• Agents: Claude Code and Codex.
• Isolation: none of its own; the session runs wherever you started it.
• Price and license: the apps are free, and the code is MIT-licensed.

Where it beats Agentastic: it reaches Android phones and the browser, and it wraps the terminal you already use instead of replacing it.

Where Agentastic beats it: Happy is a remote, not an orchestrator. Agentastic adds worktrees, dozens of agents, and review, and its iPhone app covers the phone part for Mac users. More options are in Claude Code on your iPhone.

8. Claude Code Desktop and the Codex app: best single-provider path#

Claude Code Desktop is the Code tab of Anthropic's Claude app. Sessions run side by side, each can get its own git worktree, and the tab adds a terminal, file editor, diff review, app preview, and cloud runs. With Remote Control, the Claude app on iOS or Android, or claude.ai/code in a browser, steers a session that stays on your computer. OpenAI folded the Codex app into the ChatGPT desktop app in July 2026, and its worktree chats can be directed from the ChatGPT phone app too.

• Best for: anyone whose work fits inside one provider.
• Platforms: Claude's app for Mac and Windows, plus a Linux beta; ChatGPT's desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
• Price: a Claude Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plan unlocks Claude Code; Codex comes with every ChatGPT plan, the free one included.

Where they beat Agentastic: no third-party app, new provider features first, phone access on both iOS and Android, and Windows and Linux support.

Where Agentastic beats them: one window for Claude, Codex, and dozens of other agents, cross-vendor review such as Codex checking Claude's diff, and container isolation.

When to stay with Paseo#

Paseo is the better tool if any of these describe you:

• Your agents run on a Linux server, a Windows workstation, or a homelab box.
• You or your teammates use Android phones, or you want a browser client.
• You need Apache-licensed source you can audit, fork, and self-host, with no telemetry.
• You use voice: Paseo's dictation and voice mode run locally by default.
• You want GitHub, Slack, or Discord mentions to start agents through Paseo Hub.
• You want teardown scripts and per-worktree service ports handled for you through paseo.json.

How to choose#

Start from the constraint you can't change:

1. Your desktop OS. Windows and Linux narrow the field to Orca for the fullest IDE, Emdash for an Apache-licensed desktop app, or Paseo itself. Mac users can pick anything here.
2. Where agents run. If they live on a server you reach from several devices, Paseo's daemon model is hard to beat. If they live on your Mac, with the occasional SSH box or cloud sandbox, a local app like Agentastic is simpler.
3. How you want to watch them. To see each agent's own terminal, look at Agentastic, Superset, or Orca. For a transcript, Conductor or a first-party app. If the plan matters more than the terminal, Nimbalyst.
4. Which phone you carry. Android rules out Agentastic's phone app; Orca, Happy, Paseo, and Anthropic's Remote Control cover it.
5. How many providers you use. If it's one vendor, try that vendor's own app before anything else. If it's several, Agentastic, Orca, and Superset all mix them.

How to switch from Paseo to Agentastic#

Your code and agent logins stay as they are: both apps drive the same provider CLIs inside ordinary git repositories. Most of the work is moving setup scripts and replacing remote access.

1. Get the app. On a Mac with macOS 14 or later, download Agentastic from the download page or let Homebrew fetch it with brew install agentasticai/tap/dev.

2. Check your agent CLIs. Agentastic looks for known agents in your shell environment, and each one it finds appears in the Agent Home picker. For any that don't, launch the CLI once in a terminal, finish its login, and reopen Agentastic.

3. Port the setup command. Paseo reads worktree.setup from paseo.json. Agentastic runs .agentastic/setup.sh in every new worktree, and PASEO_SOURCE_CHECKOUT_PATH becomes AGENTASTIC_MAIN_REPO_PATH:

   bashCopy

   #!/bin/bash # .agentastic/setup.sh, ported from worktree.setup in paseo.json set -euo pipefail npm ci cp "$AGENTASTIC_MAIN_REPO_PATH/.env" "$AGENTASTIC_WORKTREE_PATH/.env"

   Make it executable with chmod +x. A failing script doesn't block the worktree; rerun it later from the Worktree Setup task. More examples are in setup and teardown scripts.

