Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Conductor vs Muse Code

Muse Code scores 56.2 (C) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

Conductor E

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

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Muse Code loses 5 points for them

Watch for

No new downloads or sign-ups since 4 November 2026

Muse Code C

Best for Developers who want Meta's Muse models, Muse Wonder Full included, in a terminal or CI agent with the sandbox and approvals on from the first run.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 45 against 25
  • Schema & documentation, 84 against 60
  • Agent ergonomics, 79 against 55
  • Security & auth, 67 against 45
  • Payments & pricing, 20 against 0
  • Maintenance & community, 75 against 58

Watch for

Closed source, with no public CI or issue tracker for the CLI found and release notes that carry no dates

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Schema & documentation Muse Code +24

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).

Muse Code 84

Framework reading. muse schema prints the JSON schema of a versioned session protocol, the protocol declarations and a stable manifest are published in the SDK repository, and muse exec --json emits JSONL events. No JSON Schema for settings.json was found (22 of 25). llms.txt at dev.meta.ai/llms.txt with a Markdown copy of each page (10). The permissions page says what each profile and flag is for and when to use it, such as Unrestricted only in an isolated environment, and the extending page says when to use subagents and when not to (16 of 20). Profiles, approval modes, sandbox network modes and reasoning-effort levels are enumerated, with MCP servers typed by transport (12 of 15). Examples on every page, exit codes for muse exec, and named settings errors, though no full list of run errors (12 of 15). A changelog for every version to 1.4.13, with no dates (12 of 15). 22 + 10 + 16 + 12 + 12 + 12 = 84.

Agent ergonomics Muse Code +24

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).

Muse Code 79

Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. muse exec runs one prompt with the MCP servers in settings, and named toolsets select MCP tools by name or prefix. We found no deferred tool loading in Muse Code's own docs (18 of 25). --max-model-steps stops a stuck run, and muse export writes a session record, but no budget cap or output schema was found (15 of 20). Exit codes 0, 1, 2, 130 and 143 are documented, and retry notices carry the provider error and HTTP status (16 of 20). --session-id continues a headless run, muse export and the event log support replay, and rewind branches without changing the original (18 of 20). TypeScript and Python SDKs. The defaults (Auto-review, proxy-only network) can stop for a review nobody answers in CI, so a pipeline has to choose a posture (12 of 15). 18 + 15 + 16 + 18 + 12 = 79.

Security & auth Muse Code +22

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.

Muse Code 67

Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing), five lines. A browser session or a Model API key, cleared by muse logout. Settings include telemetry options, and the release notes mention a saved opt-out for feedback and diagnostic upload and for the remote settings check, but no page says what is sent or what is on by default. Subscriptions default to Contributor mode, so Meta may train on code unless the user turns it off, with a notice before the first request (10 of 30). Ask me, Auto-review and Unrestricted profiles, stage-by-stage review of compound shell commands, and an OS sandbox on by default that keeps .git, .muse and .agents read-only and refuses to run when it can't confirm containment. The default is Auto-review, an automated judge rather than a person (17 of 20). Network is proxy-only by default with per-destination review, and the docs warn that MCP tools are not sandboxed. The 1.4.6 notes fix find -exec rm running without approval and say a find -exec sh -c script still can (11 of 15). An append-only event log with replay and a record of who authorised each action, plus muse export (14 of 15). Meta's bug bounty, named in the SDK's SECURITY.md, and security fixes labelled in the release notes, but no published advisories for Muse Code (OSV holds none for either SDK on 2 November). The 12 October reading of www.facebook.com's security.txt is struck (that host's robots.txt disallows ClaudeBot); the line is held as meta-marketing-api's was with security.txt unread (15 of 20). 10 + 17 + 11 + 14 + 15 = 67. Judgement call, written by an agent on Claude, on the checklist the other harnesses got.

Reliability Muse Code +20

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.

Muse Code 45

Local-package reading. Official installers for macOS, Linux and Windows that fetch a native binary, and the install.sh script checks the launcher's SHA-256 against the advertised sum (20). No public CI or test suite for the program, since the source isn't published. The SDK repository's workflows only publish to npm, PyPI and crates.io, by hand (0). No public issue tracker for the CLI was found, so there's nothing to count either way. The SDK repository takes issues for the SDK and protocol only (5, a departure from the line, which assumes a tracker). Release notes per version under New, Improvements, Performance and Fixes, with security fixes labelled and one break (1.4.8's profile refusal) announced in the 1.4.6 notes, but no dates and no breaking-change heading (5). 1.4.13 (15). Same reading as Claude Code, which is also closed source. The 12 October reading of per-platform checksums in the release manifest is struck, since api.meta.ai's robots.txt now disallows every path. 20 + 0 + 5 + 5 + 15 = 45.

Payments & pricing Muse Code +20

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).

Muse Code 20

Harness reading of the published rubric. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices ($5, $15, $50 and $200 a month) and Model API token prices are public without a login, with plan usage given as multiples of the Everyday plan's 10 to 50 prompts every 5 hours (20). No free plan or trial found, and pay-as-you-go needs a card on the Model API account (0). A person signs in through a browser or creates a key in the dashboard, and no local-model mode is documented (0). 0 + 20 + 0 + 0 = 20.

Maintenance & community Muse Code +17

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.

Muse Code 75

1.4.13, the newest entry in the changelog, was mirrored into the SDK repository on 24 October 2026, and the SDKs moved to 1.4.14 there on 27 October (30). The SDK repository's dated release mirrors since 4 August are 1.3.0 (16 and 17 September), 1.3.1 (21 September), 1.4.2 (30 September), 1.4.4 (8 October), 1.4.6 (11 October), 1.4.7 (13 October), 1.4.8 (14 October), 1.4.9 (15 October), 1.4.10 (16 October), 1.4.11 (19 October), 1.4.12 (22 October), 1.4.13 (24 October) and 1.4.14 (27 October) (20). No public tracker for the CLI. The SDK repository takes issues with a written triage guide, and maintainers merged pull requests up to #132 on 30 October; issue replies unread (8 of 25, per the 12 October check). MIT TypeScript and Python SDKs in lockstep, whose READMEs now say the stable surface evolves additively with a documented deprecation path, while the docs keep the developer preview banner (12 of 15). A checksummed launcher, but no public CI for the program (5 of 10). 30 + 20 + 8 + 12 + 5 = 75.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runConductorMuse CodeEdge
Reliability16%202545Muse Code +20
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26084Muse Code +24
Agent ergonomics13%16.25579Muse Code +24
Security & auth14%17.54567Muse Code +22
Payments & pricing10%12.5020Muse Code +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85875Muse Code +17
Transparency & trust7%8.85356Muse Code +3
Negative events≤150-5
TotalE 41.3/100C 56.2/100

Facts side by side

FactConductorMuse Code
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorConductor (joining Meta)Meta
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary. A closed-source Mac app and hosted Conductor Cloud under Conductor's termsProprietary binary, used under the Meta Model API Terms of Service, which cover Meta's coding harness. Subscriptions are also under the Meta Subscription Terms of Service. The TypeScript and Python SDKs in the linked repository are MIT.
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-11-042026-10-24
Terms last updatednot read yet2026-10-02
Privacy policy last updatednot read yetcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot read yetyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot read yetyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot read yetnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot read yetyes
Popularitynone63k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.3/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

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.

Muse Code

Muse Code runs with approvals and an OS sandbox on by default, per-host network approval, an append-only event log and a headless mode with documented exit codes. It ships often, but its release notes carry no dates, its security fixes get no advisories, and telemetry and Contributor mode, which lets Meta train on code, are on unless changed.

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

Muse Code

  1. Set META_API_KEY for headless runs. Browser sign-in isn't available in CI or for Meta Managed Accounts
  2. Gate on your own test command, not the exit code. muse exec returns 0 when the turn completes even if tests still fail
  3. Pass --max-model-steps on unattended runs so a stuck task can't loop
  4. Prefer --disable-approval to --yolo in CI so the sandbox stays on. On Linux the runner needs a working bubblewrap and a non-musl build
  5. Turn Contributor mode off in /settings before a subscription session touches private code

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Conductor or Muse Code?

Muse Code scores 56.2 (C) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in every scored category.

Other comparisons with Conductor or Muse Code

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