Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
Conductor vs Rovo Dev CLI
Rovo Dev CLI scores 44.1 (E) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Conductor leads on schema & documentation. 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.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 60 against 45
Watch for
No new downloads or sign-ups since 4 November 2026
Best for Teams already on Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket who want the agent to read and update work items and pages from the terminal or a pipeline.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 35 against 25
- Payments & pricing, 15 against 0
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 53
Watch for
Atlassian has announced end of life for standalone Rovo Dev, with the CLI moving to the Rovo CLI and no dates set
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 Conductor +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).
Rovo Dev CLI 45
Framework reading. Server mode lists its /v3 endpoints with request bodies, and an Atlassian engineering post of 27 October 2025 says Swagger docs are served at localhost:<port>/docs. That contract is only visible on a running server, and no schema for the SSE events or the config file was published (12). No llms.txt on support.atlassian.com or developer.atlassian.com, and no Markdown twins found (0). The tools page says what allow, ask and deny do, what YOLO mode skips and that MCP tools keep their permissions, and the settings page gives each default. Little says when not to use a mode (12). Permission levels, console output formats and tool names are enumerated in the settings reference with defaults (10). Server mode has curl, Python and JavaScript examples. No exit codes or error responses are documented beyond the post's note that a failed entitlement check disables every endpoint except healthcheck and shutdown (7). The API path is versioned (/v3), but there is no public changelog for Rovo Dev builds (4). 12+0+12+10+7+4 = 45.
Payments & pricing Rovo Dev CLI +15
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).
Rovo Dev CLI 15
Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Rovo Dev subscription the CLI needs. No payment protocol (0). Rovo Dev Standard is $20 a developer a month with 2,000 credits and extra credits are $0.01, both public. The credit multiplier for each model is shown only inside the CLI, and a task is given only as a range (5 to 50 tasks per 2,000 credits), so a run's cost can't be worked out before signing up. Judgement call between the 10 for plan-only pricing and the full 20 (15). Rovo Dev Free gives 350 credits a month, but only on Jira Standard or Premium sites, which are paid plans, and the 30-day Standard trial excludes the CLI (0). An organisation admin activates Rovo Dev and the user creates an API token in a browser (0). 0+15+0+0 = 15.
Reliability Rovo Dev CLI +10
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.
Rovo Dev CLI 35
Local-package reading, the same as the other closed-source harnesses. Rovo Dev ships inside the Atlassian CLI, which installs from a Homebrew tap with SHA-256 checksums, signed apt and yum repositories and curl downloads for macOS, Linux and Windows on amd64 and arm64, and Rovo Dev downloads itself on first use (20). No public CI or test suite, since the source isn't published (0). No public issue tracker. The Rovo Dev community board was last active on 16 January 2026, and bugs otherwise go to /feedback and Atlassian Support, so open crash reports can't be counted (8). Rovo Dev builds moved from 0.13.x to date-based versions such as 202604.30.2 and 202610.16.1b1, per AtlasCode's changelog and manifest, and have no public changelog, and the Atlassian CLI changelog stops at v1.3.15 while its repository serves 1.3.39 (2). Rovo Dev has been rolling out as a product since October 2025, but the version number carries no stability signal and Atlassian has announced that the standalone product will reach end of life. Judgement call (5). The CLI runs against Atlassian's hosted service, and the Rovo status page has no Rovo Dev component. 20+0+8+2+5 = 35.
Transparency & trust Rovo Dev CLI +10
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.
