Omniscio

OmniscioCompareBaton alternative

Baton alternatives for Mac, Windows and Linux

Baton is free, needs no account, and runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, so price and platform are rarely why someone looks for an alternative. Its own pricing page gives the real reason away: everything is free, and the only difference a license makes is that free runs unlimited agents in four workspaces at once. Past four at the same time, you either pay $19 a month or you look elsewhere. There are three other reasons people look, and they are narrow but real: Remote Control for a phone or tablet is listed as coming soon rather than shipped, its site names no open-source licence, and it is a desktop app whose site lists no web client. This page covers what Baton does today, who looks past it, and six alternatives with the trade-offs of each, ours included.

  • Claude CodeNeeds You
  • CodexRunning
  • Gemini CLIRunning
  • CursorError

Last checked October 2026. By the Omniscio team. Updated .

What does Baton do today?

Baton's headline is "Run coding agents in parallel — and stay in control", and the shape it sells is a workspace per piece of work. Describe a task, and Baton starts an agent on it in a git worktree of its own, so nothing lands in your working copy while you are somewhere else. Deleting a workspace removes its worktree and its branch from disk, and Baton's own FAQ notes that these are standard git worktrees you can also manage with git.

It runs the agent command lines you already have rather than asking for keys. Its site says Baton runs each agent's own command line, so it uses the login and settings that command line already holds, and that no API keys are needed. Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenCode and Antigravity CLI arrive with notifications and one-click MCP setup; the site lists presets for Gemini CLI, Cursor CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Amp, Qwen Code, Mistral and Goose among more than a dozen built in; and its FAQ says any agent that runs in a terminal will work.

The rest of the product is unusually broad for a free app. There is a diff view you can edit in place and roll back a change in one click, a file editor, commit history, git blame and file history, a toolbar that fetches, pulls, rebases and pushes, terminal tabs and split panes, a browser preview that reloads when files change, file and content search, custom themes, and offline voice dictation in 25 languages. Its site lists 21 features in all.

Two things about its shape matter more than the feature list. Baton's site lists Remote SSH workspaces, so agents can run on a machine you reach over SSH and keep going when your laptop is closed, with Linux or macOS as the host. And it offers network sandboxing that runs agents inside a Lima virtual machine with a domain allowlist, which is how it lets an agent work without permission prompts. Its own FAQ answers where your code goes plainly: it stays on your computer unless you use one of two optional helpers, which send text through OpenRouter to Google, OpenAI or Mistral without training on it, paid for by Baton and not stored. You can use your own key or switch the helpers off.

Everything here about Baton comes from its own site and its public pages, read on October 27, 2026. Products change, and the vendor's own documentation is always the better source.

Who looks for a Baton alternative, and why?

Four reasons come up, and the first one accounts for most of them.

  • Four workspaces at once is the ceiling. Baton's own pricing page says every feature is free and that free runs unlimited agents in four workspaces at once. Creating workspaces is unlimited; running a fifth at the same time is what the license buys. If you routinely keep more than four pieces of work open, you are either buying the license or leaving, and the page is honest that buying it is the cheaper answer for most people.
  • Its site names no open-source licence. Baton's site names no licence, links no repository and lists no source anywhere we looked. That is a perfectly normal way to ship software and a real blocker for people whose policy is to read the code, or to fork it if the maker stops.
  • The phone app is not shipped yet. Baton lists Remote Control as coming soon, described as checking on agents and answering them from a phone or tablet, end-to-end encrypted. A coming-soon feature is worth planning around rather than buying for, and if you need it today, that decides the question.
  • You want it in a browser rather than installed. Baton lists desktop downloads for the three platforms and names no web client, so there is nothing to open from a borrowed laptop.

One reason that is not on the list: Baton being thin. It is not. It is free, unusually complete for the price, and its FAQ answers the awkward questions about where the code goes without being asked twice. The comparison table carries it on the same row as everything else.

Which Baton alternatives are worth your time?

