The best tools to run multiple coding agents in parallel (2026), checked and sourced

By Anurag Sharma. Last checked: October 26, 2026.

The right tool for running multiple coding agents in parallel depends on how you work. Pick Conductor for a polished Mac app with cloud sandboxes. Pick Orca for a free, open-source app on every desktop OS with a large community, or T3 Code, by Theo Browne and team, if you want a hosted web app. Pick Traycer if you run agents from more than one vendor and want them to share specs and tickets, message and review each other, and stay reachable from iOS or Android, on Windows, macOS or Linux. Use Claude Code's or Codex's built-in worktrees and subagents when you only use one agent.

All of them give each agent its own git worktree so parallel work doesn't collide, and all of them use the agent subscriptions you already pay for. They differ in platform (several are Mac-only), license (MIT, Apache, ELv2, AGPL, GPL or proprietary), what's free versus paid (mobile, cloud, teams), and whether agents can coordinate with each other or only run side by side. If you're running Claude Code, Codex and Cursor as AI coding agents and one terminal tab isn't enough, start here.

Disclosure: Traycer makes this page. We've tried to be fair and link every claim to the vendor's own site or docs.

Quick picks#

How we compared them#

• Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux, web and phone.
• License: open source, source-available or proprietary.
• Price and what's free: the entry plan and the team plan, with exact plan names.
• Agents: which agents each runs, and whether you bring your own subscription.
• Isolation and coordination: how agents are kept apart, whether they can share a plan or message each other, and how you reach them from a phone or another machine.

Each tool was checked on its own site, docs, pricing page or GitHub on October 26, 2026.

The full comparison table#

Parallel coding agent tools, last checked October 26, 2026. "Not documented" means it wasn't on the cited pages that day. "Not checked" means we didn't verify it for this page.

Desktop workspaces for parallel coding agents#

Conductor#

Conductor (conductor.build) is a Mac app from Melty Labs that "lets you run many coding agents in parallel on your codebase" (llms.txt (external site)). Each task gets a workspace with its own branch, files and terminal, and Conductor walks you through review, PR, merge and archive. It runs Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode, and "does not bill or resell model usage" (providers (external site)). Its review loop is the strongest here: line comments back to the agent, a Checks tab, checkpoints and stacks. Pro ($50/month) adds Conductor Cloud (Vercel sandboxes that keep running with the app closed), Multiplayer, an API and the iOS app. Teams is $60/user/month (pricing (external site)). Conductor says it is "Trusted by 100k+ builders" on its homepage.

Best for: Mac developers who want cloud sandboxes and a polished PR loop.

Watch out for: macOS only, and proprietary. See Traycer vs Conductor.

Orca#

Orca is a free, open source (MIT) app that runs "Claude Code, Codex, and any other coding agent in parallel, each in its own worktree," with terminals, diffs, a browser and a CLI (onorca.dev (external site)). It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and has a mobile companion on the App Store plus an Android APK. Its community is large: about 106,000 GitHub stars on October 26, 2026 (repo (external site)). Its site also lists an Enterprise offering.

Best for: anyone who wants a free, open-source app on every desktop OS with phone access.

Watch out for: a very fast release pace. Version 1.4.241 shipped on October 26, 2026, so re-check features before you rely on one. See Traycer vs Orca.

T3 Code#

T3 Code, by Theo Browne and team, calls itself "the open-source control plane for coding agents" (t3.codes (external site)). It's MIT-licensed and free, with no paid tier. It orchestrates Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, OpenCode, Cursor and Grok with the credentials you already have. A local server runs your agents, and you reach it from the desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) or its hosted web app at app.t3.codes (repo (external site)). Its v0.1.0 release added delegate_task, which lets "an agent start child agents on any provider or model and wait for their results" (v0.1.0 notes (external site)).

Best for: a lightweight control plane you can drive from a browser through its hosted web app.

Watch out for: it's still v0.1.x (v0.1.2 on October 22, 2026). See Traycer vs T3 Code.

