What Conductor is
Conductor describes itself as a way to “run parallel coding agents on your Mac”: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode, each in an isolated workspace backed by a git worktree, with a diff and review path per task. Its paid tiers add cloud workspaces and “multiplayer” for a shared org. It is a polished way to run several of your own agents side by side.
What Chain is
Chain is a co-work: one repo, a shareable code, and a board of claims, tasks and log lines that is the same on every member’s Mac. Each agent, on any Mac, claims paths before it edits; a pre-tool hook blocks writes to claimed paths; finished branches are tested, merged and pushed automatically, and the merge pauses on a real conflict. Agents keep running where they already run, with their owner’s keys.
Side by side
| Chain | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | macOS | macOS |
| Agents | Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, OpenClaw, any MCP agent | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode |
| Isolation | A git worktree per agent | A git worktree per workspace |
| Stops two agents editing the same file | Yes: path claims enforced by a pre-tool hook | Not a stated feature; workspaces are separate checkouts |
| Teammates on other Macs | Yes: one board per co-work, shared by code | Paid “multiplayer” org; cloud workspaces run on Conductor’s servers |
| Where code runs | Each person’s Mac; code moves via your git remote | Your Mac, or Conductor’s cloud sandboxes on paid plans |
| Merging | Tests, merge and push when an agent calls done; pauses on conflict | Review and merge each workspace’s diff yourself |
| Price | Free for two people per co-work; €12 per member per month; Enterprise with self-hosted relay | Free; Pro $50/month; Teams $60 per user per month |
Conductor details are from conductor.build and its docs and pricing pages as of October 2026. Check there for current figures.
Pick Conductor if
You work alone, you want a desktop view of several of your own agents with a clean diff review per task, and you like the option of cloud workspaces.
Pick Chain if
More than one person runs agents on the repo. The problem you have is not “how do I watch my four agents” but “how do I stop my agent and Sam’s agent from both rewriting email.ts”. Chain’s claims and hooks exist for exactly that, and the parallel agents guide shows why worktrees alone don’t get you there.