# Conductor vs Letta

> Letta scores 59.7 (C) to Conductor's 41.3 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-letta
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-letta.md (~5,400 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Letta scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Conductor leads on security & auth. Both do agent harnesses.

- Conductor: grade E, 41.3/100, rank #1285 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/conductor.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/conductor.json
- Letta: grade C, 59.7/100, rank #684 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/letta.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/letta.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 1500 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md
- Best memory layers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-memory/index.md
- All 353 memory comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-memory/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Conductor (E)

Good for: Existing Conductor users planning their move before Cloud closes on 20 November 2026 and the local app winds down in early 2027.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 45 against 35

Watch for: No new downloads or sign-ups since 4 November 2026

### Letta (C)

Good for: Long-lived coding agents and assistants that keep memory and identity across sessions and machines.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 58 against 25
- Schema & documentation, 70 against 60
- Agent ergonomics, 67 against 55
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 58

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: The default permission mode is `unrestricted`, the renamed `bypassPermissions`, so tool calls aren't confirmed unless the user picks another mode


## Why the edge

### Payments & pricing: Letta +60

- 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).
- Letta (60): No x402, MPP or L402 (0 of 40). Per-unit API prices are public, $0.10 per active agent a month and $0.00015 a second of tool execution, plus plan prices (20). A $0 plan with bring-your-own keys; no card is mentioned (20). The CLI runs locally without signing in (20). Total 60.

### Reliability: Letta +33

- 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.
- Letta (58): Local-software lines, read for the harness. `@letta-ai/letta-code` on npm with Node.js 22.19 or newer, and PyPI wheels for glibc Linux, macOS 14 and Windows x64 with Python 3.9 or newer stated (20). ci.yml, nightly update smoke tests and Telegram live smoke tests exist, but GitHub's API answered with a rate limit, so run results were unread (15 of 25, unchecked). 332 open issues and pull requests, mostly pull requests; recent bug reports such as recall reading the wrong conversation have no reply yet (15 of 25). 398 tags at 0.34.x with release notes on GitHub, no changelog file, and breaking removals such as AgentFile announced in the README (8 of 15). Pre-1.0 (0). Total 58.

### Maintenance & community: Letta +27

- Conductor (58): 0.93.0 on 4 November 2026 (30). Several dated releases in 90 days, per the changelog index (20). Discord, a subreddit and email for support (8). Closed app, no package or CI to read (0). 30 + 20 + 8 + 0 + 0 = 58. The local app gets new models and critical fixes only until early 2027.
- Letta (85): v0.34.42 on 6 November 2026 (30). Dozens of releases in 90 days (20). Pull requests are merged daily; recent issues from users have few replies (15 of 25). npm and PyPI packages and the Agent SDK track the releases (12 of 15). Lock files, CI and nightly smoke tests (8 of 10). Total 85.

### Agent ergonomics: Letta +12

- 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).
- Letta (67): Harness reading. Toolsets switch with `/model`, skills load per agent, and subagents run in the background (18 of 25). Context is managed through memory blocks, reflection and dreaming (12 of 20). `letta -p --output-format json` for scripted runs and an App Server for programmatic control (12 of 20). Conversations resume by agent and conversation id, and memory is git-tracked so changes can be reverted (15 of 20). Runs with no account on the local backend, with one SDK language, TypeScript (10 of 15). Total 67.

### Schema & documentation: Letta +10

- 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).
- Letta (70): Harness reading. docs.letta.com serves llms.txt and a Markdown version of every page, with an `applies_to` block saying which backend and interface each page covers (10). TypeScript types for the Agent SDK and a documented App Server WebSocket protocol, but no JSON Schema or OpenAPI for the harness (15 of 25). Pages say when to use local or cloud backends, subagents and channels (14 of 20). Permission modes and options are typed in the SDK (12 of 15). Example applications and a remote client reference (11 of 15). Releases most days but no changelog file (8 of 15). Total 70.

### Security & auth: Conductor +10

- 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.
- Letta (35): 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 injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Letta Cloud is the default backend, so agent state and conversations go to Letta's servers, and telemetry is on by default (10 of 30). The default permission mode is `unrestricted`; `standard`, `acceptEdits` and `strict` are opt-in, and cloud sandboxes exist for remote work (4 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance found for fetched pages or channel messages (5 of 15). Conversation search and git history of memory give an operator a record of what the agent saw and changed (10 of 15). SECURITY.md routes reports to support@letta.com and scopes out the retired server; no security.txt, bounty or certification found (6 of 20). Total 35.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Conductor | Letta | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 25 | 58 | Letta +33 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 70 | Letta +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 67 | Letta +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 45 | 35 | Conductor +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 60 | Letta +60 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 85 | Letta +27 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 55 | Letta +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **41.3 · E** | **59.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Conductor | Letta |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Conductor (joining Meta) | Letta |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary. A closed-source Mac app and hosted Conductor Cloud under Conductor's terms | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |
| Popularity | none | 3.8k stars, 86k npm/wk, 2.2k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Conductor.** Conductor ran parallel coding agents on the Mac, and Meta is acquiring it. It has taken no new users since 4 November 2026, Cloud turns read-only on 13 November and shuts down on 20 November, and the local app winds down in early 2027, when all user data is deleted.

