Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Conductor vs Vibe-Trading

Vibe-Trading scores 57.8 (C) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. 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 Vibe-Trading loses 9 points for them

Watch for

No new downloads or sign-ups since 4 November 2026

Vibe-Trading C

Best for A person or a pipeline that wants a ready-made finance research agent over free market data, with backtests, swarm reviews and exports, run on their own machine or used as an MCP server by another agent.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 63 against 25
  • Schema & documentation, 72 against 60
  • Agent ergonomics, 67 against 55
  • Security & auth, 70 against 45
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 0
  • Maintenance & community, 82 against 58

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

Three advisories published 2 October 2026 cover 0.1.0 to 0.1.6, two critical, and 0.1.16's email TLS and cross-site fixes got no advisory

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 Vibe-Trading +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).

Vibe-Trading 60

Read with the self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0). Free under the MIT licence with nothing to buy from the project, so 20, 20 and 20 on the last three lines. It runs with a local model through Ollama and needs no sign-up with the project. QVeris paid data, reached through a disclosed referral link, is a third party's product and is not scored.

Reliability Vibe-Trading +38

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.

Vibe-Trading 63

Read with the local-software lines, as for nanobot and Agent Zero, since the owner runs it. vibe-trading-ai installs from PyPI for Python 3.11 or newer, with classifiers for 3.11 to 3.13, and a Docker Compose setup ships in the repository (20). A CI workflow runs the test suite on pushes and pull requests to main, with hash-locked dependency checks on Linux, macOS and Windows, and the repository holds 961 test files. Whether the latest runs on main passed couldn't be read, because GitHub's Actions pages weren't reachable (15 of 25). The repository page showed 7 open issues and 57 open pull requests on 25 October 2026, per that check (GitHub's pages answer 403 on 2 November), against 771 commits in the 30 days to 2 November, and the 0.1.18 notes list two known issues already fixed on main. Issue threads weren't read (18 of 25). CHANGELOG.md says it follows Semantic Versioning, with dated entries from 0.1.8, a Known issues section and an upgrade note for the LangChain 1.x move in 0.1.10, but on 0.x breaking changes ride in minor versions and there is no Breaking section (10 of 15). Version 0.1.18 with the classifier Development Status 4, Beta (0).

Security & auth Vibe-Trading +25

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.

Vibe-Trading 70

Harness reading used for nanobot and goose. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. No telemetry code was found in the source at v0.1.18, and the only call to PyPI is the owner-run vibe-trading update. The API answers only loopback clients without API_AUTH_KEY, Docker binds 127.0.0.1 and runs as user vibe, and the MCP HTTP transport binds 127.0.0.1 with a Host and Origin allow-list against DNS rebinding but no token. Broker keys go to the OS keyring; model keys sit in agent/.env in clear text. The docs carry no statement that nothing is collected (24). Live orders need a mandate that only the owner commits through the web UI or API, with hard caps and a kill switch, and an optional TAP mode waits for human approval of each Alpaca write. No order tool is exposed over MCP, and shell tools are off on the API and every MCP transport unless enabled. The local CLI runs bash and file writes without asking, and generated backtest code runs as a network-capable subprocess with a narrowed environment and no sandbox (13). Reader and search tools add warning-only security_warnings from regex rules, and external MCP tool hints are treated as untrusted in the source. The claude-cli provider's tool filters are described as convenience filters, not a boundary (9). A live-action ledger written append-only with a hash-chained copy, run cards with hashed execution records, tool traces and per-run token usage (13). SECURITY.md with private advisory reporting and a five-business-day acknowledgement. Three advisories were published on 2 October 2026 with CVE identifiers, five months after the 0.1.7 fix, while the email TLS and cross-site settings fixes in 0.1.16 got none. No security.txt and no bounty (11). 24+13+9+13+11 = 70.

Maintenance & community Vibe-Trading +24

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.

Vibe-Trading 82

v0.1.18 was tagged on 21 October 2026, 12 days before this check (30). Six releases in the 90 days from 4 August, 0.1.13 (tag 10 August) to 0.1.18, from the repository's tags; PyPI couldn't be read on 2 November (20). 771 commits on main in the 30 days to 2 November, 233 of them after v0.1.18, the last on 2 November; the 25 October repository page showed 7 open issues and 57 open pull requests, not re-read. Issue and pull request threads weren't read, a judgement call (18 of 25). An MCP server that isn't in the official MCP registry (searches for vibe-trading and hkuds on 2 November 2026 found nothing). It is published on PyPI, as a Docker setup and on ClawHub (5 of 15). Hash-locked requirements checked in CI on three operating systems, Dependabot set to monthly, and dependency floors raised for named CVEs, most recently on 29 October (9 of 10). 30+20+18+5+9 = 82.

