Conductor.build: Run a Team of Parallel AI Coding Agents on Your Mac

What Is Conductor?

Conductor is a native Mac app from Melty Labs that pioneered a new category of tooling: the “agentic parallel runner.” You launch several Claude Code or Codex agents at once, each working inside an isolated workspace, and Conductor gives you a single place to watch them, review their diffs, and ship the changes.

It’s not another AI coding tool — it’s a conductor layer on top of Claude Code and Codex. The underlying agents are still Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s official CLIs. Conductor solves the question: “How does one person manage five agents at the same time?”

Note: a different company called Conductor (conductor.com) sells enterprise SEO software. Not the same product. The AI coding tool lives at conductor.build.

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The Problem It Solves

Once you’re comfortable letting Claude Code do real work, the next bottleneck shows up immediately: the agent takes too long to finish a task.

A meaningful coding task can take 5–15 minutes of agent runtime. What do you do during that time?

• Switch to a different branch and start another Claude Code? → File conflicts.
• Open a second terminal? → Same repo, git state collides.
• Manually git worktree add? → You set up a new environment every time.

Conductor productizes this workflow:

1. Click “New Workspace” in the UI — it runs git worktree add for you on a fresh branch.
2. Start Claude Code inside that workspace using your existing login.
3. Open another workspace, then another — each is fully isolated.
4. The dashboard shows what every agent is doing and where it’s stuck.
5. When work is done, review the diff and ship the PR from Conductor.

In one line: Conductor moves you from “serial use of one agent” to “parallel direction of five.”

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Key Features

Parallel Agent Execution

Run multiple Claude Code / Codex instances simultaneously, each on a different task. This is the core value prop. The team’s own recommendation: one workspace per feature.

Git Worktree Isolation

Each workspace is its own git worktree on its own branch. Conductor only copies files git is tracking, so node_modules and .env don’t duplicate. Agents never step on each other — same model as a team using feature branches to stay out of each other’s way.

Linear Integration

Start work straight from Linear. Pick an issue and Conductor creates the workspace, spins up the branch, and feeds the issue description to the agent.

Review & Merge Workflow

Once an agent finishes, you review the diff, open the PR, and merge — all inside Conductor.

Brings Your Own Login

Conductor doesn’t take your API key or sell a subscription. It reuses whatever Claude Code or Codex login you already have on the machine:

• Logged into Claude Pro / Max? Conductor uses it.
• Authenticated with an API key? Same.
• Codex login? Same again.

That’s why the app itself is free — your spend stays with the underlying agent providers.

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Pricing: Free App, Subscription-Driven Cost

The Conductor app is free. Real cost depends on what’s powering the agents:

Underlying plan	Monthly	Realistic parallelism
Claude Pro ($20)	$20	5h quota; 3–5 parallel agents will occasionally bump the cap
Claude Max ($200)	$200	More parallel capacity; falls back to API pricing past the cap
Claude API (usage)	Variable	No concurrency limits, but highest unit cost
Codex (GPT-5)	Subscription or API	Same trade-offs

Important: running agents in parallel burns quota fast. If you plan to keep 5 Claude Code agents busy, Pro will hit the wall quickly — Max is the better fit, or mix in Codex to spread load.

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Who It’s For

A good fit if:

• You’re already using Claude Code or Codex and want to escape the “wait for the agent” bottleneck
• You develop on macOS with GitHub-hosted repos
• Your workflow is issue- or feature-driven (Linear users especially)
• You’re willing to spend more tokens to save more time

Skip it if:

• You’re on Windows or Linux (Mac-only today)
• Your code lives on GitLab / Bitbucket / self-hosted git (GitHub only)
• You’re new to AI coding tools — get fluent with a single agent first
• You’re cost-sensitive — parallel runs are token-heavy and Pro won’t cover it

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How It Compares

The “agentic parallel runner” category is young, but it’s already populated:

• Conductor — native Mac app, Claude Code + Codex
• Claude Squad — terminal / tmux multi-pane, open source, cross-platform
• Crystal — open-source desktop app, Mac + Linux
• Parallel Code — open-source cross-platform, 4 agent CLIs supported
• Slock / Multica / Orkas — more collaboration-oriented (humans + agent teams)

The difference is mostly the interaction model:

• Conductor / Orkas → desktop apps, visual dashboard per agent
• Slock → chat-first, agents behave like teammates
• Multica → issue board, agents are assignees

If all you want is “run Claude Code in parallel, less hassle,” Conductor is the most direct path. If you need collaboration, self-hosting, or cross-platform, look at Multica or Slock.

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Quick Start

1. Download the Mac app at conductor.build.
2. Sign in / confirm your machine already has a Claude Code or Codex session.
3. Open your GitHub repo and click “New Workspace.”
4. Name the workspace (e.g. add-search-api) — it creates a branch automatically.
5. Start the agent inside the workspace and describe the task.
6. Open a second workspace for a different feature in parallel.
7. When done, review the diff and open the PR.

Conductor’s own guidance: 3–5 parallel workspaces is the sweet spot. More and you can’t keep up; fewer and you don’t need the tool.

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One-Line Summary

Conductor is the parallel-dispatch layer for Mac developers who rely on Claude Code daily but resent its single-threaded nature. Free, lightweight, deeply tied to the official CLIs — at the price of Mac + GitHub only, and a higher bill at the end of the month.

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Further Reading

• 2026 Agent Collaboration Platforms: Slock vs Multica vs LobeHub vs Orkas
• Using Claude Code from China: Complete Guide
• Claude Code Token-Saving Playbook

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Last updated: 2026-05-16