Conductor runs a team of agents in separate rooms. Synapse puts them on the same call. Conductor (conductor.build) gives each Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or OpenCode agent its own worktree workspace with a chat UI, diff review and pull requests, plus a paid cloud tier. Synapse links agents on your machine so one automatically reads another's recent conversation, and lets them message each other across CLIs. Synapse is MIT, free, needs no account and makes no network calls. Conductor is the more complete product for shipping code.
At a glance
| Synapse | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Canvas and messaging layer for every agent on your machine, plus a desktop app in development | Mac app for parallel agents in isolated worktree workspaces |
| Source | MIT, open source | Closed source |
| Price | Free | Free locally, Pro $50 per month, Teams $60 per user per month, Enterprise custom |
| Account | None | Account for the app and cloud features |
| Agents | Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Cursor Agent, Amp, Copilot CLI | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode (others in Big Terminal Mode) |
| Agent versions | The ones you installed | Bundles its own pinned Claude Code and Codex |
| Live context links between local agents | Yes, every prompt | No (shared files and a .context notes folder) |
| Agent to agent messaging | Yes, local, any linked agents | Through the Pro API and MCP, aimed at cloud workspaces |
| Session forks | In development (Claude Code, Codex) | Not found in docs or changelog |
| Diff review, PRs, stacked PRs, Linear | No | Yes |
| Cloud sandboxes, team multiplayer, iOS | No (multiplayer in development) | Yes, Pro and Teams |
Conductor facts are from conductor.build, its pricing, docs and changelog, checked on 16 October 2026.
What Conductor is
Conductor, made by Melty (YC S24), is a Mac app for running coding agents in parallel. Every agent works in a "workspace": a git worktree with its own branch, terminal, run scripts and a gitignored .context folder for notes. You talk to agents in a chat interface with plan mode, steering, checkpoints and a model picker. When a change is ready you review the diff, comment inline, watch checks, open a PR (stacked PRs too) and merge.
Since mid 2026 there is also Conductor Cloud, where agents keep running in cloud sandboxes after you close the laptop, real-time multiplayer for teams, an API and hosted MCP server, and an iOS app. It raised a $22M Series A in March 2026 and releases roughly every week.
What Synapse is
Synapse is about what happens between agents. It puts every live coding agent on your machine on a canvas. Drag a line from agent A to agent B, and on every prompt B gets what A has said since last time, up to 8,000 characters per link. Any two linked agents can message each other through MCP tools, a CLI or a skill, so Claude Code can ask Codex a question and get an answer in its inbox.
It discovers agents by scanning processes, so it works with agents wherever you started them, and it needs no account.
How each one handles agents talking to each other
This is the core of the comparison, so here it is precisely.
Conductor:
- Agents in the same workspace share files and the branch, for example one implementing while another reviews. Sharing happens through the file system, not through each other's conversation.
- Each workspace has a
.contextfolder for notes and handoffs. Moving context between workspaces is manual; the docs suggest copying the useful parts into the workspace you keep. - The Conductor API and MCP server (beta, Pro) have tools like
send_message,list_messagesandrun_sqlover session transcripts. An agent with access can message another Conductor session and read its transcript. It is account scoped, works by polling, and is documented for cloud workspaces.
Synapse:
- Links are live and directional. A link from A to B means B reads A on every prompt until you remove the link. Draw both ways for a pair.
- Messages work between any linked local agents, free and offline, including agents Conductor does not host such as Gemini CLI, Amp and Copilot CLI.
- Agents can wire themselves:
synapse link,synapse read,synapse sendandsynapse inboxexist as MCP tools and CLI commands, so you can just tell an agent "connect to the Codex agent and ask what it found".
Forks for side questions
A common pain: an agent gives you five points and you want to dig into point three without filling the main session with a side discussion. Synapse's desktop app (in development) adds forks for this. Type /sfork <question> in Claude Code or Codex, or press ⇧⌘F, and Synapse starts a native fork (claude --fork-session or codex fork) as a card stacked on its parent. The question never reaches the parent. The fork tree shows on the canvas, and the child only reports back if you ask it to. We did not find a fork feature in Conductor's docs or changelog.
Open source, accounts and agent versions
Conductor is proprietary and Mac only. It ships its own pinned copies of Claude Code and Codex and drives Claude through the Claude Code SDK in its chat UI. Some users like the stability, and others on Hacker News have asked why they cannot use the latest version on their system.
Synapse is MIT licensed with a zero-dependency Node core. It uses whatever agent versions you installed, in the real terminal UIs, and keeps everything in ~/.synapse on your machine with no network calls.
Where Conductor is ahead
- The full path from prompt to merged PR. Setup and run scripts, Spotlight testing, inline diff comments, checks, stacked PRs, Graphite, GitHub and Linear issues. Synapse does none of this.
- Polish. Conductor's chat experience for Claude Code and Codex is excellent, and it ships fast.
- Teams and cloud. Cloud sandboxes, live multiplayer, iOS, SSO. Synapse's multiplayer is still in development and it has no cloud.
If you want one well-designed Mac app that takes an issue to a merged PR, Conductor is the better fit.
Using Synapse with Conductor
The two do not compete for the same job:
- Keep Conductor for workspaces, chats, review and PRs.
- Run Synapse next to it to link agents across workspaces, or link a Conductor agent with one it does not support, such as Gemini CLI or a Claude Code session in your IDE.
- Agents in Conductor's Big Terminal Mode run as normal CLIs, which is the case Synapse's process scan is built for.
Who should pick which
- Pick Conductor if you mainly run Claude Code and Codex, want a chat-first UI and a complete review and PR flow, and are fine with a closed-source app and an account.
- Pick Synapse if your agents need to share what they know, you mix several CLIs, or you want something open source that never leaves your machine.
- Run both if you want Conductor's workflow and agents that talk to each other.
FAQ
Is Synapse a Conductor alternative?
For connecting agents, yes: Synapse adds live context links and messaging between local agents, free and with no account. For running agents through to a merged pull request, no. Conductor's worktree, review and PR workflow is something Synapse does not try to replace.
Is Conductor open source?
No. Conductor is a closed-source Mac app from Melty. It has a free local tier and paid Pro, Teams and Enterprise plans. Synapse is open source under the MIT license.
Does Conductor support Gemini CLI, Amp or Copilot CLI?
Conductor officially supports Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode, and can run other terminal agents in its experimental Big Terminal Mode. Synapse discovers and links Gemini CLI, Amp, Copilot CLI and others.
Can Conductor agents share context with each other?
Agents in one Conductor workspace share files and the branch, and each workspace has a .context folder for notes. Programmatic messaging exists through the Pro API and MCP server for cloud workspaces. Synapse instead keeps a live link that injects one local agent's recent conversation into another on every prompt.
Is Synapse free?
Yes. Synapse is free and MIT licensed, with no account and no paid tier.
Does Synapse work on Linux or Windows?
Synapse's core is plain Node 18 and is built and tested on macOS. Its desktop app, in development, targets macOS first.