Everything below was read on each project's own site, repository or release list on the date in the table's note, never on a review site. Where a rival is documented as strong, it says so. We did not install them, and the last section says what that means.

ToolRuns onHow it keeps sessions apartWhat the free version leaves out
OmniscioWindows, macOS and LinuxA git worktree and branch per session when you switch isolation on, per session, per project or for the whole app. It is off by default.Free runs up to ten agents at once and eight projects. Pro lifts both.
PaseomacOS, Windows and Linux desktop builds, plus iOS, Android and a web appEach agent runs its own command line, and a git worktree is a launch option: its FAQ says worktrees are optional and only relevant if you use git.Free and open source under Apache-2.0, with your own agent installations and credentials. Its only paid plan is Paseo Hub, its hosted service: Free at $0, Pro at $15 per seat per month.
ConductormacOS only. Its own installation page says Windows and Linux are not available yet.A git worktree and a branch per workspace, and Conductor calls that development isolation rather than a security boundary.Conductor reserves cloud workspaces for the paid plans, per its own pricing page.
SupersetmacOS, plus an experimental Linux build. No Windows app.Not covered on the pages we read. Check Superset's own documentation.Remote access, automations and team features. The free plan is one user on local workspaces.
TermicmacOS first, with Linux and an experimental Windows build in every release.A real git worktree per task, plus a per-task sandbox: a macOS Seatbelt cage and a network allowlist.Nothing. Free and open source under AGPL-3.0, running on the subscription you already pay for.
Claude SquadA terminal, installed with Homebrew or its own installerSessions live in tmux, and its README describes a terminal app that manages multiple local agents.Nothing, but read the caveat below.

Two more worth naming. Vibe Kanban still ships for all three systems, but its maker shut down in April 2026 and the project continues community maintained. And Claude Squad, the terminal option in the table, carries a caveat its own issue tracker documents: the Windows build fails immediately when you start a session, and the report was still open when we read it. If Windows is your machine, that one is out.

Then there is the tool that is not a separate product at all. Anthropic has shipped agent view into Claude Code: its own screen for background sessions, opened with claude agents, which lists each background session with a state, a group and a model-written summary and moves a dispatched session into its own git worktree. Anthropic's page names the cases it skips, and a setting turns it off. It is a research preview, it runs Claude only, and it needs an interactive terminal. The Claude Code desktop page sets it out in full.

Every figure in that table is the vendor's own wording. Baton was read on getbaton.dev, and Paseo on paseo.sh, paseo.sh/hub and its release list, both on October 27, 2026. Conductor, Superset, Termic and Vibe Kanban were read on their own pages on October 22, 2026, and Claude Squad's repository and issue tracker on October 16, 2026, with its README re-read on October 23, 2026. Platform support and pricing move faster than anything else here, so check the download page before you commit.

Which one fits your case?

  • You just need a fifth workspace. Buy the license. $19 a month, or $79 a year, or $99 once while early-access licenses last, and Baton's own pricing page says that is the only difference between free and paid. Switching tools costs more than that in an afternoon.
  • You want it free and open source. Paseo is Apache-2.0 and Termic is AGPL-3.0, and the app is free in both; Paseo's paid plan is only for its hosted Hub. Termic puts every task in a git worktree; Paseo does it when you launch an agent with its worktree option.
  • You want a company and a security attestation. Conductor holds a SOC 2 Type II attestation and lists SAML SSO and SCIM on Enterprise, and Superset lists a SOC 2 Type II report on its top plan.
  • You want the agents on a phone today. Paseo ships a native mobile client its own page says has full feature parity with desktop, plus a web app. HB Code has iPhone and Android apps that open the sessions running on your desktop. Baton's Remote Control is not there yet.
  • You work in a terminal. Claude Squad and agent view are both built for that, with the Windows caveat above attached to Claude Squad.

How does Omniscio compare with Baton?

Omniscio is the alternative we make, so read this section with that in mind. It is a desktop app for running many coding-agent sessions at once, built around one list of sessions whichever engine runs them.

