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Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Conductor vs Sculptor

Sculptor scores 53.1 (D) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Conductor leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons

ConductorConductor (joining Meta) · Agent harness E41.3/100#1285 of 1486 SculptorImbue, Inc. · Agent harness D53.1/100#960 of 1486

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.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 60 against 45
  • Agent ergonomics, 55 against 50

Watch for

No new downloads or sign-ups since 4 November 2026

Sculptor D

Best for Developers who want parallel coding agents in isolated workspaces and are fine with a research preview.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 43 against 25
  • Security & auth, 57 against 45
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 0
  • Maintenance & community, 75 against 58

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

Labelled an experimental research preview that may change drastically

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 Sculptor +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).

Sculptor 60

Free self-hosted software with nothing to buy, so 0 for a protocol and 20 each for public pricing, a free tier and onboarding with no sign-up, 60.

Reliability Sculptor +18

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.

Sculptor 43

Local software. Desktop downloads for Mac (Apple Silicon), Linux and Linux ARM64 (20). checks.yml and a PR gate run on the repository; pass state not read (15). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). sculptor-v tags up to v0.49.0, no changelog file (8). 0.x and labelled a research preview (0). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 0 = 43.

Maintenance & community Sculptor +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.

Sculptor 75

Commits on 6 November 2026 and frequent tagged versions (30). More than three releases in 90 days (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent; the README says Imbue can't take many outside contributions yet (0). Current official downloads (15). CI on pull requests (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75.

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).

Sculptor 45

Harness reading. A README, specs and agent docs in the repository; no API reference (45).

Security & auth Sculptor +12

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.

Sculptor 57

Harness reading. Product analytics, error reporting and session recording default to off in the user config, and the app asks for a telemetry level and privacy consent at first run; PostHog runs on the front end only for now (25 of 30). Each workspace is an isolated copy of the code (14 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). SECURITY.md (8). 25 + 14 + 5 + 5 + 8 = 57.

Agent ergonomics Conductor +5

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).

Sculptor 50

Harness reading. Workspaces as isolated copies, review and merge back, and built-in skills (50).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runConductorSculptorEdge
Reliability16%202543Sculptor +18
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26045Conductor +15
Agent ergonomics13%16.25550Conductor +5
Security & auth14%17.54557Sculptor +12
Payments & pricing10%12.5060Sculptor +60
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85875Sculptor +17
Transparency & trust7%8.85357Sculptor +4
Negative events≤1500
TotalE 41.3/100D 53.1/100

Facts side by side

FactConductorSculptor
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorConductor (joining Meta)Imbue, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary. A closed-source Mac app and hosted Conductor Cloud under Conductor's termsMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-11-042026-11-06
Terms last updatednot read yetno document linked
Privacy policy last updatednot read yetno document linked

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.

Sculptor

Imbue's open-source app for parallel coding agents in isolated workspaces, with telemetry off until you choose otherwise. It's an experimental research preview that warns of bugs and drastic changes, Mac and Linux only, with no changelog.

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

Sculptor

  1. Download from the README's links, connect a repository and create a workspace before prompting
  2. Review the diff before merging a workspace back to main

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Conductor or Sculptor?

Sculptor scores 53.1 (D) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Conductor leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

Are Conductor and Sculptor open source?

No open-source release is listed for Conductor. Sculptor is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Conductor or Sculptor

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