Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
Conductor vs OpenCode
OpenCode scores 68.8 (B) 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
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 OpenCode loses 4 points for them
Watch for
No new downloads or sign-ups since 4 November 2026
OpenCode B
Best for Agents and pipelines that need a scriptable coding agent with a JSON event stream, an HTTP server and any model, including keyless free ones.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 72 against 25
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 60
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 55
- Security & auth, 60 against 45
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 58
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 53
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source
Watch for
Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox
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.
Payments & pricing OpenCode +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).
OpenCode 60
No payment protocol (0). Scored on OpenCode Zen and Go. Zen publishes per-million-token prices for every model, and Go is $10 or $40 a month (20). The MIT package and the free Zen models need no card (20). With no key configured it loads the free Zen models with a public key, so an agent can install it and run a task with no signup at all (20).
Reliability OpenCode +47
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.
OpenCode 72
Read as a local package, graded on the 1.x line that npm i -g opencode-ai and the opencode.ai/install script put on a machine. opencode-ai 1.19.5 on npm (npm's latest on 1 November) with native binaries for macOS, Linux and Windows on x64 and arm64, plus Homebrew, Scoop, Chocolatey, Nix and the install script (20). A test workflow runs on the repository. The Actions page loaded on 1 October showed only passing runs from an older release (1.3.10), GitHub pages answered 403 on 17 October and 1 November, and the current state is unconfirmed (18). About 4,700 open issues and 1,600 open pull requests, handled mostly by scripts that close stale issues daily and flag duplicates, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 17 October or 1 November (8). Releases come almost daily with notes on GitHub and a changelog page. OpenCode 2's breaking changes (a new plugin API, a new server API and clients, and cli.json in place of tui.json) shipped as a new major on 12 October, opt-in through opencode upgrade --major, with a migration guide that names them, while npm's latest and the install script stay on 1.x. The 1.19.4 and 1.19.5 commits change no SDK code and mark no breaking change, but the 1.x release notes weren't read for a breaking-change section (11). 1.19, stable (15).
Schema & documentation OpenCode +28
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).
OpenCode 88
A JSON Schema for the config file at opencode.ai/config.json, and an OpenAPI 3.1 spec for the 1.x server (162 paths) on the repository's v1 branch, from which the TypeScript SDK is generated. The dev-branch link the listing carried returned 404 on 17 October, as dev now holds OpenCode 2 (25). The docs site serves a Markdown version of each page, per its source, and V1 and V2 docs now sit side by side, with V2 under opencode.ai/v2/docs (10). Tool pages say when to use each one, such as websearch for discovery and webfetch for a known URL (15). Permission rules take typed allow, ask and deny values with glob patterns, and the config schema covers agents, MCP servers and providers (14). Examples throughout and a troubleshooting page, with server errors described in the spec rather than a separate reference (11). A dated changelog at opencode.ai/changelog and GitHub releases (13).
Agent ergonomics OpenCode +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).
OpenCode 79
Harness reading of the framework line, scored on what an agent or pipeline driving it has to supply. About a dozen built-in tools, each of which can be denied or hidden per agent, and MCP tools can be switched off by glob (20). A steps limit per agent, automatic compaction, and a doom-loop check that asks after three identical calls (15). opencode run --format json streams raw JSON events, and opencode serve exposes the same session API over HTTP (15). Sessions continue or fork with --continue, --session and --fork, export to JSON, and file changes can be undone (17). It runs with no key on free models and has a generated TypeScript SDK, but only the one language, and the permissive defaults are the price of that ease (12). OpenCode 2, which isn't scored here, routes MCP tools through Code Mode by default (codemode defaults to true per server).
Maintenance & community OpenCode +23
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.
OpenCode 81
1.19.5 on npm on 2026-10-28, 4 days before the check, and v2.2.5 tagged on 30 October (30). 30 releases on the 1.x line (1.18.12 to 1.19.5) in the 90 days to 1 November, plus 44 v2 tags (20). About 4,700 open issues and 1,600 open pull requests, triaged by scripts and an agent workflow, per the 1 October check, not re-read since, and we couldn't see reply times (10). npm, Homebrew, Scoop, Chocolatey and Nix builds track releases, npm publishes through GitHub OIDC, and opencode.ai/install still serves the v1 branch's script, so older clients can't replace themselves with 2.x by accident (14). Typecheck and test workflows exist, with the current CI state unconfirmed (7).
Transparency & trust OpenCode +18
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.
OpenCode 71
MIT (30). A privacy policy (effective 6 March 2026) and terms (15 August 2026) from Anomaly Innovations, Inc., plus a Zen privacy section saying models are hosted in the US, providers keep nothing and don't train except on named free models, and OpenAI and Anthropic keep requests for 30 days, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 17 October. The general retention line is as long as necessary (22). Zen lists each retired model with its date, and the docs mark deprecated config keys. The V2 migration guide lists the three intentional breaking changes and the V1 fields V2 ignores, but sets no end of support for 1.x (15). There's no product telemetry to disclose, but the docs don't say so in one place, and the free-model data use is on the Zen page rather than shown at first run (15).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Conductor | OpenCode | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 25 | 72 | OpenCode +47 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 60 | 88 | OpenCode +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 55 | 79 | OpenCode +24 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 45 | 60 | OpenCode +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 0 | 60 | OpenCode +60 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 58 | 81 | OpenCode +23 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 53 | 71 | OpenCode +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| Total | E 41.3/100 | B 68.8/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Conductor | OpenCode |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Conductor (joining Meta) | Anomaly |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary. A closed-source Mac app and hosted Conductor Cloud under Conductor's terms | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-28 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | 2026-08-15 |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | 2026-03-06 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | yes |
| 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 | 211k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) |
How the scores have moved
Conductor
No score change since it was listed.