QuestionBatonOmniscio
What does the free version include?Every feature. Free runs unlimited agents in up to four simultaneous workspaces, and a license lifts that one limit.Up to ten agents at once and eight projects. Pro lifts both, and adds automation recipes, custom share links, managed model providers and transcripts.
Does it need Git installed?Yes. Baton's FAQ says it uses your local Git to create and manage worktrees.A repository is not required. Worktree isolation is a switch, off by default, and a project can be a folder on disk.
Is each session isolated by default?Every workspace runs in an isolated git worktree, so yes.Worktree isolation per session, per project or for the whole app, each session on its own branch. Off by default.
What happens when an agent stops for you?Badges for input, done and error on every workspace, a sound, and a shortcut that jumps to the next agent that needs you.Statuses including Running, Needs You, Ready, Error and Stalled. Ones waiting on you go to the top of the list and into a single attention inbox, and errored or stalled ones collect in an Interrupted section.
Can you reach it away from the machine?Remote SSH workspaces run agents on a machine you connect to, and they keep going when your laptop is closed. A phone app is listed as coming soon.A phone view over the web, off by default and switched on in Settings, reached through your own Tailscale network.
Can you choose the engine?Any agent that runs in a terminal, with Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenCode and Antigravity CLI arriving with notifications and one-click MCP setup, and more than a dozen presets built in.Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Devin, Pi and Hermes, plus Cursor, with Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM and MiniMax among the engines behind them. Switch on the ones you use in Settings.

What Baton does that we do not

Baton ships things with no Omniscio equivalent today, and they are the honest reasons to stay. It runs agents inside a Lima virtual machine with a domain allowlist, so an agent can work unattended with permissions skipped. It has a diff you can edit in place and roll back a change in one click, and a toolbar that fetches, pulls, rebases and pushes without leaving the app. Its voice dictation runs offline in 25 languages, so the audio never leaves your machine. It searches file contents with ripgrep and filenames with fzf, it keeps a history of every commit that touched a file including renames, and its site lists 21 features with every one of them free. Omniscio's nearest answers are a diff viewer and the local API, more than 2,500 routes any script can call. That is not the same as an editable diff, a sandbox VM and offline dictation, and we would rather say so.

What Omniscio adds

  • One place that says what needs you. Needs You sessions sort to the top and into one Inbox, and Plain Speak turns a finished reply into a card you can read at a glance.
  • Isolation with a merge path. Turn on a worktree per session, per project or for the whole app. A finished session's work comes back with Retry Merge, or on its own when the automatic merge is on, and the diff viewer shows the uncommitted changes with an AI summary before you keep them.
  • Guards on the spend. A hard cap per session stops a runaway on metered model keys, and an agent that was running when the app crashed resumes on the next launch.
  • No Git requirement. A project can be a folder that is not a repository, so a session starts without one.
  • A phone view you can switch on. A run that finishes while you are away can reach your phone through a browser over your own Tailscale network, off by default until you turn it on in Settings.

What changes if you switch from Baton?

A move is less disruptive than it looks, because the underlying agents do not change. Claude Code is still Claude Code, and Codex is still Codex. What changes is the window you drive them from, and what you give up along with it.

  • You lose the sandbox and the editable diff. If you rely on running agents inside Baton's virtual machine, or on editing a diff in place, check that first. Those are real features with no direct equivalent.
  • You lose offline dictation. If you write prompts by voice with the audio never leaving the machine, that matters and should decide it.
  • Your code stays where it is. Repositories do not move. You sign in to each provider once in Settings, and the rest of your setup carries over.
  • Start with one real project, not an import of everything. Launch a couple of sessions on work you already have and watch how the inbox behaves on a real task before you move the rest.
  • Or just buy the license. If four workspaces is the only complaint, the $99 lifetime license removes it while early-access licenses last, and you keep everything you already know. That is a better trade than a migration for most people.

