# Emdash vs Parallax (slim)

> Emdash scores 53.9 (D) to Parallax's 38.1 (E) for multi-agent orchestration. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-parallax-agents.md (~5,600 tokens) · this version ~2,180 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-parallax-agents.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-parallax-agents
- 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)

Emdash scores 53.9 (D) on agent readiness against Parallax's 38.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Parallax leads on security & auth. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- Emdash: D 53.9, rank #933 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/emdash.min.md
- Parallax: E 38.1, rank #1365 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/parallax-agents.min.md
- Emdash, good for Developers who want parallel agents in worktrees, fed from their issue tracker, locally or over SSH. Ahead on Reliability, 55 against 40; Schema & documentation, 55 against 29; Agent ergonomics, 55 against 42; Payments & pricing, 60 against 30; Maintenance & community, 70 against 56. Also No key needed to call it; Open source.
- Parallax, good for A developer on a Mac who runs several coding agents across Claude and Codex subscriptions and wants cross-lab review of finished sessions on GitHub. Ahead on Security & auth, 43 against 38.

| Category | Emdash | Parallax |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 55 | 40 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 55 | 29 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 55 | 42 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 38 | 43 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 70 | 56 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 54 | 50 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Emdash | Parallax |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | General Action, Inc. | Conifer Solutions, Inc. |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary, under Conifer's Terms of Service (Conifer Solutions, Inc.). The GitHub repository holds the README and release binaries, not the source |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-22 |
| 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 | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, Emdash +30: Emdash 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.); Parallax 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Parallax episode credit prices are read from the account after sign-in. Gateway token prices are public at `GET /v1/catalog` with no key, which covers Conifer credit spent by agents (10). $50 of Conifer credit and 5 free episodes on GitHub sign-up, with no card mentioned, and agents can run on the owner's own Claude and Codex subscriptions (20). A person has to download the app, sign in and install the GitHub App, so no autonomous onboarding (0).)
- Schema & documentation, Emdash +26: Emdash 55 (Harness reading. Docs site and a workspace server package (55).); Parallax 29 (The review API has no OpenAPI or endpoint reference. Endpoints appear only in curl examples, and the base URL `$PARALLAX_URL` is not published (0). conifer.build/llms.txt covers the gateway in detail and Parallax in two lines that point to the docs (5). The docs explain sessions, sweeps, evidence states, memory and retention at length, but nothing documents the app, Captain, fallback or fast merge (8). parallax.yml keys are listed with allowed values (`deliver: proven-only`, `review: off`, severity floors, sweep modes), but request and response shapes for the API are not (5). curl examples, sample sweep lines and a table of skip reasons with the fix for each (8). Paths sit under `/v1`, with no changelog for Parallax (3).)
- Reliability, Emdash +15: Emdash 55 (Local software. Homebrew cask and installers for macOS, Windows and Linux (20). A code-consistency check and release workflows; no test workflow found (10). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Stable tags to v1.2.11, release notes on GitHub (10). Version 1.2.11 (15). 20 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 15 = 55.); Parallax 40 (Read as local software, because the launched product is the app the owner runs. A signed and notarised universal DMG for macOS 12 or later and Linux tarballs for x86-64 and arm64 on GitHub Releases, with SHA256SUMS and an install script. No package registry (20). The release repository holds a README and binaries only, with no public CI or tests (0). We could not read its issues, because our GitHub access refused the issue pages, so the issue record is unchecked and scored absent (0). Semver tags v1.0.0 to v1.0.2, but no release notes or changelog we could read (5). Version 1.0.2 (15). The hosted review service has no status page and no published rate limits. conifer.build/uptime covers upstream model providers only.)
- Maintenance & community, Emdash +14: Emdash 70 (v1.2.11 on 6 November 2026 (30). v1.2.9, v1.2.10 and v1.2.11 within two weeks (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current installers and Homebrew cask (15). Release workflows, no test CI (5). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 5 = 70.); Parallax 56 (v1.0.2 on 16 October 2026 (30). Three releases, v1.0.0 to v1.0.2, on 15 and 16 October 2026 (20). Closed service. No public changelog. Support through a GitHub issues link, a Discord server and email, none of which we could check for replies (3). No Parallax SDK and nothing in the MCP registry. Conifer's SDK is for the gateway (0). Signed builds with checksums and a self-updater, with no CI to inspect (3).)
- Agent ergonomics, Emdash +13: Emdash 55 (Harness reading. Issue intake from Linear, GitHub, Jira and others, diff review, pull requests and CI checks in one place, local or over SSH (55).); Parallax 42 (Scored on the review API and the hooks, the only parts an agent touches. The session-start brief is cut at 6,000 characters, memory per review call at 12,000, and `lesson_cap` sets 1 to 20 lessons per person (8). `repo` filters on recall and brief, `brain=true` on the ledger, no documented pagination (4). Skip reasons such as `capture_commit_missing` and `test_configuration_missing` each come with a fix, but HTTP error codes for the API are not documented (12). A session is swept once per capture mark, retries use no extra credit, and a fix PR is reused and never reopened or merged by Parallax (14). No SDK for Parallax, and capture of every repository is the default (4).)
- Security & auth, Parallax +5: Emdash 38 (Harness reading. Telemetry is described as optional and disabled in Settings or with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false, which reads as on by default (15 of 30). Worktree per task and remote machines over SSH (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). No security policy file found (3). 15 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 38.); Parallax 43 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 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. Once installed, capture uploads transcripts, tool calls with results and source snapshots from every repository on the machine unless a local allowlist is set first, and the app updates itself by default. Uploads stop with `PARALLAX_STORE_UPLOAD=off` and the token is revocable (8). Proofs run in a throwaway cloud copy, automatic PR review is off by default and Parallax never merges its own fix PR. What Captain may do to a running agent is not documented (10). Reviewers read untrusted transcripts and code with no documented mitigation. Lessons injected into the agent come only from verified outcomes and maintainer replies, never bots, and the brief labels everything else as cited fact (8). Recall receipts, per-injection records, sweep lines, the review ledger and `GET /v1/calibration` (12). No security.txt, bug bounty, SOC 2 or advisories. The privacy policy names a contact for security reports with a two-business-day reply and lists encryption and row-level security (5).)