This matrix compares the forty-four orchestration tools profiled in this section, the parallel-agent dashboards, worktree managers, control planes, mobile clients, a coordination protocol, a cluster-scale agent fleet orchestrator, JetBrains’ standalone agent environment, the 2023 conversational and role-play frameworks plus the Python and TypeScript frameworks that succeeded them, hosted agent platforms, visual workflow builders, the one agent town, a source-control-for-agents desktop app, a Copilot CLI team harness, a local cross-harness control plane, the newer wave of workflow runners, a graph workspace, a sandbox library, a tmux harness, an issue-board platform, a Codex workflow layer, a mission-control canvas, a self-hosted lead/worker swarm platform, a closed desktop canvas app, an agent-fleet pod console, and a Nostr-native team communication platform, feature by feature, so the shortlisting step does not require reading forty-four notes.
Parallelism is already the free commodity in this category: the only things anyone pays for are review ergonomics and remote execution, and I expect more of these forty-four to die or pivot before any of them becomes durable infrastructure.
Legend: ✓ supported, ✗ not supported, ~ partial or conditional, ? not verified. Each column links to the full research note; every cell below traces to a source cited there or in the references.
The matrix #
| Feature | Agent Swarm | AgentGrid | AgentsMesh | Agno | Atlas | AutoGen | AutoGPT | AX | Buzz | Claude Squad | cmux | Conductor | CrewAI | Crewplane | Crystal | Dify | dmux | Emdash | Flowise | Foremerge | Gas Town | GraphCode | Happy Coder | Helmor | JetBrains Air | Lanes | LobeHub | LoopTroop | Mastra | MetaGPT | Multica | oh-my-codex | Omnara | Open Swarm | OpenRig | Orca | Paseo | Sandcastle | Sim | Squad | Superset | The Perfect Orchestrator | Vibe Kanban | Worktrunk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kind | self-hosted lead/worker orchestration platform, Docker Compose deployment with dashboard, workflows, and memory | closed-source desktop canvas app, panes for agents, terminals, browsers, source control, and notes, master agent over MCP | self-hosted fleet platform, Docker-deployed web console managing AgentPods, tickets, channels, and loops | Python agent platform, framework plus AgentOS runtime and paid control plane | Rust desktop app, source control for coding agents | conversational multi-agent framework | agent workflow platform | Kubernetes agent-fleet orchestrator | team communication platform, self-hostable Nostr-event relay plus clients carrying search, workflows, git hosting, and automation | terminal TUI | native macOS terminal | native Mac app | Python role-based multi-agent framework plus enterprise platform | Python CLI workflow runner | Electron app | visual LLM workflow and RAG platform, TypeScript and Python | terminal TUI | Electron app | visual LLM flow builder (Node), archived | coordination protocol above Git, CLI plus MCP server | tmux town, workspace manager | native macOS graph workspace, daemon plus CLI | native mobile and macOS client, wraps the agent CLI | Tauri desktop workbench | standalone agent environment, desktop app plus org web | native macOS workspace, CLI plus self-hostable MCP endpoint | agent hiring and scheduling platform | local GUI web app | TypeScript agent framework plus cloud platform | SOP multi-agent software-company framework | self-hostable workspace plus daemon | Codex CLI workflow layer, npm package | Go control plane, web, CLI, API, mobile, Slack | Electron desktop app plus FastAPI backend | local control plane and meta-harness, TypeScript daemon, CLI, TUI, and MCP server | Electron agentic IDE, desktop plus mobile | daemon plus desktop, web, mobile clients | TypeScript library plus CLI | visual AI agent workflow builder, TypeScript | files-as-teammates harness over GitHub Copilot CLI, npm CLI | Electron agentic IDE | bash plus tmux harness, Claude Code plugin | web UI, Rust backend | CLI worktree manager |
| Platforms | any host with Docker Compose or Helm on Kubernetes; workers in containers with git, Node.js, and Python preinstalled | macOS, Windows, Linux desktop | any host with Docker (Docker Hub distribution); web console | Python 3.9+, any OS; the control plane is a web service | macOS and Windows installers; Linux build-from-source | Python, any OS | Docker self-host, hosted cloud, web builder | Kubernetes clusters; Linux or macOS CLI (Go) | self-hosted relay on your own infrastructure, plus desktop clients | macOS, Linux (tmux, no Windows) | macOS only | macOS only (local) | Python 3.10+, any OS | Python 3.13+, any OS | macOS first, Linux later | Dify Cloud, Docker self-host, enterprise private deployment | macOS, Linux (tmux) | macOS, Windows, Linux | Node self-host (npm); archived | macOS, Linux, Windows binaries; local, single machine | macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker | macOS 15+ Apple Silicon only | iOS, Android, macOS, web | macOS, Windows x64 (no Linux) | macOS, Windows, Linux desktop; org-only web | macOS Ventura+ (Apple Silicon, Intel); Link on macOS/Linux | desktop app, web, cloud | any OS with Node 24+; requires OpenCode | Node/TypeScript, any OS; Mastra Cloud hosted | Python, any OS | web, server (Docker/Helm/binary), desktop (macOS/Windows/Linux), iOS | macOS/Linux primary; native Windows and Codex App unsupported default | web, iOS, Android, Slack; self-host or Omnara Cloud | macOS only (Windows/Linux planned) | macOS and Linux; Node 22 or 24, tmux, and an installed harness; native Windows unsupported, WSL2 untested | macOS, Windows, Linux; iOS and Android companions | macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, web, Docker | any OS with Node plus Docker, Podman, or Vercel | Docker self-host or Sim Cloud | Node (npm global); runs inside GitHub Copilot CLI | macOS, Linux experimental | Linux, macOS (tmux 3.0+) | any OS with Node | macOS, Linux, Windows |