**Letta.** Letta's open-source harness gives agents git-tracked memory blocks, skills, subagents and headless JSON runs, with a $0 plan and public per-agent API prices. It starts in the unrestricted permission mode, defaults to Letta Cloud, sends usage telemetry unless LETTA_CODE_TELEM=0 is set, and the V1 API server the comparisons describe is retired.

## Before you call either

### Conductor

1. Export your data from Settings, Account, Export data before 20 November 2026
2. Move Cloud workspaces to your Mac with Transfer to local before 13 November
3. Plan a move off the local app before early 2027; see the agent-harnesses category for alternatives

### Letta

1. Start headless runs with an explicit permission mode such as `standard` or `strict`; the default auto-approves tools
2. Pass `--backend local` for work that must stay on the machine, since Letta Cloud is the default
3. Set LETTA_CODE_TELEM=0 in unattended runs if usage events must not be sent
4. Use `letta -p --output-format json` for scripted runs and parse the JSON, not the terminal output
5. Don't plan on the retired V1 REST server or `.af` AgentFile import; both are gone

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Conductor or Letta?

Letta scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Conductor leads on security & auth.

### Are Conductor and Letta open source?

No open-source release is listed for Conductor. Letta is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-letta.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-letta.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "conductor", "b": "letta"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare conductor letta`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/conductor.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/letta.json

## Other comparisons with Conductor or Letta

- [Agent Zero vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-conductor.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-letta.md)
- [Aider vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-conductor.md)
- [Aider vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-letta.md)
- [Amp vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-conductor.md)
- [Amp vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-letta.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-conductor.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-letta.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-conductor.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-letta.md)
- [AXLR vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-conductor.md)
- [AXLR vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-letta.md)
- [Claude Code vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-conductor.md)
- [Claude Code vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-letta.md)
- [Cline vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-conductor.md)
- [Cline vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-letta.md)
- [Conductor vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-crush.md)
- [Conductor vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Conductor vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Conductor vs dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-deepseek-superagent.md)
- [Conductor vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-devin.md)
- [Conductor vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Conductor vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Conductor vs Emdash](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-emdash.md)
- [Conductor vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Conductor vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Conductor vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-goose.md)
- [Conductor vs Harness²](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-harness2.md)
- [Conductor vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [Conductor vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-jules.md)
- [Conductor vs Junie CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-junie.md)
- [Conductor vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Conductor vs Kimi Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-kimi-code-cli.md)
- [Conductor vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-kiro-cli.md)
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- [Conductor vs MiniMax Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-minimax-code.md)
- [Conductor vs Mistral Vibe CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-mistral-vibe-cli.md)
- [Conductor vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Conductor vs OpenAI Agents API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-openai-agents-api.md)
- [Conductor vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Conductor vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-opencode.md)
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- [Conductor vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-qoder-cli.md)
- [Conductor vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Conductor vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Conductor vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [Conductor vs Sculptor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-sculptor.md)
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- [Conductor vs Unstoppable](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-unstoppable.md)
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- [Conductor vs Vibe-Trading](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-vibe-trading.md)
- [Conductor vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-warp.md)
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- [Cursor CLI vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-letta.md)
- [DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-letta.md)
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- [Emdash vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-letta.md)
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- [Letta vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-muse-code.md)
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- [Letta vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Letta vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-qoder-cli.md)
- [Letta vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Letta vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Letta vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [Letta vs Sculptor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-sculptor.md)
- [Letta vs T3 Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-t3-code.md)
- [Letta vs Traycer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-traycer.md)
- [Letta vs Unstoppable](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-unstoppable.md)
- [Letta vs Verdent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-verdent.md)
- [Letta vs Vibe-Trading](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-vibe-trading.md)
- [Letta vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-warp.md)
- [Clawboo vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clawboo-vs-conductor.md)
- [Clawboo vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clawboo-vs-letta.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-conductor.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-letta.md)
- [Conductor vs Harness](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-harness-autonomous.md)
- [Conductor vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-paperclip.md)
- [Conductor vs Parallax](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-parallax-agents.md)
- [Harness vs Letta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-letta.md)
- [Letta vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-paperclip.md)
- [Letta vs Parallax](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-parallax-agents.md)

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp