Conductor is shutting down: what to use next
I use Conductor every day. I am writing this page from a Conductor cloud workspace, with several agents running beside it. So the news of 4 November hurt a bit: the Conductor team is joining Meta, and the product closes in steps. Congratulations to Charlie Holtz and the team. They made the best way I know to run many coding agents at once.
I also build Orage, a remote Codex in the cloud. I will say plainly where it fits, and also where it is not ready yet. If you need a replacement this week, I name other tools first.
The dates
From Conductor's announcement:
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Wednesday 4 November | No new sign-ups or downloads. Pro users keep Pro features for free. |
| Friday 13 November | Conductor Cloud turns read only: you can read old chats and export, but not send. Subscribers get a refund. |
| Friday 20 November | Conductor Cloud shuts down. Deletion of cloud data starts. |
| Early 2027 | The Mac app stops getting updates and winds down. Until then it gets new models and critical fixes. |
What to do before 13 November
- Export your data: Settings, Account, Export data.
- Keep a cloud workspace: right-click it and choose Transfer to local. It moves to your Mac with its chats.
- Push your branches. A workspace is a git branch. If the work matters, it should be on GitHub before the 20th, whatever tool you pick next.
- Write down your scripts. Setup and run scripts, the agents' rules, your MCP servers: you will want them in the next tool.
Conductor says it never sold or trained on user data, and support is at support@conductor.build.
If you need a replacement now
Most people who liked Conductor liked three things: several agents side by side, each task on its own branch, and one calm window to follow them. These do that today.
- T3 Code is the one I would try first. It is free and open source (MIT), runs Codex, Claude, Cursor and OpenCode with your own subscriptions, and has desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux, a web app and phone apps. It runs the agents on your own computer, or on a server you keep running, which is the closest thing to Conductor Cloud you can own.
- OpenCode, if you want one open source agent that works with many model providers, in the terminal or in its desktop app. Conductor already had it built in, so it may feel familiar.
- Cursor, if the cloud is what you will miss. Its cloud agents work well, and it has an iPhone app. But your ChatGPT or Claude subscription does not pay there: you pay Cursor.
- The vendors' own apps. The Codex app and Claude Code's desktop app now give each task its own worktree, and both have a cloud mode and phone apps. If you only ever used one agent in Conductor, this is the short path.
How they compare
Checked on each product's own pages on 5 November 2026. Orage is in the last column, with what is planned and not there yet.
| Conductor | T3 Code | OpenCode | Cursor | Codex app | Orage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Closing | Alpha | Active | Part of SpaceX | Active | Private beta |
| Runs on | macOS | macOS, Windows, Linux, web | Terminal, desktop app, IDE, web | macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS, Windows, Linux | Any browser; iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Agents | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Grok and more | OpenCode, on 75+ model providers | Cursor's agent, many models | Codex | Codex |
| Your ChatGPT plan pays | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Your Claude plan pays | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Planned |
| Each task on its own branch | Yes, a worktree | Yes | In the desktop app | Yes | Yes, a worktree | Yes, on its own cloud machine |
| Goes on with the laptop closed | Until 20 November | On a server you keep | On a server you keep | Yes, cloud agents | Yes, Codex cloud | Yes, always |
| Phone | iPhone, on Pro | iPhone, Android | Through its web app | iPhone | ChatGPT app | iPhone, iPad on TestFlight; App Store planned |
| Open source | No | Yes, MIT | Yes, MIT | No | The CLI only | No |
| Price | Refunds now | Free | Free, you pay the models | Cursor's plans | Your ChatGPT plan | Your ChatGPT plan or OpenAI key |
For the full list (Emdash, Orca, Paradev, Nimbalyst, Pane and more, sorted by Windows, Linux, open source, cloud and phone), see Conductor alternatives.
The field is moving fast
Conductor is not alone. Cursor became part of SpaceX in August, Google's Jules turns read only this month, and several smaller tools closed or changed name this year. A tool that runs the vendors' own agents with your own keys is easier to leave, and open source is easier to keep. I would weigh that more than a feature list.
What I am doing next
My own answer to "what now": on 13 November my Conductor Cloud workspaces go read only, and I am moving my work onto Orage, the tool I build. Until it carries all of it, I will run T3 Code beside it. If you follow this page, you will see how that goes, the good days and the bad ones.
Why Orage exists
Conductor taught me to run many agents at once. Conductor Cloud taught me something better: I did not have to stay at my desk while they worked. Orage is that second idea, pushed as far as I can push it. The laptop is closed, the phone is in my pocket, and the work goes on.
An afternoon, the way it is meant to work
I put on a playlist and tell my agent three things: fix the sign-in bug, write the release notes, try a faster build. It does not do them itself. It gives each job to a helper, and each helper gets a fresh machine in the cloud, with my repos cloned on a new branch. Nothing runs on my laptop, so I close it.
Between two songs, a voice says the release notes are ready and the build needs a decision. I read the diff on my phone and answer in one line. The music goes on.
Parts of this work today. Parts still break. That is the honest state of it.
What is under it: OpenAI's own Codex agent, a machine per chat with no cap (an idle one stops, so it costs nothing), the changes, a terminal and the files beside the chat, and an agent of your own that hands work to helpers and runs work on a schedule.
What is not ready
A lot. Building this is hard. Our own checks still find bugs in basic things, such as an archived chat that still shows in search. Orage runs Codex only, not Claude Code, Cursor or OpenCode, and it does not work in folders on your own computer. It is private: we let people in a few at a time. If you need something solid before 20 November, take one of the tools above.
If you want to watch a Conductor user try to build what comes after it, join the list below. I will write here as it gets better.
Questions
Is Conductor shutting down? Yes. The team joins Meta. Conductor Cloud turns read only on 13 November 2026 and shuts down on 20 November 2026. The Mac app keeps working, with new models and critical fixes, until early 2027.
Can I still download Conductor? No. Sign-ups and downloads stopped on 4 November 2026. If it is already on your Mac, it keeps working until early 2027.
How do I save my Conductor Cloud workspaces? Right-click a cloud workspace and choose Transfer to local, and export everything from Settings, Account, Export data, before 13 November. Push your branches to GitHub too.
Do I get a refund? Conductor says active subscribers get a refund, including people who subscribed recently.
What is the best Conductor alternative? For the same idea, several vendors' agents in one app with your own subscriptions, try T3 Code: it is free, open source and runs on macOS, Windows and Linux. For one open source agent with many models, OpenCode. For a cloud machine per task that you follow from a phone, Orage, once you are in. The full comparison is on Conductor alternatives.
Is there a Conductor Cloud alternative? Codex cloud, Claude Code on the web and Cursor's cloud agents run the vendor's own agent in the cloud (Cursor's on Cursor's plans, not your ChatGPT or Claude subscription). T3 Code runs on a server you keep. Orage gives each chat its own cloud machine.
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