| Open source | ✓ MIT | ✗ closed | ~ BSL-1.1 source-available, not OSI open source | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ MIT packages, repo root detected CC-BY-4.0 | ~ Polyform Shield for the platform, MIT for classic | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ AGPL-3.0 | ~ GPL-3.0, open core | ✗ closed | ✓ MIT | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ MIT | ~ modified Apache 2.0 (GitHub NOASSERTION; multi-tenant SaaS needs a commercial license) | ✓ MIT | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ Apache 2.0 (enterprise directory under a commercial license) | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ MIT | ~ FSL-1.1-MIT (source-available; app and daemon FSL, integration surfaces MIT) | ✓ MIT | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✗ closed | ~ app source published, license undeclared; Link Apache-2.0 | ~ community license, Apache 2.0 plus conditions | ✓ MIT | ~ Apache-2.0 core, commercially licensed ee/ directories | ✓ MIT | ~ custom Multica License (Apache-2.0 plus hosted and commercial conditions, GitHub NOASSERTION) | ✓ MIT | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ AGPL-3.0 (README badge says MIT) | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ MIT | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ MIT | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ MIT | ~ Elastic License 2.0 | ✓ MIT | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ✓ MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| Price model | free, open source; self-hosted, you pay infrastructure and inference, optional vendor setup calls | free tier $0 (3 projects, 10 parallel agents each), Pro $16/mo billed annually early-adopter ($192/yr) | free to self-host for internal use; no hosted tier or license fees | free runtime, control plane Free $0, Pro $150/mo, Enterprise custom | free, open source, no paid tier | free, open source | free self-host, hosted Pro $42.50/mo, Max $272/mo billed annually | free, open source | free, open source, self-hosted; no hosted tier | free, no tier | free, Pro $50/mo, Max $200/mo | free local, Pro $50/mo | free, open source; platform Basic $0, Enterprise custom | free, open source | free (Nimbalyst sells teams) | free Community self-host; cloud Professional $590/workspace/yr and Team $1,590/workspace/yr (annual billing); Enterprise custom | free | free core, cloud contact-sales | no active pricing (archived) | free, open source | free, BYOK runtime | free, source-available | free, donations | free, open source | included with JetBrains AI Pro/Ultimate, BYOK supported | free (1 user), Pro $19/mo (10 seats), Enterprise custom; Compute per-second | free self-host, cloud $9.9-$39.9/mo billed yearly | free, open source | free OSS; Cloud Starter $0, Teams $250/mo, Enterprise custom | free, open source (the MGX hosted sibling is separate) | free to start; hosted cloud paid (no public price table) | free, open source | free self-host, cloud usage-priced | free, open source | free, open source; drives your existing Claude Code and Codex subscriptions, no API keys or token markup | free and open source; Enterprise custom | free, Hub hosted $15/seat/mo | free, open source | free self-host; cloud Free $0, Pro $25/user/mo, Max $100/user/mo | free, open source; requires a Copilot subscription | free local, Pro $15-20/user/mo | free, open source | free (subs terminated) | free |
| Per-task worktree isolation | ~ container per worker, not a git worktree model | ~ optional per-session git worktrees, concurrent launches isolated automatically | ? | ✗ agent and workflow runtime, no worktree model | ? checkpoints link commits to sessions; no worktree feature recorded | ✗ in-memory agent conversations, no worktrees | ✗ block-based workflows, not repo tasks | ~ sandboxed tasks with pre-wired git workspaces, not worktrees | ✗ coordination fabric and git hosting, no worktree model | ✓ | ? | ✓ own branch | ✗ no worktree, session, or repository model | ~ optional Git-backed worktrees and snapshots; default edits the project root | ✓ | ✗ business-app workflows, not repo tasks | ✓ AI-named branch | ✓ | ✗ visual chatflows and agentflows, not repo tasks | ~ assumes the worktrees you already run | ✓ worktree hooks | ~ per-loop worktree under a project | ✗ existing paths only | ✓ one worktree and branch per workspace | ✓ worktree, Docker, or cloud per task | ✓ one issue, branch, and worktree per task | ✗ chat and scheduled agent tasks, not repo tasks | ✓ isolated OpenCode worktree per bead, fresh worktree per retry | ✗ agents and workflows, no worktree model | ✗ role conversations, no worktrees | ~ runtime is a machine you connect; per-issue worktree not a documented primitive | ✓ $team workers each get a dedicated git worktree by default | ? | ✓ each agent gets its own worktree and branch | ✗ seats share project workspaces, no per-task worktree model | ✓ every task in its own worktree and branch | ✓ | ✓ creates a host worktree and merges the branch back | ✗ visual agent workflows, not repo tasks | ✗ teammate files in one repo, no worktrees described | ✓ own branch | ✗ workers share a workspace; ownership rules and lock-guarded commits instead | ✓ own branch | ✓ core purpose |
