# CLI Manager vs Conductor (slim)

> CLI Manager scores 66.4 (B) to Conductor's 41.3 (E) for multi-agent orchestration. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-conductor.md (~6,000 tokens) · this version ~2,480 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-conductor.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-conductor
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

CLI Manager scores 66.4 (B) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- CLI Manager: B 66.4, rank #368 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cli-manager.min.md
- Conductor: E 41.3, rank #1285 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/conductor.min.md
- CLI Manager, good for A developer on macOS who runs several coding agents and wants another agent to start and watch sessions where the person can see and step in. Ahead on Reliability, 68 against 25; Schema & documentation, 87 against 60; Agent ergonomics, 65 against 55; Security & auth, 58 against 45; Payments & pricing, 60 against 0; Transparency & trust, 58 against 53. Also Free to start without a card; Open source.
- Conductor, good for Existing Conductor users planning their move before Cloud closes on 20 November 2026 and the local app winds down in early 2027.

| Category | CLI Manager | Conductor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 68 | 25 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 87 | 60 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 55 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 58 | 45 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 0 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 62 | 58 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 58 | 53 |

| Fact (where they differ) | CLI Manager | Conductor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | solhun (Jeong Kyeonghun) | Conductor (joining Meta) |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary. A closed-source Mac app and hosted Conductor Cloud under Conductor's terms |
| Tools exposed | 27 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-04 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-14 | not read yet |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-14 | not read yet |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Popularity | 15 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, CLI Manager +60: CLI Manager 60 (No payment protocol (0). Read with the self-hosted rule. Free under MIT with nothing to buy since v1.5.0 (20). No card or account (20). Download and enable the API with no signup (20). The paid Pro licence of versions 1.0 to 1.4 was removed on 8 April 2026, so there is no paid option to score.); Conductor 0 (No new sign-ups since 4 November, free users can't upgrade, and no price is shown. No protocol, no published price, no open free tier, no onboarding (0).)
- Reliability, CLI Manager +43: CLI Manager 68 (Read as local software. Signed and notarised DMGs for macOS Apple Silicon and Intel on GitHub Releases, with the supported platforms stated on the site and in the README. No package registry (20). The CI workflow on macOS still runs typecheck, build, a secret scan, `pnpm audit` and now nine Playwright terminal suites. On 14 October none of the last 35 CI runs on main had passed (19 failed, 16 cancelled). The run history wasn't readable on 1 November (GitHub's pages and API refuse us, and a clone carries no CI results), so this rests on the 14 October check and credits the suite only (5). No issue count could be read on 1 November. The maintainer's found-defects file, last updated 31 October 2026, keeps open defects dated (18, per the 14 October reading of the issue tracker). Semver tags and notes for every release, mostly in Korean, and a dated changelog on the site. Breaking changes are not marked as such (10). Version 1.24.0, past 1.0 since 4 December 2025 (15).); Conductor 25 (Read as local software that is winding down. Installed from Conductor's own download, which stopped taking new users on 4 November 2026 (10). Closed source, so no public CI or issue tracker (0, 0). A dated changelog, newest 0.93.0 on 4 November (15). Version 0.93 (0). 10 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 25.)
- Schema & documentation, CLI Manager +27: CLI Manager 87 (The MCP server lists 27 tools (12 on 14 October; checklist, inbox, session-folder and relation tools were added between v1.18.0 and v1.24.0), each with a typed JSON Schema input and required fields marked. `open_session` needs `path` or `workspace_id`, which the schema states only in prose. No OpenAPI for the REST side (22). llms.txt at climanager.solhun.com (10). Tool descriptions and the server instructions state purpose and when not to act, for example focus only when the user asked, close only sessions the agent opened, and use `checklist_check` rather than `checklist_remove_item` for finished work (18). Enums on `scope`, `mode`, `status` and `kind`. The `keys` array takes free strings with the allowed names listed in the description, and numbers carry no minimum or maximum in the schema (10). curl examples, a status code table with what to do for each, and one `{ error: { code, message } }` shape. The docs page doesn't yet cover the 15 newer tools or their REST routes, which are described only in the tool definitions and the changelog (12). REST lives under `/v1`, with release notes and a site changelog (15).); Conductor 60 (Harness reading. Docs for workspaces, review and merge, a Conductor API reference page linked from the docs (not read), and security and permissions pages (60).)
- Security & auth, CLI Manager +13: CLI Manager 58 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. No telemetry or analytics found in the source. Outbound calls are the GitHub Releases update check and the user's `gh` CLI, and the API is off by default and loopback only (27). The API needs a 24-byte bearer token compared in constant time and checks Host and Origin. Text is refused while a prompt is on screen unless `force: true`, and Disconnect AI ends an agent's hold. Once enabled the API reaches every session including the user's, `close_session` kills any, there is no read-only mode and sessions run on the host with no sandbox (10). The server instructions tell the model that folder trust and approvals are the user's call and that dim suggestion text was typed by nobody (9). Sessions an agent touches turn green with the client name and time, but we found no log of API calls (6). No SECURITY.md, security.txt or bug bounty. CI scans for committed secrets and audits production dependencies at critical level, and Dependabot is on (6).); Conductor 45 (Closed app. Telemetry and data handling weren't read beyond the transition notice (10 of 30). A security and permissions page (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance found (5). No audit log found (5). SOC 2 Type II report at trust.conductor.build (15 of 20). 10 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 15 = 45.)
- Agent ergonomics, CLI Manager +10: CLI Manager 65 (27 compact tools, in the 11 to 30 band (15). `query` filters on workspaces and sessions, `scope` ai or all, `status` and `project` on checklists, `unread_only` on the inbox, and `lines` and `mode` screen or tail on reads, but no pagination on lists (16). Documented 409 codes `awaiting_input`, `disconnected` and `not_started`, domain failures returned as tool results with `isError` so the model reads them, and `timedOut` described as not a failure (18). No readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations, and `open_session` repeated opens a second session. Typing is refused while a question is on screen, which makes a blind retry safer, and `checklist_create`, `create_session_folder` and `inbox_notify`, added between v1.18.0 and v1.24.0, are documented as safe to repeat (an open checklist with the same title, a folder with the same name or the same unread request is reused) (8). Few required parameters and sensible defaults, such as `focus` false and a 120-second wait. No SDK, only the `climanager-session` agent skill with a Node script (8).); Conductor 55 (Harness reading. Each task gets a workspace, branch, terminal and diff, with pull requests and merges from the app, and an API for integrations; not re-read in detail (55).)
- Transparency & trust, CLI Manager +5: CLI Manager 58 (MIT in LICENSE and as detected by GitHub, while package.json still declares ISC at v1.24.0 (27). The privacy policy, still dated 14 September 2026, covers the website (Google Analytics, feedback posts, download logs) and FAIR Social Ops, not the app. The site FAQ and llms.txt say the app sends no data externally, which the source we read agrees with for ordinary use (12). No deprecation policy. Dated release notes only (4). No telemetry found to disclose. A feedback widget added in v1.14.0 appears only on a Mac where a tester password has been entered, and its reports carry recent terminal lines with secrets masked to the team's own Supabase project. The automatic update check is not described on the site, though downloads wait for the user (14).); Conductor 53 (Closed service with terms and privacy pages (15). The transition notice says when Cloud data deletion begins (20 November) and that all user data is deleted when the app shuts down in early 2027 (20 of 30). Dated shutdown notice (15 of 20). SOC 2 report on a trust portal, subprocessors not read (10 of 20). 15 + 20 + 15 + 10 = 60.)