Omniscio CompareConductor vs Claude Squad

Conductor vs Claude Squad: which to use for parallel Claude Code agents

Pick Conductor if you work on a Mac and want a full desktop app, with review, pull requests and optional cloud workspaces. Pick Claude Squad if you live in a terminal on macOS or Linux and want a small open-source tool. Both run Claude Code and other agents side by side, each task on its own git branch. They differ in almost everything around that. As of October 2026, neither runs a session on native Windows.

Both tools checked against their own docs, pricing, changelog and issues on October 14, 2026. By the Omniscio team. Updated October 14, 2026.

How do Conductor and Claude Squad compare?

	Conductor	Claude Squad
What it is	A desktop app for macOS, made by Melty Labs.	A terminal app, installed as the `cs` command.
Platforms	macOS only. The install page says Windows and Linux are not available yet.	Downloads for macOS, Linux and Windows. Issue #275 reports that the Windows build cannot start a session.
Agents	Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode, plus terminal presets for Gemini, Amp, Pi and Copilot.	Claude Code, Codex, Gemini and Aider, and the `-p` flag starts another agent CLI.
Isolation	A git worktree and branch for each workspace.	A tmux session and a git worktree for each task, on its own branch.
Review and merge	A diff viewer with line comments, a Checks tab, and pull requests opened and merged from the app.	A preview tab and a diff tab. One key commits and pushes the branch to GitHub.
Away from the desk	Conductor's cloud workspaces keep running after you close the app, and an iOS app works with them. Both need a paid plan.	Runs in your terminal, on your machine. Its README and site mention no phone app.
Needs	GitHub sign-in through `gh`, and at least one agent provider.	tmux and `gh`.
Price	Free for local workspaces. Pro is $50 a month, Teams $60 per user a month.	Open source under AGPL-3.0, with no paid plan listed.

Neither tool sells AI usage. You bring the Claude, OpenAI or other accounts you already have, and each provider bills you as it normally would.

What does Conductor do well?

Conductor turns each task into a workspace. A workspace gets its own git worktree and branch, so agents working in parallel never edit the same files on disk. You can start one from a branch, a pull request, a GitHub issue or a Linear issue, and run Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or OpenCode inside it.

Its strength is the path from finished agent work to merged code. The Diff Viewer takes comments on changed lines and sends them back to the agent that wrote the code. A Review action asks an agent for a second look. The Checks tab gathers git status, CI, deployments, review threads and todos in one place. Pull requests open with a shortcut, and Conductor follows their GitHub checks through to the merge. If a turn goes wrong, a checkpoint rolls the code back to an earlier one.

Conductor's paid plans also run agents in the cloud, not only on your Mac. A cloud workspace runs in its own sandbox and keeps working after you close the app. Routines run agents on a schedule or from a GitHub action. A team can share workspaces and prompt agents in the same chat, and an HTTP API drives cloud workspaces from code. Since October 2, 2026, an iOS app lets you chat with agents and merge pull requests from an iPhone.

For companies, Conductor holds a SOC 2 Type II attestation. Its pricing page is plain about the trade in cloud workspaces. Chat messages there are stored on Conductor's servers, while local sessions stay on your device.

What does Claude Squad do well?

Claude Squad is a Go program that runs in the terminal you already use. It installs with Homebrew or a one-line script. Each task gets its own tmux session and git worktree, so agents stay out of each other's files, and every session sits in one list.

It is not tied to one agent. It starts Claude Code by default and also runs Codex, Gemini and Aider. The -p flag launches almost any other CLI agent, and named profiles in its config let you pick an agent each time you create a session.

Everything happens from the keyboard. A tab switches between an agent's preview and its diff. One key commits and pushes the branch to GitHub, and another commits the changes and pauses the session so you can check out the branch yourself. An experimental --autoyes flag accepts prompts automatically, so an agent can keep working in the background.

The source is open under AGPL-3.0, and the project still ships releases: version 1.0.20 came out on August 20, 2026.

Where do they differ most?

Your operating system

Conductor is a Mac app, and its install page says it is not available for Windows or Linux yet. Claude Squad runs on macOS and Linux, and publishes Windows downloads too.

The Windows download has a known problem. Issue #275, open since April 2026, reports that creating any new session on native Windows fails straight away. The cause given is the pseudo-terminal library Claude Squad uses, which has no Windows implementation. That library is still listed in the project's go.mod.

A window or a terminal

Conductor is a full app, with panes for chat, diffs, checks and a terminal. Claude Squad is a text interface drawn inside your terminal. If you already work in tmux, Claude Squad will feel at home. If you want to click through a diff and leave comments on lines, Conductor does more of that for you.

More than one repository

A Claude Squad session belongs to the repository you started it in, and working across several from one instance is an open feature request from April 2025. In Conductor you add each repository and give it a workspace, and the /add-dir command links workspaces so one agent can read and edit code across them.

When an agent stops for you

The Conductor Mac app sends notifications, and since version 0.90.0 they show the chat's title. Claude Squad's README describes its session list and preview, and no notifications. A request to pass Claude's iTerm2 notifications through it, #185, was closed as not planned.

Safety

On your own machine, both keep agents apart with git worktrees. Conductor's docs say workspace isolation is not a security boundary, and that agents run with your user permissions unless you configure stricter controls. Its FAQ suggests a separate machine or VM if you want to be extra safe. Claude Squad's README describes its isolation as tmux sessions plus git worktrees, which separate code, not permissions.

Which one should you use?

Conductor fits if

You work on a Mac.
You want review, checks and pull requests handled in the same app.
You want agents that keep running in the cloud, an iPhone app or scheduled routines, and a paid plan is fine.
Your team wants shared workspaces, or your company asks for SOC 2.

Claude Squad fits if

You live in a terminal on macOS or Linux.
You want open source with no paid plan.
You run Aider, or another CLI agent you choose with -p.
You want something small: one binary, tmux and git.

If your machine runs Windows or you would rather not work in a terminal, there is a third option. Omniscio, the desktop app we make, runs many Claude Code sessions at once, with Codex, Gemini and other engines side by side. It sorts the sessions waiting on you to the top. The features page lists what it does, and the download page has the installers.

Every statement about either tool on this page comes from that tool's own README, docs, pricing page, changelog or issue tracker, checked on October 14, 2026. Both projects ship often, so their own pages are always the better source.

Common questions

Does Conductor run on Windows or Linux?

Not as of October 2026. Conductor's install page says it is available for macOS and not yet for Windows or Linux, with a sign-up form to hear when that changes. Its cloud workspaces run in Linux sandboxes, but the app you install is for the Mac only.

Does Claude Squad run on Windows?

It publishes Windows downloads, but issue #275 in its own tracker, open since April 2026, reports that creating any new session on native Windows fails at once. The cause given is a pseudo-terminal library with no Windows support, and that library is still in the project's go.mod.

Which one is free?

Both can be used without paying. Claude Squad is open source under AGPL-3.0, and its README and site list no paid plan. Conductor's Free plan covers parallel agents in local workspaces on your Mac. Its Pro plan, at $50 a month, adds cloud workspaces, the API and the iOS app. With either tool, the AI usage itself is billed by the provider you sign in with.

Do both need GitHub?

Both expect the GitHub CLI. Claude Squad lists tmux and gh as its two prerequisites. Conductor's setup checks for GitHub authentication in your terminal, using gh auth status, and says you need GitHub and at least one agent provider.