| Harnesses it can drive | 6 native plus any ACP agent (Claude Code recommended, Codex, pi, Devin, Claude Managed Agents, experimental opencode server) | 9 (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Antigravity, Cursor, Devin, Grok, Kimi, Pi) | 5 plus custom MCP agents (Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Aider, OpenCode) | ~ its own agents; the control plane also accepts AgentOS from LangGraph or Claude Code | Claude Code, Codex, its own native agent, plus anything from the ACP registry | ~ its own assistant agents, not external CLIs | ~ its own blocks and agents, not external CLIs | any agent container, bring-your-own runner image | ~ no harness driving; agents join the relay as first-class participants (Block’s goose the natural citizen) | any CLI via profiles | any CLI agent | 4 (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode) | ~ its own role-playing crew agents, not external CLIs | any CLI (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, Kilo, Pi, DeepSeek, OpenCode) | 2 (Claude Code, Codex) | ~ its own workflow agents and model marketplace, not external CLIs | 11 CLIs | 25+ CLIs, auto-detected | ~ its own chatflows and agentflows over LangChain and LlamaIndex | any MCP client plus CLI and JSON API; setup auto-wires Claude Code, Codex, Cursor | 5 runtimes, Claude Code default | 5 (Claude Code, Copilot CLI, Codex, OpenCode, Pi) | 2 (Claude Code, Codex) | 5 (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Kimi Code) | 4 built-in (Claude Agent, Codex, Gemini CLI, Junie) + any ACP agent | any CLI via PTY; Claude Code and Codex first-class | ~ its own agents plus 10,000+ skills and MCP plugins | 1 (OpenCode) | ~ its own agents and workflows, not external CLIs | ~ its own role agents, not external CLIs | 26 agent CLIs (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Kimi, OpenCode, and more) | 1 primary (Codex CLI); mixed-provider teams codex, claude, gemini | ? agent underneath unspecified | ~ its own Claude Agent SDK agents | 3 (Claude Code, Codex, Pi; Oh My Pi via RPC) | 27+ CLI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor CLI, Gemini, Copilot, OpenCode, Pi, and more) | 4 native + ~36 via ACP | 6 agent providers (claude-code, codex, pi, cursor, opencode, copilot) | ~ its own workflow blocks and agents | 1 (GitHub Copilot CLI) | any CLI, 21 presets | 1 (Claude Code) | 10+ agents | any CLI via -x, one program name since v0.76 |
| Remote or SSH execution | ✓ workers run in Docker/Kubernetes on your own infrastructure | ~ cloud agents on Pro with cloud sync across machines; no SSH model recorded | ✓ registered remote machines become AgentPods | ✗ the runtime is self-hosted by design | ? not recorded | ~ distributed actor runtime, self-hosted | ✓ cloud-native by design | ✓ cluster-native, ax ssh into sandboxes | ✗ not an execution layer, agents run wherever their harness runs | ? | ~ SSH sessions | ? | ? flexible deployment advertised, execution model unspecified | ✗ local only | ? | ~ hosted cloud or self-hosted Docker, browser access | ✗ local only | ✓ SSH-first | ? not recorded | ✗ local, single machine | ~ Docker compose | ✓ remote repos over SSH | ✓ E2E-encrypted relay | ~ experimental Cloudflare-tunnel mobile companion, no SSH | ✓ JetBrains cloud, org web | ✗ local execution; Link self-hostable | ✓ cloud-native | ✗ local only | ~ Mastra Cloud deploys and hosts agents | ✗ local runs | ✓ daemon runtimes on any connected machine | ✗ local only | ✓ machine pools | ✗ local only | ~ multi-machine fleets between daemons; each host runs its own daemon, no vendor cloud | ✓ SSH worktrees, self-hosted server, cloud VMs | ✓ encrypted relay, self-host | ~ Vercel isolated sandboxes, no SSH | ~ hosted cloud or Docker self-host | ✗ local Copilot CLI sessions | ~ remote workspaces beta | ✗ local tmux session | ~ Docker self-host | ✗ local git |
| Built-in review tooling | ~ dashboard, human-in-the-loop workflow gates, and results that ship as PRs; no inline diff review surface | ✓ built-in source-control view, file diffs, PR conversations, and an agent review bot | ? | ~ sessions and traces in the control plane, no code review | ~ checkpoints keep prompts, tool calls, and reasoning with each commit; no diff or PR review surface | ✗ no review surface | ~ runs dashboard and logs, no code review | ~ watch, logs, and ssh, no review surface | ~ workflow approval gates and traces, no code-diff review surface | ~ diff preview tab | ? | ✓ diffs, checks, PR, review | ✗ no review surface | ~ review loops and findings artifacts, no diff surface | ~ diff viewer, rebase, squash | ✗ not a coding tool, no code review surface | ~ merge and PR menu | ✓ diffs, PRs, CI checks | ✗ not a coding tool, no code review surface | ~ advisory conflict findings, verification-gated ChangeSets, no diff surface | ✓ Refinery merge queue | ~ attach to any live terminal; no diff or PR review surface | ~ diffs and terminals beside conversations | ✓ diffs, Monaco editor, one-click PR/MR, merge, fix CI, stacked PRs | ✓ language-aware diffs, Agent Review (agent reviews agent) | ✓ diffs, Monaco editor, git client, SQLite browser, GitHub/Linear write-back | ✗ none | ~ per-bead diff review and human approval gate, no PR checks | ~ Studio for evaluation and observability, no code review | ✗ none, code lands in the repo | ✓ review gates, execution-log replay, issue comments and diffs | ~ code-review and ultraqa skills, merge tracking via integration-report.md | ~ approvals, questions, events, artifacts | ~ rig capture reads any seat’s screen, no diff or PR surface | ✗ work progress and slice proof in the TUI, no diff or PR surface | ✓ diff viewer, inline annotations back to the agent, GitHub/Linear review | ~ agent output and diffs | ~ logs and per-iteration results, no review UI | ~ block-by-block run logs, no code review | ~ human-led approvals plus GitHub issues and PRs, no diff viewer | ✓ diffs, browser previews | ~ adversarial cross-verification of findings, no diff or PR surface | ✓ diffs, comments, PR | ~ status table and merge pipeline |
