Open source alternative to Conductor
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Run multiple AI coding agents in parallel across isolated Git worktrees, with unified diff review, scheduling, and SSH remote machine support.
Run separate agents for a bug fix, a refactor, and a dependency update at the same time, each in its own worktree. Review the three diffs side by side and merge the ones that pass.
If you are running agents sequentially on purpose (for example, chaining output of one agent as input to the next), Emdash's parallel worktree model does not map to that workflow directly.
Schedule weekly bug sweeps, pre-release checks, or dependency audits as recurring agent jobs. Each run executes in an isolated context, logs results, and shows pass or fail without manual intervention.
If your recurring jobs need to interact with a CI/CD pipeline's build artifacts directly, you will need additional tooling beyond Emdash's scheduling.
Connect Linear, Jira, GitHub, and other trackers to pull issues directly into agent sessions. Each issue becomes a task with full context, running in its own worktree. No copy-pasting from tracker to terminal.
Teams requiring shared visibility into all agent runs across multiple engineers will need to coordinate via the shared Git repository since each developer runs their own Emdash instance.
Connect over SSH to a dev server, cloud VM, or GPU box and run the same parallel agent workflow remotely. Credentials are stored in the OS keychain and SSH certificates held by the agent are supported.
If your remote machine does not have the required agent CLIs installed, you will need to set them up there first. Emdash can install supported agents but requires an internet connection on the remote host.
Running AI coding agents one at a time creates a bottleneck that scales poorly with the volume of agent-ready tasks. A developer using Claude Code or Codex typically opens a terminal, starts a task, waits for the agent to finish, reviews the output, and then moves to the next one. When the backlog has ten tickets and each agent run takes five minutes, most of that time is dead time.
The problem compounds for teams. Each engineer working separately means no shared view of what agents are doing across branches, no way to quickly review several agents' diffs in parallel, and no easy path to recurring automated jobs. Teams end up copy-pasting issue text into separate terminal sessions and tracking progress in side notes, which removes most of the productivity benefit that parallel agent execution could provide.
Each task runs in its own Git worktree and branch, so multiple agents can work on separate features simultaneously without file conflicts. Each worktree keeps its own branch, terminal history, conversation, and review state together.
Works with over 25 agent CLIs including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Amp, OpenCode, and Devin. Emdash detects installed providers automatically and manages install state, hooks, and provider settings without manual configuration.
Pull tasks directly from Linear, GitHub, Jira, GitLab, Asana, Featurebase, Monday.com, Forgejo, Plain, or YouTrack. The agent receives the full issue context rather than a copy-pasted summary.
Inspect diffs, create pull requests, check CI status, and merge without switching to another tool. The review panel covers all active worktrees in one view.
Connect to remote machines over SSH or SFTP and run the same parallel workflow on a dev server, cloud VM, or GPU box. Supports SSH agent, key, and password authentication, with credentials stored in the OS keychain.
Schedule recurring jobs such as weekly bug sweeps, release prep, or automated reviews on a cron-like schedule. Each automation runs in its own isolated context and logs pass or fail results.
Emdash and Conductor share the same core idea: run AI coding agents in parallel across isolated Git worktrees. The key differences are platform availability, licensing, and product status. Conductor is a macOS desktop app with an optional hosted cloud add-on (Conductor Cloud); Emdash is open source (Apache-2.0) and runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Conductor is winding down: as of November 4, 2026, no new sign-ups or downloads are accepted; Conductor Cloud shuts down on November 20, 2026; and the full product, including local Conductor, will wind down in early 2027.
| Feature | Emdash | Conductor |
|---|---|---|
| License | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| Deployment | Local desktop app or remote SSH | Local macOS desktop app, optional cloud add-on |
| Agent support | 25+ CLI providers | Select providers |
| Self-hosting | Yes (local or SSH) | Yes (local macOS) |
| Pricing | Free | No new sign-ups; free for existing users since Nov 4, 2026 |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS only |
| Status | Active, open source | No new users; winding down in early 2027 |
For developers who were using Conductor and need to migrate, Emdash is the natural path: the same parallel worktree model, without the macOS restriction, and with an active open source community backing continued development. For anyone evaluating tools now, Conductor is not available to new users.
Install on macOS via Homebrew, or download a signed installer for Windows and Linux from GitHub Releases.
```bash
brew install --cask emdash
```Yes. Emdash is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license. There is no subscription, no per-seat fee, and no usage limit from Emdash itself. You pay only for the underlying AI provider API calls, which are billed directly by the provider.
Emdash supports over 25 agent CLIs, including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Amp, OpenCode, Devin, Qwen Code, Droid, and GitHub Copilot. It detects installed providers automatically. You can use different agents on different tasks in the same session.
No. Emdash is local-first. App state is stored in a SQLite database on your machine. Emdash does not send your code or agent conversations to its servers. The agent CLIs you use may send code to their own providers depending on the provider's data handling policy.
A Git worktree is a linked working directory that shares a repository's history but has its own branch and file state. Emdash creates one worktree per agent task so that parallel agents work on separate branches simultaneously without file conflicts. When a task finishes, you review its diff and decide whether to merge or discard.
Yes. Emdash is available for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows (installer and portable executable), and Linux (AppImage, .deb, and .rpm packages for x64 and ARM64). See the GitHub Releases page for all current builds: https://github.com/generalaction/emdash/releases/latest
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