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.
OpenCode
Runs with no key or account on free OpenCode Zen models. Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox.
Before you call either
Conductor
- Export your data from Settings, Account, Export data before 20 November 2026
- Move Cloud workspaces to your Mac with Transfer to local before 13 November
- Plan a move off the local app before early 2027; see the agent-harnesses category for alternatives
OpenCode
- Add deny rules for
bashpatterns andexternal_directorybefore an unattended run. Most tools default to allow - Set
"autoupdate": falseorOPENCODE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1and pin the version in CI - Configure a provider key. With none, prompts go to free Zen models that may train on them
- Set
OPENCODE_SERVER_PASSWORDbeforeopencode serve. Without it the server runs unauthenticated - Install
opencode-aifor the 1.x server API and SDK. Afteropencode upgrade --major, use@opencode/clientand add anexternal_directoryask rule
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Conductor or OpenCode?
OpenCode scores 68.8 (B) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in every scored category.
Are Conductor and OpenCode open source?
No open-source release is listed for Conductor. OpenCode is open source (MIT).
Other comparisons with Conductor or OpenCode
- Agent Zero vs Conductor
- Agent Zero vs OpenCode
- Aider vs Conductor
- Aider vs OpenCode
- Amp vs Conductor
- Amp vs OpenCode
- Antigravity CLI vs Conductor
- Antigravity CLI vs OpenCode
- Auggie CLI vs Conductor
- Auggie CLI vs OpenCode
- AXLR vs Conductor
- AXLR vs OpenCode
- Claude Code vs Conductor
- Claude Code vs OpenCode
- Cline vs Conductor
- Cline vs OpenCode
- Conductor vs Crush
- Conductor vs Cursor CLI
- Conductor vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)
- Conductor vs dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)
- Conductor vs Devin
- Conductor vs Droid CLI
- Conductor vs Pi
- Conductor vs Emdash
- Conductor vs Gemini CLI
- Conductor vs GitHub Copilot CLI
- Conductor vs goose
- Conductor vs Harness²
- Conductor vs HarnessRouter
- Conductor vs Jules
- Conductor vs Junie CLI
- Conductor vs Kilo Code CLI
- Conductor vs Kimi Code CLI
- Conductor vs Kiro CLI
- Conductor vs Letta
- Conductor vs mini-swe-agent
- Conductor vs MiniMax Code
- Conductor vs Mistral Vibe CLI
- Conductor vs Muse Code
- Conductor vs OpenAI Agents API
- Conductor vs OpenAI Codex
- Conductor vs OpenHands
- Conductor vs OpenMausBot
- Conductor vs Orca
- Conductor vs Paseo
- Conductor vs Prime Agent
- Conductor vs Qoder CLI
- Conductor vs Qwen Code
- Conductor vs Mirror CLI
- Conductor vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Conductor vs Sculptor
- Conductor vs T3 Code
- Conductor vs Traycer
- Conductor vs Unstoppable
- Conductor vs Verdent
- Conductor vs Vibe-Trading
- Conductor vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- Crush vs OpenCode
- Cursor CLI vs OpenCode
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs OpenCode
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs OpenCode
- Devin vs OpenCode
- Droid CLI vs OpenCode
- Pi vs OpenCode
- Emdash vs OpenCode
- Gemini CLI vs OpenCode
- GitHub Copilot CLI vs OpenCode
- goose vs OpenCode
- Harness² vs OpenCode
- HarnessRouter vs OpenCode
- Jules vs OpenCode
- Junie CLI vs OpenCode
- Kilo Code CLI vs OpenCode
- Kimi Code CLI vs OpenCode
- Kiro CLI vs OpenCode
- Letta vs OpenCode
- mini-swe-agent vs OpenCode
- MiniMax Code vs OpenCode
- Mistral Vibe CLI vs OpenCode
- Muse Code vs OpenCode
- OpenAI Agents API vs OpenCode
- OpenAI Codex vs OpenCode
- OpenCode vs OpenHands
- OpenCode vs OpenMausBot
- OpenCode vs Orca
- OpenCode vs Paseo
- OpenCode vs Prime Agent
- OpenCode vs Qoder CLI
- OpenCode vs Qwen Code
- OpenCode vs Mirror CLI
- OpenCode vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenCode vs Sculptor
- OpenCode vs T3 Code
- OpenCode vs Traycer
- OpenCode vs Unstoppable
- OpenCode vs Verdent
- OpenCode vs Vibe-Trading
- OpenCode vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- Clawboo vs Conductor
- Clawboo vs OpenCode
- CLI Manager vs Conductor
- CLI Manager vs OpenCode
- Conductor vs Harness
- Conductor vs Paperclip
- Conductor vs Parallax
- Harness vs OpenCode
- OpenCode vs Paperclip
- OpenCode vs Parallax
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/conductor-vs-opencode.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/conductor.json·/api/v1/tools/opencode.json - From a terminal
anchor compare conductor opencode(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "conductor", "b": "opencode"}at/mcp, no key