| Cloud execution option | ✗ self-hosted only | ~ cloud agents on the Pro plan | ✗ self-hosted on your own machines, no hosted tier | ✗ execution stays self-hosted; the control plane connects to it | ✗ local desktop app | ✗ none first-party | ✓ the hosted platform is the product | ✓ is the cloud execution layer | ✗ no hosted Buzz tier | ✗ no hosting | ✓ Pro, up to 50 cloud VMs | ✓ Vercel sandboxes | ~ the hosted platform executes workflows; the OSS runs locally | ✗ none | ? | ✓ the hosted cloud is a first-class deployment | ✗ | ~ contact-sales | ✗ archived, cloud plans no longer exist | ✗ local only | ✗ self-host, Wasteland federation | ~ your own SSH hosts, no vendor cloud | ✗ your machine only | ✗ local-first | ✓ JetBrains-managed cloud environments | ✗ local-first; Compute is GPU rental, not agent hosting | ✓ LobeHub Cloud | ✗ local execution (Docker possible) | ✓ Mastra Cloud (Starter $0, Teams $250/mo) | ~ the MGX hosted sibling | ✓ Multica Cloud or self-host | ✗ none | ✓ Omnara Cloud, or self-host | ✗ local only | ✗ local-first self-hosted daemon; your machine, home server, or VPS, no vendor cloud | ✓ self-hosted servers or your own cloud VMs | ~ self-host anywhere, no vendor cloud | ✓ Vercel Firecracker sandboxes | ✓ Sim Cloud | ✗ local Copilot CLI sessions | ~ remote workspaces beta | ✗ none (run on your own VPS) | ✗ services removed | ✗ |
| Current status | active, v1.161.0 (2026-10-02), 851 stars as of 2026-10-03 | active, v2.9.2 (2026-09-29), no public repository | active, v0.44.7 (2026-07-25), 2,360 stars as of 2026-10-03 | active, v3.1.1 (2026-10-02), 42.5k stars as of 2026-10-03 | active, alpha-0.3.4 (2026-09-27), 8.8k stars in five months as of 2026-10-03 | maintenance mode, successor Microsoft Agent Framework at 13.9k stars | active, platform beta v0.8.2 (2026-09-30), 187.6k stars | active, Google team, v0.3.1, pre-stable | active, desktop v0.5.26 (2026-09-29), 35.4k stars as of 2026-10-03 | active, slow burn | active, fast | active, $22M raised | active, v1.15.23 (2026-09-28), 59.3k stars as of 2026-10-02 | active, early, 41 stars as of 2026-09-27, v0.3.5 | deprecated Feb 2026 | active, v1.17.1 (2026-09-10), 157.7k stars as of 2026-10-02 | active | active, YC W26 | dead, archived 2026-08, last release 3.1.4 (2026-07-29) | active, 521 stars as of 2026-10-03, pre-1.0, v0.5.1 | shut down Sept 2026, repo kept as death record | active, v0.1.77 (2026-09-29), 133 stars as of 2026-10-02, created 2026-07-26 | active, 23.9k stars, community team | active but cooling, v0.46.0 (2026-07-24), last commit 2026-08-22, 1.3k stars | active, public preview, v262.834.41 | active, v0.49.5 (2026-09-25), 271 stars on lanes-sh/app as of 2026-10-02 | active, daily canary releases, 83k stars | active, early alpha, v0.6.0 (2026-10-01), 155 stars as of 2026-10-02 | active, @mastra/core 1.74.0 (2026-10-01), 7.1M npm downloads/mo, $35M raised | quiet since v0.8.2 (2025-03), org energy moved to OpenManus | active, v0.6.1 (2026-10-01), 51.9k stars as of 2026-10-03, star count caveated | active, v0.21.7 (2026-10-01), 33.4k stars as of 2026-10-02 | active, YC S25, 2.9k stars | active, experimental release line, v1.8.0-exp.5 (2026-10-02), 824 stars as of 2026-10-02 | active, v0.6.4 (2026-10-02), 4.5k stars as of 2026-10-03 | active, v1.4.219 (2026-10-02), 84k stars as of 2026-10-03 | active, v0.10.3 (2026-10-02), solo maintainer | active again, maintenance commits resumed 2026-10-02, v0.12.0 (2026-06-29), 8.2k stars as of 2026-10-03 | active, v0.9.12 (2026-10-03), 29.8k stars as of 2026-10-03 | active, v1.0.0 (2026-10-03), 3.3k stars as of 2026-10-03 | active, YC P26, $11M raised | quiet, v0.2.0 (2026-06-06), last commit 2026-06-30, 1 star as of 2026-10-02 | orphaned, community commits resumed 2026-09-16, timestamped v0.1.45 tag only (the prerelease release no longer listed), npm still 0.1.44 | active, pre-1.0 fast |
Reading the matrix #
The platform rows tell you who these tools are for: Mac-first GUI shops and unix terminal people, with Emdash the only GUI covering all three desktop OSes and the tmux pair unable to follow anyone to Windows. cmux and Conductor are macOS only, and Crystal was macOS first with Linux later. Vibe Kanban’s web UI goes anywhere Node goes, which is the one structural advantage of the board design.
Worktree isolation is the entry ticket, not the differentiator: every session-oriented tool here except cmux, Foremerge, and The Perfect Orchestrator gives each task its own worktree and branch, so the real spread is harness breadth, from LoopTroop’s one and Crystal’s two to Emdash’s 25+. cmux’s “?” is structural rather than a gap: it is a terminal built for attention routing, not a session manager, and its note records no worktree feature. Foremerge’s tilde is the opposite of a gap: it assumes the worktrees you already run and coordinates plans across them, the one column whose unit of work is the intent rather than the task. The wrapping pattern dominates (Emdash auto-detects installed CLIs, Claude Squad launches anything through profiles, dmux lists eleven), which means new harness features arrive without waiting for the orchestrator to reimplement them.
Where your code lives is the quiet differentiator, and Emdash is alone in treating it as a design decision with SSH-first execution and credentials in the OS keychain. Cloud execution exists only where a subscription or usage bill is attached, cmux Pro, Conductor Cloud, Omnara Cloud, and JetBrains-managed cloud tasks; dmux is explicitly local-only, Claude Squad ships no hosting at all, and Vibe Kanban’s remote services were removed thirty days after its shutdown announcement.