Schema & documentation Vibe-Trading +12

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).

Vibe-Trading 72

Harness reading of the lines, as for nanobot. The MCP server's tools take typed JSON Schema inputs generated from Python signatures through FastMCP, with a string output schema, and the API server serves FastAPI's OpenAPI file locally (keyless on loopback, behind the key otherwise). No published OpenAPI file or tool manifest outside the running program (20 of 25). No llms.txt on vibetrading.wiki, where /llms.txt redirects to the home page, and the docs are drawn by script from content.en.js. The repository carries Markdown READMEs in seven languages and an agent skill file, agent/SKILL.md (5 of 10). Tool descriptions say what each does, its arguments and what to call first, such as list_skills() before load_skill. The server's own header says every tool is read-only apart from refresh_strategy_evidence, while write_file is also exposed (14 of 20). Inputs are typed, but many choices are free strings (protocol, risk_tier, format) and several take free dictionaries (8 of 15). Many worked examples in the README and a troubleshooting page that names failure states such as no_progress and the 403 from another device; tool errors come back as JSON with an error_type (12 of 15). Dated CHANGELOG.md, GitHub release tags and versioned docs, though the docs still name 0.1.16 as latest (13 of 15).

Agent ergonomics Vibe-Trading +12

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).

Vibe-Trading 67

Harness reading, scored on what an agent or script driving it has to supply. The MCP server registers 82 tools, with about 44,300 characters of descriptions across the 71 defined in the server file, and no toolsets or read-only subset (5). Since 0.1.18 the built-in agent loads tool schemas on demand, and skills load by section and offset, which keeps its own context smaller (plus 7, 12 of 25). Rows are capped by default, read_run_artifact pages by offset, row count and columns, oversized results are written to the run directory, the agent stops after eight tool iterations without a new result, and goals take token, turn and time budgets (18 of 20). JSON error envelopes with a type, a --json mode for vibe-trading run and a troubleshooting page, with no documented exit codes (15 of 20). No readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations on MCP tools. An identical call is refused from its second failure, failed swarm runs resume with completed tasks kept, interrupted web replies are checkpointed and TAP-routed Alpaca orders carry a deterministic client_order_id (12 of 20). pip install and vibe-trading init start it, market data works with no key, and a model key, Ollama or an existing Codex, Copilot or Claude Code login is required. Python only, with a REST API and no SDK in a second language (10 of 15).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runConductorVibe-TradingEdge
Reliability16%202563Vibe-Trading +38
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26072Vibe-Trading +12
Agent ergonomics13%16.25567Vibe-Trading +12
Security & auth14%17.54570Vibe-Trading +25
Payments & pricing10%12.5060Vibe-Trading +60
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85882Vibe-Trading +24
Transparency & trust7%8.85353even
Negative events≤150-9
TotalE 41.3/100C 57.8/100

Facts side by side

FactConductorVibe-Trading
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorConductor (joining Meta)HKUDS
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy)
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary. A closed-source Mac app and hosted Conductor Cloud under Conductor's termsMIT
Tools exposednone82
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-11-042026-10-21
Terms last updatednot read yetno document linked
Privacy policy last updatednot read yetno document linked
Popularitynone37k stars

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.

Vibe-Trading

Vibe-Trading runs on the owner's machine under the MIT licence, ships near-daily fixes with a dated changelog, and keeps order tools out of its MCP server, with live orders gated by an owner-committed mandate. Three advisories, two critical, covered versions before 0.1.7, a 0.1.16 credential fix got no advisory, and the local CLI runs shell commands without asking.

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

Vibe-Trading

  1. Run 0.1.16 or later. Earlier versions carry three published advisories, including unauthenticated API access with an RCE chain, and send the email password without checking TLS certificates
  2. Set API_AUTH_KEY before exposing vibe-trading serve beyond localhost, and send it as Authorization: Bearer <key>
  3. Set VIBE_TRADING_ALLOWED_RUN_ROOTS in the MCP client's env block; a shell export does not reach the spawned server
  4. Use vibe-trading run -p "..." --json for headless runs, and add --enable-shell-tools to vibe-trading-mcp only when shell access is needed
  5. Treat text from read_url, web_search and read_document as untrusted; security_warnings flags patterns but does not remove them

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Conductor or Vibe-Trading?

Vibe-Trading scores 57.8 (C) on agent readiness against Conductor's 41.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Are Conductor and Vibe-Trading open source?

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

Other comparisons with Conductor or Vibe-Trading

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