4. Recreate scripts as tasks. Entries under scripts in paseo.json, such as a test command or a dev server, become repository shell tasks, as described in Tasks. Run any teardown command yourself before you remove a worktree.

5. Finish in-flight work. Paseo keeps worktrees under ~/.paseo/worktrees/. Commit and push the branches you want, then archive those workspaces in Paseo. In Agentastic, the base-branch picker lists open pull requests, so you can check out a pull request's branch directly in a new worktree.

6. Replace remote daemons. Add a dev box with File → Add Remote (Cmd+Shift+E); hosts from ~/.ssh/config appear automatically, and agents keep running there after you disconnect. If you'd rather rent compute per task, Settings → Cloud accepts Modal, Fly.io, and Vercel Sandbox credentials.

7. Pair your iPhone. Install the iPhone app from TestFlight, turn on Settings → Mobile App on the Mac, and scan the pairing code from the app's Settings tab. Android phones have no Agentastic client.

8. Port your scripts. The menu item Agentastic → Command Line Integration puts the system-wide dev command on your PATH, and its reference lists every verb:

   bashCopy

   # was: paseo run --provider codex/<model> --worktree feature-x "implement feature X" dev agent create --repo ~/src/app --agent codex --name feature-x \ --prompt "Implement feature X and add focused tests." dev agents # was: paseo ls dev tail <terminal_id> 80 # closest to: paseo attach dev send <terminal_id> "Also update the docs." # was: paseo send

Paseo schedules map to scheduled agents: compose the run in Agent Home and choose Schedule This Task.

Sources#

Every product claim above was checked against these first-party pages and repositories on October 5, 2026:

• Paseo: homepage, downloads, Why Paseo, workspaces, git worktrees, supported providers, browser automation, voice, Paseo Hub, GitHub, license
• Conductor: pricing, install, FAQ, issue to PR guide
• Orca: homepage, supported agents, GitHub
• Superset: pricing, agents, GitHub
• Emdash: docs, GitHub
• Nimbalyst: pricing, GitHub
• Happy: homepage, GitHub
• Anthropic: Claude Code Desktop, Remote Control
• OpenAI: ChatGPT desktop app docs, worktree chats, plans and pricing, July 2026 release notes

Continue the research:

• Agentastic vs Paseo: the two products side by side, row by row
• Agentastic vs Conductor and Agentastic vs Orca
• AI coding agent orchestration tools: every control plane in this category, ranked

Frequently asked questions#

What is Paseo AI?#

Paseo is an open-source control plane for coding agents. A daemon on your laptop or server runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi, and other provider CLIs, and you connect to it from the desktop app, a web app, the iOS and Android apps, or the paseo CLI.

Is Paseo free?#

Yes. The desktop app, daemon, mobile apps, and CLI are free and licensed under Apache 2.0, and you bring your own agent subscriptions or API keys. The optional hosted Paseo Hub, which starts agents from GitHub, Slack, and Discord, has a free tier and a Pro plan at $15 per seat per month.

Paseo vs Conductor: which should I use?#

Choose Paseo if you need Windows or Linux, an Android or web client, or a daemon on a remote server. Choose Conductor if you only work on a Mac, run Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or OpenCode, and want a chat-first app. Conductor's cloud workspaces and mobile app need its $50-a-month Pro plan.

What is the best Paseo alternative for Mac?#

Agentastic, if you want a native Swift IDE around your agents, with a code editor, GPU-accelerated Ghostty terminals, container isolation, and code review from several providers. Conductor is the lighter chat-first option. Neither runs on Windows or Linux.

Is there a Paseo alternative with an Android app?#

Yes. Orca publishes an Android APK next to its iOS app, Happy is on Google Play, and Anthropic's Claude app for Android can drive a local Claude Code session through Remote Control. Agentastic's phone app is iPhone-only.

Can I switch from Paseo without changing my agents?#

Yes. Paseo and Agentastic both run the official provider CLIs against ordinary git repositories, so your logins, branches, and agent configuration carry over. Move the setup command from paseo.json into .agentastic/setup.sh and open the repository in Agentastic.