The status row is the most instructive one in the matrix: of forty-four tools, one is deprecated, one lost its vendor, one archived itself and named coding agents as the killer, one is a cluster-scale platform entrant, one new column attacks the failure worktrees cannot see, and the counterexamples run on venture rounds and a very loud founder. Crystal was deprecated in February 2026 in favor of Nimbalyst, the clearest signal yet that a pure worktree-session manager can be a feature rather than a product. Bloop shut down in April 2026 and Vibe Kanban is orphaned, local workspaces intact, ten commits on the default branch since the shutdown (the first a 2026-09-15 version bump by a former Bloop maintainer, nine more with substantive fixes through 2026-09-19), a v0.1.45 prerelease published on GitHub on 2026-09-19 and no longer listed there as of 2026-09-30 (the tag remains) with npm still serving 0.1.44 as latest, and nobody paid to fix bugs. Conductor staying a pure session manager and raising money is what keeps the feature-versus-product question contested instead of settled. The three 2026 columns sharpen the funding split: Superset raised $11M, Paseo is a solo maintainer with a planned business, and Worktrunk is a single author with no company at all, which is the whole sustainability spectrum in one row. Omnara is the tenth column and the only one that wants to own execution and state: agents become YAML configs in your repo, machine pools separate where code runs from who can invoke it, and supervision reaches you from a dashboard, phone, CLI, REST API, or Slack, the open-source counterpoint to Claude Managed Agents. Happy Coder is the purest thin client in the table: two harnesses, no worktrees, no hosting, yet 23.9k stars, second only to cmux among maintained tools, because phone access to the sessions you already run is what people actually install. JetBrains Air is the vendor entry, and it is the only column whose price model is a bundle: no standalone fee, four agent families unlocked by a JetBrains AI Pro or Ultimate subscription, with the deepest isolation menu in the table (worktree, Docker, or cloud per task) and org governance behind it, which makes it the strongest evidence yet that this layer is a feature incumbents will attach to existing subscriptions. AX is the scale outlier at the front of the table: Google’s Kubernetes-based fleet orchestrator treats agents as a datacenter workload class with sandboxing, network fencing, and checkpoint-resume, which makes every other column here look like what it is, a desktop tool. Foremerge is the newest column and the only one that coordinates plans instead of hosting sessions: agents publish intents with semantic scopes before they edit, and a deterministic detector flags destructive-versus-additive collisions that git merges cleanly, which names the residue every worktree column here leaves behind. OpenRig makes the topology itself the artifact: a YAML rig declares pods, seats, edges, and a culture, and the daemon boots ordinary Claude Code and Codex sessions into named seats it can snapshot and restore by name. Where the other control planes here own execution, a board, or a fleet, OpenRig owns the team’s identity and its restart, and it is the one column whose coordination runs over the terminal itself rather than a second message bus.
The four columns added on 2026-10-03 move up the stack from sessions to systems: Agent Swarm routes chat and issue-tracker intake through a lead agent into Docker-isolated workers that ship pull requests, AgentGrid makes the desktop canvas itself the delegation surface with a master agent arranging workers over MCP, AgentsMesh turns registered machines into AgentPods under a ticket-and-loop console, and Buzz steps outside the editor entirely, making the team’s communication fabric, a Nostr event relay you host, the coordination layer. AgentGrid is the only one with no public repository, and only Agent Swarm and Buzz carry OSI licenses (AgentsMesh is BSL 1.1), so the wave repeats the category’s oldest lesson: the coordination idea is cheap to describe and expensive to trust. The seven framework columns now split the museum wing from the business park: AutoGen is in maintenance mode and MetaGPT dormant, AutoGPT and LobeHub run active hosted platforms, and CrewAI, Agno, and Mastra are the funded, actively shipping generation that inherited the abandoned mindshare, which is why I weight the parallel-agent columns as where the daily engineering work is.
The eleven new columns split into three families, and the split says more than any single feature cell. Four are process engines that own a workflow rather than a session: Crewplane sequences a Markdown DAG across CLIs and keeps the run record on disk, Sandcastle exposes the same instinct as a TypeScript library over Docker, Podman, or Vercel sandboxes, LoopTroop wraps OpenCode in council planning and fresh-context recovery, and oh-my-codex adds skills, memory, and worktree teams to Codex CLI. Three are visual surfaces: GraphCode arranges live sessions into a graph whose hand-off, message, and spawn edges fire on shell predicates, Helmor is a local-first workbench that carries a task through review, test, merge, and one-click PR, and Open Swarm is a mission-control canvas with unified tool approvals and per-session cost tracking. Four are platforms or boards: Lanes puts parallel PTY sessions on a macOS issue board and pairs it with a self-hostable agent-access endpoint, Orca is the MIT, cross-platform ADE with a mobile companion and 27+ agents, Multica assigns issues to agents as teammates on a self-hostable board, and The Perfect Orchestrator is a one-star tmux harness whose adversarial verification of workers is the most interesting idea of the batch.
The eight columns added on 2026-09-29 are the framework-and-platform wave the parallel-agent columns keep getting compared to, and they mostly answer a different question. CrewAI, Agno, and Mastra orchestrate role-based agents and workflows against your own model bills, Dify and Sim build agentic business apps on a visual canvas, Flowise is the archived proof that the genre’s weakest incumbent dies first, Atlas makes the session history itself the product, and Squad wires a team of agents as repo files inside GitHub Copilot CLI. Only Atlas and Squad even touch a repository, which is why the wave reads as adjacent rather than core: this category’s daily work is still worktrees, sessions, and review.
