Conductor
Agent Orchestrator
A Mac app for orchestrating teams of coding agents. Create parallel Claude Code and Codex agents in isolated workspaces. See at a glance what they're working on, then review and merge.
What Is Conductor?
Conductor is a native macOS desktop application that manages teams of AI coding agents. It provides a visual dashboard, isolated git worktree workspaces, a built-in diff viewer, and a full lifecycle from issue to pull request.
The Core Idea
While tools like TSK and Container Use provide containerized isolation via CLI, Conductor takes a GUI-first approach. It's a polished Mac app that feels like a native IDE companion — you add your repo, spin up parallel agent workspaces, and manage everything through a visual interface. Each workspace gets its own git worktree, so agents never interfere with each other or your working directory.
Who Built It
Conductor is made by Melty Labs. The team built Conductor using Conductor itself — a strong signal of dogfooding. It has gained endorsements from engineers at Linear, Vercel, Notion, Stripe, Life360, Blacksmith, Reducto, and Tigris Data. Addy Osmani (Google Chrome team) lists it as part of his stack.
Supported Agents & Models
- Claude Code — primary agent, uses your existing Claude login
- OpenAI Codex — secondary agent
Model providers supported:
- Anthropic (default)
- OpenRouter
- AWS Bedrock
- Google Vertex
- Vercel AI
No separate billing for AI usage — Conductor uses your existing API key, Claude Pro, or Claude Max plan.
Gave this a try and holy shit. This is a new productivity unlock.
— @nexxel, Founding Engineer at SupermemoryArchitecture
Conductor combines a native Mac app with git worktrees to provide isolated, parallel workspaces managed through a visual interface.
How It Works (3 Steps)
Add Your Repo
Conductor clones it locally
Deploy Agents
Each gets an isolated worktree
Conduct
Monitor, review, merge
Installation & Setup
Download
Conductor is available as a free download for macOS from conductor.build. There is no CLI-only mode — it's a native Mac app.
Requirements
- macOS — the only supported platform
- Git — for worktree management
- Claude Code or Codex — with an existing subscription or API key
Project Configuration
Conductor uses a conductor.json file in your project root for automation scripts. This file is designed to be committed and shared with your team.
// conductor.json
{
"scripts": {
"setup": "cp $CONDUCTOR_ROOT_PATH/.env.local .env.local && pnpm install",
"run": "pnpm dev",
"archive": ""
}
}
The setup script runs when a new workspace is created, copying environment files and installing dependencies. $CONDUCTOR_ROOT_PATH points to your project root.
Migrating from Cursor
Conductor can import your existing Cursor configuration, including MCP servers and rules. The migration workflow makes it straightforward to try Conductor without losing your existing setup.
Key Features
Conductor's strength is its polished GUI and integrated lifecycle management. It turns agent orchestration from a terminal exercise into a visual workflow.
Visual Dashboard
Multi-panel interface showing all agent workspaces at a glance. See status, current activity, and what needs attention without switching terminals.
Parallel Workspaces
Each agent runs in its own git worktree. Create new workspaces with Cmd+N. Fully isolated branches that never interfere with each other.
Built-in Diff Viewer
Visual code diff tool integrated directly into the app. See what each agent changed, sync with GitHub, and review before merging.
Checkpoints
View turn-by-turn changes in a workspace and revert to any previous turn. Like undo history but at the agent-conversation level.
Scripts & Automation
Automate repeated actions with scripts defined in conductor.json. Slash commands for quick in-chat actions. Shareable with teammates.
Todos
Track what needs to be done before merging. Integrated checklist per workspace for managing pre-merge requirements.
MCP Support
Connect to external tools and data sources via the Model Context Protocol. Brings the same extensibility as standalone Claude Code.
Multi-Repo Support
Work across multiple repositories simultaneously. Each workspace can target a different repo or different branch of the same repo.
Local Execution
Everything runs on your Mac. No cloud dependency, no remote execution. Conductor clones your repo and works entirely locally.
