Synapse vs Superset

At a glance

Superset facts are from superset.sh, its pricing page, docs and GitHub repo, checked on 16 October 2026. Superset has said it will change its name later in October 2026.

What Superset is

Superset is an Electron desktop app for running a lot of coding agents at once. Each task gets a git worktree and branch, a real terminal for the agent, a Changes pane that can commit, push and open a pull request, and a PR pane with checks and review threads. Around that it has an editor, an in-app browser, a Design Mode, Pages, scheduled automations, remote hosts, a CLI, a TypeScript SDK, a hosted MCP server and an iPhone and iPad app. It supports a long list of agents, including Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, Cursor Agent and Amp.

It is a serious, well funded product (an $11.5M seed led by Union Square Ventures, more than 15,000 GitHub stars) and people who run 40 or 50 agents at a time like it a lot.

What Synapse is

Synapse starts from a different problem. You have five agents open. One just figured out the auth bug, another is about to edit the same file, and the only way they find out about each other is you copying text between terminals.

Synapse puts every live agent on your machine on one canvas. Drag from one agent to another and the second one sees what the first is doing. On each prompt, a hook injects what the linked agent said since last time, capped at 8,000 characters per link. Linked agents can also send each other messages through six MCP tools, a CLI and a skill, so a Claude Code agent can ask a Codex agent what it found.

synapse link codex-api
synapse send codex-api "Did the rate limiter land? I'm about to touch auth."
synapse inbox

The real difference: isolation vs connection

Superset, like most parallel-agent tools, is built around isolation. Worktrees keep agents from stepping on each other's files. That is the right default for throughput.

Synapse is built around connection. Isolated agents still need to know things about each other: which file is about to change, what an API now returns, what the reviewer thinks. Synapse makes that flow continuous instead of manual.

Superset does have cross-agent features, and they are worth describing exactly:

• Continue with another agent starts a fresh session of a different agent, seeded once with the last 36,000 characters of the source terminal. It is a one-time copy into a new session, not a live link between two running agents.
• Orchestration lets a coordinator agent create worker workspaces and drive them by reading their screen and typing into their terminal. It is hub and spoke. Workers do not message each other, and it needs the signed-in CLI or an MCP key.

In Synapse a link stays in place. Every time agent B gets a prompt, it gets whatever agent A has said since. Either agent can message the other at any time, whichever CLI each one runs in, without a coordinator in the middle.

Forks

Superset shipped native session forking in August 2026. It uses each agent's own fork command (claude --resume <id> --fork-session, codex fork <id> and others) and opens the fork in a split pane or tab. That is a good feature and Synapse does not have it first.

Synapse's forks are in development in its desktop app. They use the same native commands, today for Claude Code and Codex. The interaction is different: you type /sfork <question> inside the agent, or press ⇧⌘F, and the fork is pushed onto a stack on top of its parent. The side question never enters the parent's context. The fork tree shows on the canvas as a dashed line from child to parent, and the child can send a short summary back to the parent only if you ask it to.

Open source, accounts and privacy

Superset began under Apache 2.0 and moved to the Elastic License 2.0 in February 2026. You can read the source, but it is not open source in the OSI sense. Its cloud features need an account, and its CLI and MCP server need authentication.

Synapse is MIT licensed. The core is plain Node with zero npm dependencies. There is no account, links and messages live in ~/.synapse, and Synapse makes no network calls. Transcripts are read straight from disk.

Where Superset is ahead

Being honest about this matters more than any table:

• It is a complete workspace. Worktree lifecycle, setup scripts, ports, diffs, commits, PRs, automations, remote hosts and a mobile app. Synapse has none of the review and PR flow.
• It is mature. Weekly releases, SOC 2 Type II, a large community. Synapse is a young project, and its desktop app is not released yet.
• It supports more agents and already ships forks and handoff for six of them.

If you want one app to run 50 agents and ship their pull requests, Superset is the stronger choice today.

Using Synapse with Superset

Synapse finds agents by scanning processes and their working folders, so it sees agents that Superset launched without any setup. That makes them complementary:

1. Keep Superset for worktrees, review and PRs.
2. Install Synapse: node install.mjs && npm start.
3. On the canvas, link the Claude Code implementer in one Superset workspace to the Codex reviewer in another. The reviewer now gets the implementer's context on every prompt.
4. Let an agent in Superset message an agent outside it, such as one in your IDE or a plain terminal.

Who should pick which

• Pick Superset if your bottleneck is running and reviewing many agents in parallel and you want worktrees, PRs and automations in one place.
• Pick Synapse if your bottleneck is agents not knowing what other agents are doing, you mix Claude, Codex and Gemini, or you want an MIT tool with no account.
• Run both if you have both problems. Synapse does not replace where your agents run.

FAQ

Is Synapse a Superset alternative?

Partly. Synapse covers what Superset does not: live context links and messaging between running agents, with no account and an MIT license. It does not replace Superset's worktree, diff and pull request workflow, and it works alongside Superset.

Is Superset open source?

Superset's code is public, but since February 2026 it is licensed under the Elastic License 2.0, which is source available rather than OSI open source. Synapse is MIT licensed.

Can Superset agents share context with each other?

Superset can hand context to a new session once (up to 36,000 characters) and lets a coordinator agent drive worker terminals. It does not keep a live link between two running agents. Synapse does, by injecting a linked agent's recent conversation into each new prompt.

Does Synapse see agents running inside Superset?

Yes. Synapse finds agents by scanning processes and their working folders, so agents started inside Superset show up on the canvas without any setup.

Does Synapse need an account or send my code anywhere?

No. Synapse has no account, keeps links and messages in a local folder, and makes no network calls.

Which tool supports forking Claude Code sessions?

Superset shipped native session forks in August 2026. Synapse's forks, triggered with /sfork or Shift Command F and shown as a stack with lineage on the canvas, are in development for Claude Code and Codex.