The new entrants sharpen the category’s two fault lines: openness and maintenance. Orca, Helmor, Lanes, and Open Swarm stay free or freemium on venture or solo funding, while Multica’s 51.9k stars and custom, non-OSI license are exactly the caveated popularity signal this matrix exists to flag. The Perfect Orchestrator last committed in June 2026, Sandcastle’s default branch woke with maintenance commits on 2026-10-02 after three quiet months and still ships no release, GraphCode is barely two months old with one maintainer, and LoopTroop and Crewplane are early with tiny star counts, so the feature-versus-product question the earlier columns raised now has a shorter runway. The one new capability claim worth taking seriously is adversarial verification: The Perfect Orchestrator will not count a finding until a different worker fails to refute it, which is a sharper answer to worker overconfidence than any review surface in the table.
Review is the bottleneck this category actually sells, and delivery tracks funding: Conductor has the deepest review surface (diffs, checks, PR page, code review), Emdash and Vibe Kanban carry full PR flows, and the terminal tools stop at diff tabs and merge menus. Claude Squad’s preview tab and dmux’s pane-menu PR cover the dispatch, wait, review, merge loop, but nobody should expect checks or inline comments there. Gas Town is the exception that proves the row: its Refinery is a Bors-style merge queue with verification gates, review as infrastructure rather than review as a pane.
Choosing from the matrix #
- Want the deepest GUI review flow on a Mac and accept a closed client: Conductor.
- Want an auditable client, Windows or Linux support, or agents running next to remote code: Emdash.
- Live in the terminal: Claude Squad for the smallest footprint, dmux for multi-agent fan-out and resumable panes.
- On macOS and drowning in sessions that need attention: cmux’s notification rings and unread panel.
- Want planning-first and vendor-less: Vibe Kanban, accepting that it is orphaned, with community commits resumed but no stable release since April 2026.
- Want to supervise agents from your phone over an encrypted relay, self-hosted and FOSS: Paseo.
- Want your existing Claude Code or Codex sessions on a phone, end-to-end encrypted, and nothing more: Happy Coder.
- Want a control plane that owns agent execution and state behind one API, on your own hardware: Omnara.
- Want declarative fleet-scale orchestration on Kubernetes instead of a desktop app: AX, accepting pre-stable churn and cluster operations.
- Want a macOS agentic IDE around your existing subscriptions, five or more parallel sessions: Superset, accepting the ELv2 license and beta Linux.
- Already pay for JetBrains AI Pro or Ultimate and want isolation choice plus org governance around four agent families: JetBrains Air, accepting the preview status and credits-only cloud.
- Want the worktree lifecycle automated inside your own shell with no app at all: Worktrunk.
- Run several agents in parallel worktrees on one repo and fear clean merges that break the design: Foremerge, advisory and local-first.
- Want a self-hosted control plane that defines a cross-harness Claude Code and Codex team in YAML and restores it by name after a reboot: OpenRig, accepting macOS or Linux, an invasive provider-config setup, and no agent sandboxing.
- Want chat and issue-tracker intake turned into pull requests by Docker-isolated workers under a lead agent, self-hosted: Agent Swarm, accepting a high-velocity single-vendor dependency and a Docker-plus-database operational floor.
- Think in spatial layouts and want master/worker delegation you can watch and interrupt on one desktop canvas: AgentGrid, accepting closed source and an early-adopter price that will reset.
- Want a self-hosted console that treats machines as AgentPods and work as tickets, channels, and loops: AgentsMesh, accepting BSL 1.1 and a release cadence that lags its branch.
- Want your team’s communication, workflows, and git hosting to be one signed event log your agents live in: Buzz, accepting a single relay, no federation, and v0.5.x breadth.
- Supervising 20 or more agents with agent watchers and a merge queue, credits and churn accepted: Gas Town.
- Want your agent process versioned as Markdown with resumable, inspectable runs across several CLIs: Crewplane.
- Want to script sandboxed agents from TypeScript and own the pipeline: Sandcastle, accepting a repository that has shipped no release since June 2026 even though maintenance commits resumed in October.
- Want one lead to brief and adversarially verify workers over tmux, no daemons: The Perfect Orchestrator, a one-star template rather than a maintained tool.
- On Apple Silicon and want connected, unattended loops you can still attach to: GraphCode, accepting the FSL license and 0.1.x beta.
- Want an open, local-first workbench that finishes the loop through review, test, and one-click PR: Helmor, on macOS or Windows.
- Want parallel PTY sessions organized as issues on a macOS board, with a self-hosted agent-access layer: Lanes.
- Want the broadest, most open ADE, across all three desktop OSes plus phone and remote: Orca.
- Want to assign issues to agents as teammates on a board you can self-host: Multica, accepting the custom license and the star-count caveat.
- Want one local canvas to launch, approve, and cost-track several Claude agents: Open Swarm.
- Want planning-first, high-correctness runs over OpenCode with human approval at every merge: LoopTroop.
- Want Codex CLI to behave like a team with worktrees, memory, and skills: oh-my-codex.
- Want role-based crews in Python with an enterprise on-ramp: CrewAI.
- Want a self-hosted agent runtime with an optional control plane under a clean Apache-2.0: Agno.
- Want TypeScript agents with evals and a supported platform from one vendor: Mastra, accepting the June 2026 npm supply-chain incident.
- Want self-hosted visual agent workflows under a clean license: Sim, or Dify when ecosystem depth outweighs license purity.
- Want per-agent audit history of which agent changed what and why: Atlas, accepting alpha churn and a footprint that is GitHub stars only.
- Live in GitHub Copilot CLI and want a persistent agent team as versioned repo files: Squad.
- Do not adopt Flowise; it is archived, and its own team wrote the post-mortem.
- Do not adopt Crystal today; if its idea appeals, evaluate Nimbalyst on its own merits.
Changes #
- 2026-08-24 - Created with seven tools and the death and orphan stories carried into the reading section.
- 2026-08-27 - Extended from seven to eight columns with Gas Town and canonicalized the emdash reference.
- 2026-08-30 - Added Paseo, Superset, and Worktrunk columns, reaching eleven, with a funding-spectrum sentence.