The Conductor Development Lifecycle
From issue to pull request — Conductor provides an opinionated workflow for the full development cycle.
Issue
Start from a ticket
Workspace
Isolated environment
AI Edits
Agent builds the feature
Diff Review
Visual code review
Todos
Pre-merge checklist
PR
Ship it
Quickstart Frameworks
Conductor provides quickstart templates for common frameworks:
- Next.js + Vercel — with automated env file copying and pnpm setup
- Django — Python project scaffolding
- Rails — Ruby on Rails workspace setup
- Elixir + Phoenix — Elixir project support
Example Workflow
Add your repository
Open Conductor, add your repo. It clones locally and sets up the workspace engine.
Create parallel workspaces
Cmd+N to create a new workspace. Each gets an isolated git worktree. Name it after the feature or fix.
Assign tasks to agents
Each workspace runs its own Claude Code or Codex instance. Describe the task and let the agent work.
Monitor from the dashboard
The multi-panel view shows all workspaces. See which agents are active, which need attention, and what's completed.
Review with checkpoints
View turn-by-turn changes. If the agent went off track, revert to a checkpoint and redirect. Use the diff viewer for code review.
Merge and ship
Complete the todo checklist, review the final diff, merge the branch, and create a PR — all from within Conductor.
The future. The last time I felt this strongly about a developer tool was Vercel and Supabase.
— Zach Blume, StripeWhat People Are Saying
"Beautiful UI and handles all the git worktree stuff for you!"
"I feel like a true full stack engineer cross-platform."
"Now I can't imagine building without @conductor_build."
"Is Conductor the new Cursor?"
"Future of AI software-making."
"Conductor.build makes it really easy to handle 10 agents running at once."
Limitations & Considerations
macOS Only
No Linux, no Windows, no web version. If your team uses mixed platforms, only Mac users can use Conductor.
GUI-Only
No CLI mode for scripting or automation. Cannot be integrated into CI/CD pipelines or run headlessly on servers.
Closed Source
Unlike TSK and Container Use, Conductor is proprietary. You cannot inspect, modify, or self-host the source code.
No Container Isolation
Uses git worktrees for isolation, not containers. Agents share your host filesystem and can install packages, modify system state, etc.
Two Agent Types
Supports Claude Code and Codex. No support for Aider, Gemini CLI, or other coding agents (though this may expand).
Privacy Considerations
Uses PostHog for analytics. While privacy documentation exists, some teams may have concerns about telemetry in a developer tool.
How It Compares
Conductor occupies a unique spot as the only GUI-native orchestrator. Here's how it stacks up.
| Feature | Conductor | TSK | Container Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface | Native Mac app (GUI) | CLI + TUI | CLI |
| Isolation | Git worktrees | Docker containers | Dagger containers |
| Network control | None | Squid proxy ACLs | Container-level |
| Diff viewer | Built-in visual | Git diff | cu diff |
| Checkpoints | Turn-by-turn rollback | Git commits | Git commits |
| Task queue | Manual workspace creation | Server mode + queue | None |
| Task chaining | No | Yes (--parent) | No |
| Open source | No | Yes | Yes (Apache-2.0) |
| Platform | macOS only | Any (Rust + Docker) | Any (Go + Dagger) |
| Pricing | Free download | Free (open source) | Free (open source) |
| Model providers | 5 (Anthropic, OpenRouter, Bedrock, Vertex, Vercel) | Via agent's own config | Via agent's own config |
Links & Resources
Official
- Website — conductor.build (download)
- Documentation — docs.conductor.build
- Changelog — release notes
Community & Media
- Elie Steinbock Video — "How to 10x Your AI Coding with Parallel Agents"
- O'Reilly — "Conductors to Orchestrators: The Future of Agentic Coding"
- X: @conductor_build
- Reddit: r/conductorbuild
- Contact: humans@conductor.build
Notable Users
- Addy Osmani (Google Chrome) — lists Conductor in his AI coding stack
- Elie Steinbock (Inbox Zero) — featured in YouTube video review
- Engineers from Linear, Vercel, Notion, Stripe, Life360