Orbit / Conductor alternative
A Conductor alternative that runs on Windows
Conductor is a good product and the best known one in this category. It is also Apple Silicon only, and it has been clear that this is by design. If you are on Windows, or you run agents other than Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, this page is for you.
The short version
- Conductor is macOS only, built in Swift and AppKit. Orbit ships macOS and a Windows x64 build of the same product.
- Conductor lists Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. Orbit has first-class presets for ten agent CLIs and runs anything else you can start from a terminal.
- Conductor's free tier is the local product; its paid tier sells cloud workspace hours. Orbit's free tier is the local product; its paid tier sells sync, phone control and teams.
- Orbit runs your lint, typecheck and test commands before it marks work ready for review. That is the part that changes how much of the output you actually have to read.
Side by side
| Conductor | Orbit | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | macOS, Apple Silicon | macOS (Apple Silicon), Windows 10/11 x64 |
| Agent CLIs | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor Agent, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Copilot, Amp, Droid, Aider, Pi, plus anything else in a terminal |
| Isolation | One workspace per task | One git worktree per task, own branch, own terminals, own ports |
| Checks before 'ready' | Review the diff yourself | Your lint, typecheck and test commands run first. Failures become an error state, not a review request |
| Blocked-agent detection | You see status in the workspace list | The rendered terminal screen is read for blocking prompts; the workspace flips to needs-input with the question attached |
| Merging | Review and merge from the app | Single-writer lane per repo. Conflicts materialise in the agent's worktree, never in your checkout |
| Phone | Mobile app listed as coming | Installable PWA with push notifications, on the paid tier |
| Other surfaces | Desktop app, API on the paid tier | CLI, MCP server, TypeScript SDK, headless daemon |
| Source | Closed | Closed. Details here |
| Free tier | Local workspaces, bring your own keys | The entire local product, no account |
| Paid tier | Cloud workspace hours and multiplayer | Cloud sync, phone control, teams, $20 per user per month |
When Conductor is the better choice
Worth saying plainly, because a comparison page that finds no reason to pick the other product is an advertisement.
- You are on a Mac, you only use Claude Code or Codex, and you want the most polished native app in this category. Conductor is Swift rather than Electron, and you can feel it.
- You want agents running on someone else's machine. Conductor sells cloud workspaces; Orbit runs everything on yours and has no cloud compute at all.
- You want several people watching the same set of agents. Conductor sells multiplayer; Orbit's teams support is org accounts and shared sync, which is a smaller thing.
- You want a funded company with a support contract behind the tool. Conductor has raised a Series A. Orbit is one person.
The Windows gap is structural
Conductor is written in Swift and AppKit, which are Apple's frameworks. A Windows version is a rewrite rather than a build target, which is presumably why it has not appeared. If you are on Windows and you want this category of tool, your options are the cross-platform ones, and there are fewer of them than the category's size suggests.
Orbit's Windows build is the same application as the macOS one: NSIS installer or a portable exe, x64. The Windows install page covers requirements and the SmartScreen step, because the builds are not code-signed yet.
The difference that actually shows up in a day of work
Running ten agents is easy. Every tool in this category does it. The problem starts about twenty minutes later, when three of them have finished, one is waiting for you to answer a question it asked eight minutes ago, one has quietly failed, and you cannot tell which is which without opening all ten.
Orbit's answer is that finishing is not a status you get by saying so. When an agent stops, Orbit runs the commands you configured for that repo. If they pass, the workspace enters the queue as ready for review. If they fail, it enters as an error with the output attached. Meanwhile any agent that is sitting on a question surfaces at the top of the same queue with the question visible, so you can answer it without hunting through terminals.
One list, ranked, with j and k to move through it. That is the whole interface for the part of the day that used to be checking on things.
Switching costs about five minutes
Both tools work by creating git worktrees against your existing repository, so there is nothing to migrate. Point Orbit at the same repo, set your verify commands, and start adding tasks. Any worktrees another tool created are left alone. If you decide against it, delete the app and the ~/.orbit folder and your repository is exactly as it was.
Running both for a week costs nothing, since both free tiers are the full local product.
Try it on the machine you actually have
Free for individuals, ten agent CLIs, no account needed.
Builds are unsigned. Both install pages walk through the first launch.