# Conductor vs Qoder CLI (slim)

> Qoder CLI scores 59.5 (C) to Conductor's 41.3 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-qoder-cli.md (~6,400 tokens) · this version ~2,780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-qoder-cli.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-qoder-cli
- 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)

Qoder CLI scores 59.5 (C) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

- Conductor: E 41.3, rank #1285 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/conductor.min.md
- Qoder CLI: C 59.5, rank #695 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qoder-cli.min.md
- 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. Also No incidents deducted, where Qoder CLI loses 3 points for them.
- Qoder CLI, good for Developers already on Qoder who want the same agent in a terminal, in CI through a PAT, in Zed through ACP, or embedded through the Agent SDK. Ahead on Reliability, 51 against 25; Schema & documentation, 81 against 60; Agent ergonomics, 80 against 55; Security & auth, 58 against 45; Payments & pricing, 35 against 0; Maintenance & community, 72 against 58; Transparency & trust, 61 against 53.

| Category | Conductor | Qoder CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 25 | 51 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 60 | 81 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 55 | 80 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 45 | 58 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 0 | 35 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 58 | 72 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 53 | 61 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Conductor | Qoder CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Conductor (joining Meta) | Qoder (BRIGHT ZENITH PRIVATE LIMITED) |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Licence | Proprietary. A closed-source Mac app and hosted Conductor Cloud under Conductor's terms | Proprietary, under the Qoder Terms of Service (BRIGHT ZENITH PRIVATE LIMITED, last updated 29 April 2026). No source is published, and the Agent SDK's LICENSE file points to the same terms |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | none | 5k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, Qoder CLI +35: 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).); Qoder CLI 35 (Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Qoder subscription the CLI needs. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices, the Credit Pack price ($20 for 1,500 credits) and per-model credit factors are public in the docs without a login. qoder.com/pricing is disallowed by robots.txt and wasn't read (20). A Free plan with basic models for a limited number of messages and a 14-day Pro trial with 300 credits. We found no statement on whether a card is needed (15). A person signs in through a browser, and a PAT is created by hand at qoder.com/account/integrations (0). 0+20+15+0 = 35. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run).)
- Reliability, Qoder CLI +26: 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.); Qoder CLI 51 (Local-package reading, the same as the other closed-source harnesses. An install script for macOS, Linux and Windows on arm64 and amd64 that checks a SHA-256 from a manifest on the same download host, and an npm package with Node.js 20 or later stated (20). No public CI or test suite, since no source is published (0). We found no public issue tracker for the CLI. The forum's bug-reports category, shared by every Qoder product, had 116 new topics in the month to 18 October, and 15 of the 29 topics on its first page had no reply. A few named the CLI (8). Versions are semver-shaped and every release is dated in the release notes, but removals such as `/goal take` in 1.1.11 shipped in patch versions without a breaking-change label (8). 1.0.0 on 20 May 2026, now 1.1.73 (15). 20+0+8+8+15 = 51. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run).)
- Agent ergonomics, Qoder CLI +25: 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).); Qoder CLI 80 (Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. `--tools`, `--allowed-tools` and `--disallowed-tools` restrict built-in tools, and `--strict-mcp-config` with `--allowed-mcp-server-names` limits MCP servers. Nothing on deferred MCP tool loading was found (18). text, json and stream-json output, `--max-turns`, `--max-output-tokens` and `--no-session-persistence` (16). Distinct exit codes for authentication, input, configuration, turn-limit and tool failures, and SDK Result subtypes with error codes (16). `--continue`, `--resume`, `--session-id`, `--fork-session`, SDK checkpoints with rewind, and `--max-model-request-retries` (15). Official SDKs in TypeScript and Python, an ACP server, and headless runs that need only a PAT and a permission flag (15). 18+16+16+15+15 = 80. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run).)
- Schema & documentation, Qoder CLI +21: 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).); Qoder CLI 81 (Framework reading. A CLI reference with types and defaults for every flag, a settings reference with types and defaults, TypeScript declaration files and a Python reference for the SDK, and Result and error-code tables. No schema for the stream-json events was found (16). docs.qoder.com/llms.txt indexes every page with a Markdown twin, and robots.txt allows both (10). The permissions page states what each mode does and is best for, what headless runs do with ask, and which actions skip the auto classifier (17). Permission modes and output formats are enums and rules have a fixed syntax (12). CI examples, an SDK error page with exit codes 0, 1, 41, 42, 44, 52, 53, 54 and 130, Result subtypes and a troubleshooting index. Code 44 names a sandbox the docs don't describe (14). Dated release notes for the CLI and the SDK, though the SDK notes stop at 1.0.41 on 15 September while npm has 1.0.53, and the CLI reference still names the removed `lite` model (12). 16+10+17+12+14+12 = 81. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run).)
- Maintenance & community, Qoder CLI +14: 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.); Qoder CLI 72 (1.1.73 on 16 October 2026, 19 days before 4 November (30). 74 dated CLI versions between 20 July and 16 October 2026, well over three of them after 6 August (20). No public issue tracker. A Discourse forum with bug-report and feature-request categories, where 15 of the 29 bug reports on the first page had no reply when read on 18 October (7). Current official SDKs, `@qoder-ai/qoder-agent-sdk` 1.0.53 on 15 October and `qoder-agent-sdk` 1.0.15 on PyPI on 23 September 2026 (12). No public CI. npm versions carry registry signatures and the install script checks a SHA-256 (3). 30+20+7+12+3 = 72. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run). npm and PyPI were not reachable for newer versions.)
- Security & auth, Qoder CLI +13: 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.); Qoder CLI 58 (Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing), five lines. Browser sign-in with background refresh, or a PAT created with chosen permissions and an expiry and revocable, plus scoped service accounts for organisations. Usage statistics and AI code statistics are on by default with documented opt-outs, and the privacy policy lets users turn off Share & Improve depending on the plan, without saying which plans or the default (18). Five permission modes, deny over ask over allow across seven rule layers, ask turned into deny in headless runs, a `dont_ask` mode, trusted directories, protected paths and an administrator switch that disables YOLO. No local sandbox is documented, and `auto` mode lets an AI classifier decide and approves read-only tools on any path (14). Workspace files can't add auto-mode rules, protected paths stop the agent changing shell startup files or .mcp.json without approval, and network paths always ask on Windows. A project's .qoder/settings.json is still one of the rule layers, and nothing contains a command once approved (9). The enterprise audit log records administrative and configuration events for administrators and says it leaves out prompts, terminal commands, MCP call parameters and CLI execution, and individuals have local session history only (5). qoder.com/enterprise says Qoder is certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and has completed a SOC 2 Type II audit. No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty was found, and fixes appear as one-line release notes without advisories. Graded 12 against the named comparables for ISO 27001 and SOC 2 claims with no disclosure route (fireworks-inference, people-data-labs, launchdarkly), where the 18 October check gave 9 (12). 18+14+9+5+12 = 58. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run).)