How we checked this

Every claim about another tool was read on that tool's own site, documentation, repository or release list, and the date beside each one in the sources below is the day we read it. Baton and Paseo were read on October 27, 2026, and Claude Squad's README was re-read on October 23, 2026. Conductor, Superset, Termic and Vibe Kanban were read on October 22, 2026, and Claude Squad's repository and issue tracker on October 16, 2026.

We did not install any of these apps. Nothing on this page describes a rival's window, menu or keystroke we saw, and every statement about one rests on that project's own words. Where a number would be easy to get wrong we quote their wording rather than paraphrase it.

The figures this page states about Omniscio come from the app itself: the features page and the pricing page.

Sources

  • Baton: getbaton.dev for the headline, the three platforms, the worktree per workspace, the agents and presets, the free tier of four simultaneous workspaces with $19 a month, $79 a year or $99 once while early-access licenses last, Remote SSH workspaces, network sandboxing in a Lima virtual machine, the offline dictation, the helpers that send text through OpenRouter, and Remote Control listed as coming soon. Read October 27, 2026.
  • Paseo: paseo.sh for the platforms and the native mobile client, Apache-2.0, and the worktree FAQ; paseo.sh/hub for the only paid plan, Hub Pro at $15 per seat per month alongside a Free tier at $0; and its releases for the macOS, Windows, Linux and Android builds in v0.13.2 of October 26, 2026. Read October 27, 2026.
  • Conductor: its own site and its pricing page for the plans, the cloud workspaces, SOC 2 Type II and SAML SSO and SCIM. Read October 22, 2026.
  • Superset: superset.sh for the plans, the macOS and experimental Linux builds, the SOC 2 Type II report and the mobile app. Read October 22, 2026.
  • Termic: its documentation for the platforms and the experimental Windows build, the per-task worktree and sandbox, and AGPL-3.0. Read October 22, 2026.
  • Vibe Kanban: its site, including the notice that it is sunsetting and continuing as open source, community maintained. Read October 22, 2026.
  • Claude Squad: its README and issue #275, whose report that the Windows binary cannot start a session was still open when we read it. Read October 16, 2026, with the README re-read October 23, 2026.
  • HB Code: hbcode.ai for the iPhone and Android apps that show the sessions running on the desktop. Read October 22, 2026.
  • Claude Code's agent view: Anthropic's documentation for the screen, the states, the groups and the research-preview label, and the CLI reference for claude agents. Read October 22, 2026.
  • Omniscio: the features page, the pricing page and the download page. Read October 23, 2026.

Common questions

What is the best Baton alternative?

If the four-workspace limit is what brought you here, the honest answer is to buy the license: $19 a month, $79 a year or $99 once while early-access licenses last, and the free and paid versions are otherwise identical. If you want a tool that is open source, Paseo is Apache-2.0 and Termic is AGPL-3.0. If you want one window on a Mac and a company behind it, Conductor holds a SOC 2 Type II attestation. Omniscio is the one we make, and it puts every session in one list with an attention inbox.

Is Baton free?

Yes, with one limit. Baton's own pricing page says every feature is free, with no account and no trial, and that free runs unlimited agents in four workspaces at once. Creating more workspaces is unlimited; running more than four at the same time is the paid part. Yearly and lifetime licenses carry a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Is there a free Baton alternative?

Yes. Paseo is Apache-2.0, and Termic and Claude Squad are AGPL-3.0, so all three are free and open source. Omniscio is free to use with Pro at $20/month or $192/year, and its free plan runs up to ten agents at once across eight projects. What each of them does differently is in the table on this page rather than in the price.

Does Baton list a phone app?

Baton lists Remote Control as coming soon, described as checking on agents and answering them from a phone or tablet, end-to-end encrypted. If you want to reach a running session from a phone today, that is a reason to look at something else while Baton finishes it.

Can I keep using Claude Code if I switch?

Yes. Baton and every alternative on this page runs the agent command lines you already have, with your own sign-in or key. Claude Code stays Claude Code and Codex stays Codex. What changes is the window you drive them from.

Try it against your own work

A feature list will not tell you whether running eight sessions at once suits how you work. Ten minutes on a real repository will.

Download Omniscio See the features