- 2026-09-06 - Extended from twelve to thirteen columns with Happy Coder.
- 2026-09-13 - Corrected the Happy Coder and JetBrains Air columns, whose body cells had been transposed since the Air column was added on 2026-09-12.
- 2026-09-13 - Reframed Gas Town’s status to active but cooling (no default-branch commit since 2026-07-23, no release since v1.2.1 in June).
- 2026-09-20 - Moved Gas Town’s status cell to shut down (September 2026, Yegge’s admission per Dan Luu via AINews), matching the note’s death record.
- 2026-09-13 - Corrected the Vibe Kanban orphan wording to no default-branch commit since 2026-04-24, named Omnara Cloud and JetBrains cloud tasks in the cloud-execution prose, and qualified Happy Coder’s star ranking as second among maintained tools.
- 2026-09-16 - Re-verification: recorded Vibe Kanban’s first post-shutdown default-branch commit (2026-09-15), refreshed the Omnara star count to 2,851, and updated the JetBrains Air release to 262.834.41.
- 2026-09-18 - Re-verification: recorded Vibe Kanban’s community commits resuming (eight on the default branch since 2026-09-15, still no release), moved the cmux price cell to the new monthly-only Pro $50 and Max $200 tiers, refreshed the Omnara star count to 2,857, and corrected the stale Air changelog version in the references.
- 2026-09-20 - Re-verification: moved the Vibe Kanban status cell to the community’s 0.1.45 tag, which npm and the release list do not publish yet, and refreshed the Omnara star count to 2,861.
- 2026-09-21 - Extended from fourteen to fifteen columns with AX (Google’s cluster-scale agent fleet orchestrator, added sorted into the first position), refreshed the Happy Coder star count to 23.9k, and moved the Paseo status cell to v0.8 with 0.9 betas.
- 2026-09-22 - Extended from fifteen to sixteen columns with Foremerge (Nick Woodhead’s coordination protocol for parallel agents, added sorted after Emdash), moved the Paseo status cell to v0.9.1, and refreshed the Omnara star count to 2,863.
- 2026-09-24 - Removed the verification preamble line on owner request.
- 2026-09-24 - Refreshed the Vibe Kanban status cell to the GitHub v0.1.45 prerelease (npm still 0.1.44), moved Paseo’s status cell to v0.9.2, and refreshed Foremerge’s star count to 505.
- 2026-09-27 - Extended from sixteen to twenty columns with AutoGen, AutoGPT, LobeHub, and MetaGPT, the multi-agent frameworks and hosted platforms, and updated the prose counts and the reading section to match.
- 2026-09-27 - Extended from twenty to thirty-one columns with Crewplane, GraphCode, Helmor, Lanes, LoopTroop, Multica, oh-my-codex, Open Swarm, Orca, Sandcastle, and The Perfect Orchestrator (a batch of workflow runners, a graph workspace, a sandbox library, a tmux harness, an issue-board platform, a Codex workflow layer, and a mission-control canvas), re-sorted all columns, and added the three-family reading section and the new choosing entries.
- 2026-09-29 - Extended from thirty-one to thirty-nine columns with Agno, Atlas, CrewAI, Dify, Flowise, Mastra, Sim, and Squad (the framework-and-platform wave, a source-control-for-agents desktop app, and a Copilot CLI team harness), re-sorted all columns, moved the Foremerge, GraphCode, Lanes, Multica, Omnara, Open Swarm, Orca, and Paseo status cells and Paseo’s price cell to their 2026-09-29 values, and updated the prose counts and the reading and choosing sections.
- 2026-09-30 - Re-verification: moved the AutoGPT status cell to beta v0.8.2 (2026-09-30), the GraphCode cell to v0.1.77 (2026-09-29) with 133 stars, the Orca cell to v1.4.217 (2026-09-29) with 81.9k stars, the Paseo cell to v0.10.2 (2026-09-30), and the Sim cell to v0.9.6 (2026-09-29) with 29.8k stars, and rewrote the Vibe Kanban status cell and reading prose now that its v0.1.45 prerelease release is no longer listed on GitHub (the tag remains, npm still 0.1.44).
- 2026-10-02 - Re-verification: moved the Agno status cell to v3.1.0 (October 1), LoopTroop to v0.6.0 (October 1), Mastra to @mastra/core 1.74.0 (October 1) with 7.1M npm downloads, Multica to v0.6.1 (October 1), oh-my-codex to v0.21.7 (October 1), Open Swarm to v1.8.0-exp.5 (October 2), Orca to v1.4.218 (September 30), and Sim to v0.9.9 (October 1), refreshed the star and as-of values across the status cells, corrected the stale Foremerge cell count (518 to 520), and fixed GraphCode’s age in the reading prose.
- 2026-10-02 - Extended from thirty-nine to forty columns with OpenRig (the local cross-harness control plane added sorted between Open Swarm and Orca), traced all ten new cells to the new note, added the topology-as-artifact reading paragraph and the self-hosted control-plane choosing entry, and bumped the intro, thesis, and status-row counts to forty.
- 2026-10-03 - Extended from forty to forty-four columns with Agent Swarm (self-hosted MIT lead/worker platform), AgentGrid (closed desktop canvas app), AgentsMesh (BSL-1.1 fleet pod console), and Buzz (Block’s Nostr-relay communication platform), inserted in case-insensitive alphabetical position with all ten cells per column traced to the new notes, added the four-new-columns reading paragraph and four choosing entries, added the new columns’ references, and bumped the intro, thesis, and status-row counts to forty-four.
- 2026-10-03 - Re-verification: moved the Agno cell to v3.1.1 (October 2), Atlas to 8.8k stars, Foremerge to v0.5.1 (October 3), Multica to 51.9k stars, OpenRig to 4.5k stars, Orca to v1.4.219 (October 2) with 84k stars, Paseo to v0.10.3 (October 2), Sandcastle to active again with maintenance commits resumed October 2, Sim to v0.9.12 (October 3), Squad to v1.0.0 (October 3) and no longer alpha, and updated the Sandcastle reading and choosing prose to match.