Rovo Dev CLI 63
Proprietary, with clear terms. The Atlassian Customer Agreement (effective 1 October 2026) and the AI Terms (effective 17 August 2026), which say Input and Output are Customer Data and that subcontractors may not train on them (15). The Rovo privacy page keeps Chat and agent inputs and outputs for 30 days and says Rovo has SOC 2, ISO 27001 and data residency, while the Rovo Dev rollout page (modified 27 August 2026) says Rovo Dev has none of the three. We found no retention period for Rovo Dev sessions sent to Atlassian (12). The licensing FAQ promises at least 60 days' notice before Rovo Dev's end of life and dates the Code Reviewer move to 3 December 2026, but gives no date for the CLI's move to the Rovo CLI. Each Atlassian CLI version is supported for six months (14). No telemetry description or opt-out for the CLI was found. AtlasCode's changelog documents Rovo Dev telemetry events in the IDE, which this listing doesn't cover (0). 15+12+14+0 = 41.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Conductor | Rovo Dev CLI | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 25 | 35 | Rovo Dev CLI +10 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 60 | 45 | Conductor +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 55 | 53 | Conductor +2 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 45 | 48 | Rovo Dev CLI +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 0 | 15 | Rovo Dev CLI +15 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 58 | 61 | Rovo Dev CLI +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 53 | 63 | Rovo Dev CLI +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | E 41.3/100 | E 44.1/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Conductor | Rovo Dev CLI |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Conductor (joining Meta) | Atlassian |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary. A closed-source Mac app and hosted Conductor Cloud under Conductor's terms | Proprietary, under the Atlassian Customer Agreement (effective 1 October 2026) and the Atlassian AI Terms (effective 17 August 2026). No source is published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| 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 | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (4) |
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.
Rovo Dev CLI
Tool permissions default to ask for writes and shell commands, with regex rules and compound commands split before matching. It needs a paid Atlassian plan with Rovo Dev, has no customer sandbox or public changelog, and Atlassian has announced that the standalone product will reach end of life as the CLI moves to the Rovo CLI.
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
Rovo Dev CLI
- Pass the instruction as an argument to
acli rovodev runfor a single non-interactive run. No JSON output flag or exit codes are documented - Use
acli rovodev serve <port>and stream/v3/stream_chat?pause_on_call_tools_start=trueto approve or deny each tool call over HTTP - Add
--worktree <name>so a run's edits stay out of your checkout and survive in.rovodev/worktrees/<name> - Set
"enable_instructions": falseon MCP servers you don't trust, since server instructions go into the system prompt by default - Check
/usagebefore long runs. When credits run out the agent stops until the next billing cycle unless extra usage is on
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Conductor or Rovo Dev CLI?
Rovo Dev CLI scores 44.1 (E) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Conductor leads on schema & documentation.
Other comparisons with Conductor or Rovo Dev CLI
- Agent Zero vs Conductor
- Agent Zero vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Aider vs Conductor
- Aider vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Amp vs Conductor
- Amp vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Antigravity CLI vs Conductor
- Antigravity CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Auggie CLI vs Conductor
- Auggie CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- AXLR vs Conductor
- AXLR vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Claude Code vs Conductor
- Claude Code vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Cline vs Conductor
- Cline vs Rovo Dev CLI
- 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 OpenCode
- 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 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 Rovo Dev CLI
- Cursor CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Rovo Dev CLI
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Devin vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Droid CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Pi vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Emdash vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Gemini CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- GitHub Copilot CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- goose vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Harness² vs Rovo Dev CLI
- HarnessRouter vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Jules vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Junie CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Kilo Code CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Kimi Code CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Kiro CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Letta vs Rovo Dev CLI
- mini-swe-agent vs Rovo Dev CLI
- MiniMax Code vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Mistral Vibe CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Muse Code vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenAI Agents API vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenAI Codex vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenCode vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenHands vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Orca vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Paseo vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Prime Agent vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Qoder CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Qwen Code vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Mirror CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Rovo Dev CLI vs Sculptor
- Rovo Dev CLI vs T3 Code
- Rovo Dev CLI vs Traycer
- Rovo Dev CLI vs Unstoppable
- Rovo Dev CLI vs Verdent
- Rovo Dev CLI vs Vibe-Trading
- Rovo Dev CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- Clawboo vs Conductor
- Clawboo vs Rovo Dev CLI
- CLI Manager vs Conductor
- CLI Manager vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Conductor vs Harness
- Conductor vs Paperclip
- Conductor vs Parallax
- Harness vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenMausBot vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Paperclip vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Parallax vs Rovo Dev CLI
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/conductor-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/conductor.json·/api/v1/tools/rovo-dev-cli.json - From a terminal
anchor compare conductor rovo-dev-cli(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "conductor", "b": "rovo-dev-cli"}at/mcp, no key