Traycer#

Traycer is an open source (MIT) desktop app for running Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other coding agents in parallel on macOS, Windows and Linux, with shared plans and code review (docs (external site)). It supports 22 coding agents (coding agents (external site)). Work lives in Tasks: each holds its agents, a worktree per agent, and artifacts (specs, tickets, stories and reviews) that every agent reads (artifact workflow (external site)). Agents can message each other across Tasks and machines (agent-to-agent (external site)). A second agent can review a change and write a review artifact, and Send to chat returns each finding to the agent that wrote it (review guide (external site)). The iOS and Android companion apps and remote hosts on your own machines are free. Team-wide sharing is on Sync at $16/user/month billed yearly (pricing (external site)). Traycer is SOC 2 Type 2 certified. Its homepage reports 11,000+ developers using Traycer Desktop and 40,000+ Tasks created (traycer.ai).

Best for: teams running agents from several vendors in parallel that needs shared context- shared plan and review step, on any desktop OS.

Watch out for: no hosted cloud sandboxes (coming soon), no line comments on diffs, no built-in scheduler (it uses the CLI plus your own cron) and no SSO.

Paradev (formerly Superset)#

Paradev, formerly Superset, is a desktop workspace for Claude Code, Codex "and any coding agent" (paradev.com (external site)). It's source-available under the Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2), which its site notes "is not OSI-approved open source." Its site offers a macOS download. Free covers one user. Pro ($20/user/month, or $16 billed yearly) adds remote access, automations, Linear and Slack integrations and mobile. Team ($60, or $54 yearly) adds cloud workspaces in beta with 150 hours per seat each month. Ultra is $200/user/month (pricing (external site)).

Best for: Mac teams that want automations and hosted cloud workspaces.

Watch out for: it was recently renamed from Superset to Paradev, so older guides use the old name.

Nimbalyst#

Nimbalyst is an open source (MIT) visual workspace for agents, tasks, docs, a wiki, diagrams and code (nimbalyst.com (external site)). It runs on Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows and Linux, works with your Claude Code or Codex subscription, and includes worktrees and a mobile app for remote session and file management. It's free for individuals. Wiki Teams, a shared wiki that "every teammate's agents write into," is $20/user/month and free during its beta (pricing (external site)).

Best for: people who want docs, diagrams and an agent-maintained wiki next to their agents.

Watch out for: the team wiki is still in beta.

Emdash#

Emdash is an open-source (Apache-2.0) "agentic development environment" for macOS, Windows and Linux, backed by Y Combinator (emdash.com (external site), repo (external site)). Its site covers running agents in parallel, scheduling repeat work, a built-in browser for previews, and passing issues from Linear, Jira, GitHub, Notion, Asana and others straight to agents.

Best for: teams that want scheduled agent runs and issue-tracker intake in an open-source app.

Watch out for: Emdash 2.0 is in early access behind a waitlist, so features may shift.

Parallel Code#

Parallel Code is a free, MIT-licensed app that runs "multiple AI coding agents, each in its own git worktree" on macOS and Linux (parallelcode.app (external site)). It supports Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI and Antigravity CLI, and shows what each agent changed and what was checked before you choose what ships.

Best for: a simple, open-source worktree runner on macOS or Linux.

Watch out for: no Windows build listed.

Terminal-first options#

cmux#

cmux is a "free and open source native macOS terminal built on Ghostty," licensed under the GPL (cmux.com (external site)). It has vertical tabs, notification rings when agents need attention, split panes, a CLI for scripting, and an iOS companion that syncs your terminals to iPhone and iPad. It uses libghostty for rendering and isn't a fork of Ghostty. It's a terminal, not a task manager: you bring your own worktree habits.

Best for: Mac users who live in the terminal.

Claude Squad#

Claude Squad is a terminal app that "manages multiple Claude Code, Codex, Gemini (and other local agents including Aider) in separate workspaces" (repo (external site)). It needs tmux and the GitHub CLI, isolates tasks in git workspaces, and is licensed under AGPL v3.0 (site (external site)).

Best for: a minimal tmux setup with any CLI agent.

Watch out for: the repo's last push was August 20, 2026.