See also #
- Harness Feature Matrix - the same treatment for the harness layer these tools drive
- Surface Feature Matrix - the same treatment for editors and environments
- Agentic Coding Tools Landscape - the map these columns come from
- Managing Many Concurrent LLM Agent Sessions - the supervision problem the whole category answers
- OpenChamber - scheduled sessions, the non-interactive complement to parallel dispatch
References #
https://github.com/smtg-ai/claude-squad - profiles, worktrees, packaging for the Claude Squad column
https://github.com/google/ax - repository, primitives, license, and status for the AX column
https://agentexecutor.io - the Task, Workspace, Gateway, and Model model for the AX column
https://cmux.com/pricing - tiers, the 50-VM cloud cap, CodeRouter removal for the cmux column
https://conductor.build/pricing/ - tiers, sandbox specs, local versus cloud privacy for the Conductor column
https://github.com/stravu/crystal - deprecation notice and feature history for the Crystal column
https://github.com/standardagents/dmux - supported agent list, hooks, local-only scope for the dmux column
https://emdash.com/ - agent support, SSH model, downloads for the Emdash column
https://github.com/BloopAI/vibe-kanban - sunset banner and feature list for the Vibe Kanban column
https://github.com/gastownhall/gastown - architecture, runtimes, Refinery, Docker setup for the Gas Town column
https://github.com/slopus/happy - repository, stars, license, and monorepo layout for the Happy Coder column
https://paseo.sh/alternatives/happy-coder - the provider, worktree, and platform limits for the Happy Coder column
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44904039 - launch thread and donation-IAP context for the Happy Coder pricing cell
https://maggieappleton.com/gastown - the field analysis grounding the Gas Town status and cost cells
https://github.com/omnara-ai/omnara - control plane, license, and stars for the Omnara column
https://www.vibekanban.com/blog/shutdown - shutdown date, service removal, refunds for the status row
https://github.com/getpaseo/paseo - platforms, agent catalog, relay, and license for the Paseo column
https://github.com/superset-sh/superset - worktree model, presets, ELv2 license, and funding for the Superset column
https://github.com/max-sixty/worktrunk - commands, hooks, license, and release cadence for the Worktrunk column
https://air.dev/ - supported agents, isolation options, and pricing FAQ for the JetBrains Air column
https://air.dev/changelog - current version 262.834.41 and platform dates for the JetBrains Air status cell
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/air/execution-environments.html - the worktree, Docker, and cloud isolation model for the JetBrains Air isolation cells
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/air/cloud-tasks.html - the JetBrains-managed cloud environments for the JetBrains Air cloud cell
https://github.com/stablyai/orca - repository, worktrees, 27-agent list, MIT license, and stars for the Orca column
https://www.onorca.dev/docs - worktrees, review, remote, and the “not a model” scope for the Orca cells
https://github.com/mattpocock/sandcastle - sandbox providers, branch strategy, hooks, and license for the Sandcastle column
https://registry.npmjs.org/@ai-hero%2Fsandcastle - Sandcastle package version and license
https://lanes.sh/pricing - tiers, seats, and Compute billing for the Lanes price cell
https://github.com/lanes-sh/app - board, sessions, worktrees, and the undeclared license for the Lanes column
https://github.com/crewplaneai/crewplane - Markdown workflows, resumable runs, and license for the Crewplane column
https://helmor.ai/ - local-first workbench, agents, and ship actions for the Helmor column
https://github.com/dohooo/helmor - worktrees, one-click PR and merge, CLI and MCP, and the cooling commit cadence for Helmor
https://github.com/openswarm-ai/openswarm - canvas, approvals, worktrees, and the AGPL-3.0 LICENSE for the Open Swarm column
https://www.looptroop.ovh/docs/ - council planning, beads, Ralph loops, and alpha status for the LoopTroop column
https://graphcode.app/ - loop types, graph edges, and the FSL license for the GraphCode column
https://github.com/daman8271/the-perfect-orchestrator - lead-and-worker harness, adversarial verification, and license for the column
https://github.com/multica-ai/multica - issue assignment, runtimes, license metadata, and stars for the Multica column
https://www.promptquorum.com/power-local-llm/multica-review - the star-count caveat and the custom-license analysis for the Multica cells
https://github.com/Yeachan-Heo/oh-my-codex - skills, worktree teams, MCP servers, and license for the oh-my-codex column
https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig - repository, Apache-2.0 license, stars, and the setup footprint that writes provider trust and hooks for the OpenRig column
https://github.com/desplega-ai/agent-swarm - repository, MIT license, lead/worker architecture, and stars for the Agent Swarm column
https://docs.agent-swarm.dev - intake surfaces, Docker worker model, workflows, and the harness list for the Agent Swarm column
https://agentgrid.sh/ - the canvas, panes, master/worker MCP delegation, and harness list for the AgentGrid column
https://agentgrid.sh/pricing - the Free and Pro tiers behind the AgentGrid price cell (fetched 2026-10-02; HTTP 500 on re-fetch 2026-10-03)
https://github.com/AgentsMesh/AgentsMesh - repository, BSL-1.1 license, AgentPod architecture, and stars for the AgentsMesh column
https://github.com/block/buzz - repository, Apache-2.0 license, surfaces, and stars for the Buzz column
https://openrig.dev/what-is - the rig, pod, and seat model and the local control-plane architecture for the OpenRig cells
https://openrig.dev/docs/getting-started - prerequisites, starters, and the cross-harness team model for the OpenRig column
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48241066 - the isolation question that grounds the OpenRig worktree and sandbox cells
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47772935 - the supervision concern raised on the OpenRig launch thread