Short answer
Choose Agent Orchestrator (AO) when you want agents tracked from issue assignment through pull request, CI, review, and merge. Choose Conductor when you want a polished Mac workspace centered on starting local agent sessions, chatting, and reviewing their changes.
Both products isolate work with Git worktrees. Conductor documents a separate branch and working tree for each workspace; AO tracks each isolated session until it becomes a pull request.
At a glance
| Area | Agent Orchestrator | Conductor |
|---|---|---|
| Primary workflow | Issue → agent → PR → CI/review loop → merge | Workspace → agent chat → diff/review |
| Agent isolation | Worktree or clone workspace plugins | Git worktree per workspace |
| Feedback automation | Routes CI failures and review comments back to the owning agent | Focused on interactive workspace and review flows |
| Integrations | Replaceable tracker, SCM, runtime, workspace, notifier, and terminal plugins | Integrated desktop workflow |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, and Linux | Mac-focused desktop app |
| API usage | Uses your installed agent CLIs and credentials directly | Uses configured agent credentials directly |
Why choose Agent Orchestrator
AO treats the pull request lifecycle as part of orchestration, not as an activity after the agent stops. It derives session attention from durable agent, PR, CI, and review facts, then can wake the session that owns a branch when checks fail or reviewers request changes.
That makes AO a stronger fit when you have a backlog of independent issues and want the system to keep work moving without manually copying feedback between GitHub and agent chats. Its plugin boundaries also let one workflow span different agent CLIs, trackers, SCM providers, runtimes, workspaces, terminals, and notification channels.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do AO and Conductor both prevent agents from editing the same checkout?
Yes. Both use separate Git worktrees and branches so concurrently running agents do not share one working directory.
What is AO's main advantage over Conductor?
AO's main advantage is lifecycle automation: tracker context, pull-request state, CI failures, and review feedback remain attached to the session that owns the work.