Built into the agents: do you need a separate app at all?#

Claude Code: subagents, agent view, agent teams, worktrees and projects#

Anthropic's docs list "five ways to work on several tasks at once": subagents, agent view, agent teams, dynamic workflows and projects (run agents in parallel (external site)).

• Agent view (claude agents) is one screen to dispatch and monitor background sessions. It's a research preview.
• Subagents run inside a session. By default, when 20 subagents are running, spawning another fails until the count drops. Set CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_CONCURRENT_SUBAGENTS to change the limit (subagents (external site)).
• Agent teams are "experimental and disabled by default." Set CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1 to turn them on. Teammates share a task list and message each other directly. The docs say "There's no hard limit on the number of teammates" and suggest you "Start with 3-5 teammates for most workflows" (agent teams (external site)).
• Projects run parallel threads in the cloud or on your computer. They're in public beta on Pro and Max.
• Worktrees: claude --worktree (or -w) starts a session in its own git worktree so changes don't collide (worktrees (external site)).

Codex in the ChatGPT desktop app#

OpenAI's Codex app docs now point to the ChatGPT desktop app (app docs (external site)). Worktrees let Codex "run multiple independent chats in the same project without interfering with each other," and scheduled tasks can run on dedicated background worktrees (worktrees (external site)). In the ChatGPT iOS app you can open Codex to work with chats on a connected Mac or Windows machine (remote connections (external site)). Subagents are documented too. It runs Codex only.

Cursor: Agents Window and Cloud Agents#

Cursor's Agents Window is its "agent-first interface," a single place to work with agents "across repos and environments, including local, cloud, remote SSH, and more" (Agents Window (external site)). You can hand a task to a cloud subagent with /in-cloud, so long-running work runs on its own VM and branch. Cloud Agents "run in isolated VMs in the cloud with full development environments" (Cloud Agents (external site)).

The takeaway#

If you use one vendor's agent, its built-in features may be enough. A separate app earns its place when you mix vendors (Claude Code plus Codex plus Cursor), want one place to review everything, or want agents from different vendors to share a plan and coordinate. For the agents themselves, see Codex vs Claude Code and Cursor vs Claude Code vs Codex.

A note on Vibe Kanban#

Vibe Kanban (Apache-2.0, about 28,500 GitHub stars on October 26, 2026) was popular, and AI answers still recommend it. Its site now says it "is sunsetting" and "will continue as open source and community maintained" (vibekanban.com (external site)), so know that before you adopt it.

How to choose#

• On Windows or Linux? Orca, T3 Code, Traycer, Nimbalyst and Emdash run on all three desktop OSes. Parallel Code adds Linux.
• Need open source? Drop Conductor (proprietary) and Paradev (ELv2, source-available).
• Need agents to coordinate on one plan? Traycer, or Claude Code agent teams if every agent is Claude.
• Need cloud sandboxes that run while your laptop is closed? Conductor Pro, Paradev Team or Cursor Cloud Agents.
• Team sharing on a budget? Compare Traycer Sync ($16/user/month yearly; sharing a Task with invited people is free), Paradev Pro ($16/user/month yearly) and Conductor Teams ($60/user/month).

How to run multiple Claude Code or Codex agents in parallel without an app#

You don't need an app to start. You need one worktree per agent.

1. Create a worktree per task: git worktree add ../myapp-auth -b feat/auth (a separate checkout on its own branch).
2. Open a terminal in each worktree and start one agent there, such as claude or codex. Claude Code can also do this for you with claude --worktree auth.
3. Give each agent a narrow task that doesn't touch the same files as the others.
4. Review each branch's diff on its own, then merge or open a PR.
5. Remove the worktree when you're done: git worktree remove ../myapp-auth.

This stops scaling once you lose track of which terminal is doing what, or need agents to hand work to each other. That's the job the apps above automate: worktrees, terminals, review, and in some cases shared plans and messaging. Traycer's guide shows the same pattern inside a Task (parallel agents on worktrees (external site)).

FAQ#

Try Traycer#

• Download Traycer (free, open source)
• Run agents in parallel on worktrees (external site)