Conductor launches multiplayer cloud workspaces that keep coding agents running

Why it matters

Cloud execution gives Conductor a chance to become the control plane where teams assign and supervise coding agents, while relying on model and agent vendors for the underlying intelligence.

Charlie Holtz (@charlieholtz), CEO and co-founder of Conductor, launched Conductor Cloud with co-founder Jackson de Campos on July 30th, moving the coding-agent manager from local copies of a repository into shared cloud workspaces that continue running after a developer closes a laptop.

https://x.com/charlieholtz/status/2082974209438044211?s=46

Holtz described the release in a thread on X as a replacement for worktree-heavy agent workflows. Developers can invite teammates into the same workspace, prompt agents together and monitor work from Conductor's desktop client. The new Conductor API lets customers create workspaces, start agent sessions, send prompts, inspect transcripts and archive machines programmatically.

Conductor says each cloud workspace runs inside an isolated microVM with the repository and its dependencies preinstalled. That gives an agent a persistent execution environment for long-running work while keeping separate tasks away from the developer's local checkout. Workspace links, live presence and collaborative prompting turn the previously Mac-centered product into a shared interface for assigning and reviewing agent work.

Conductor runs first-party Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode agents using customers' existing subscriptions or API keys. That approach places Conductor above the model and coding-agent vendors rather than asking developers to adopt another proprietary agent. It also leaves the most important underlying capabilities, usage limits and subscription policies in the hands of those vendors.

From a Mac utility to a team product

Cloud access is part of Conductor's paid plans. Its pricing page lists Pro at $50 per month and Teams at $60 per user per month, with team sales currently invite-only. The Teams plan adds centralized billing, an administrative portal and single sign-on. Conductor's free plan remains focused on parallel local workspaces on a Mac.

The mobile piece is earlier. Holtz said Apple had approved the iPhone app for TestFlight and that Conductor was sending invitations on July 30th, while Conductor's site still labels iOS as coming soon. The initial TestFlight version will support cloud workspaces only, according to Holtz. That restriction follows the product's architecture: persistent remote sandboxes can be supervised from a phone without requiring access to a running Mac.

Conductor had already placed multiplayer cloud workspaces and the API into alpha for Pro users on July 23rd. The July 30th release widened the push and added onboarding for cloud organizations, shared repository settings and workspace controls. Conductor's API documentation also exposes read-only transcript search, giving teams a way to build internal dashboards or bots around agent activity.

Holtz and de Campos met while playing ultimate frisbee at Brown University. Holtz studied cognitive neuroscience, later worked in quantitative finance at Point72 and led growth at Replicate, where Conductor says he built AI applications used by millions. De Campos worked on machine-learning infrastructure at Netflix and researched automated negotiating agents at Brown, according to Conductor's team page.

The founders entered Y Combinator's Summer 2024 batch with Melty, an open-source AI code editor. Their original Melty introduction described the same workflow problem that later produced Conductor: developers were juggling chats, copying code between tools and struggling to verify agent-generated changes. Conductor narrowed that thesis around managing several coding agents at once, initially through isolated local copies of a repository.

Conductor is competing for the control layer

Conductor announced a $22 million Series A from Spark Capital and Matrix Partners on March 30th. Ilya Sukhar of Matrix, which also led Conductor's seed financing, joined the board. Nabeel Hyatt of Spark, Y Combinator and founders of Notion and Linear also participated. Conductor says it has raised $24 million in total.

Conductor also claims 10-fold growth since January and describes more than 100,000 people as builders who trust the product. Those are company-supplied measures rather than reported revenue or paid-seat figures. Conductor says engineers at Google, Meta, Ramp, Datadog, Amazon, Spotify and other large technology companies use the software.

The cloud release puts Conductor closer to products that are also trying to organize parallel agent labor. Cursor can send subagents into separate cloud virtual machines and move sessions between local and remote environments. Imbue's Sculptor runs parallel coding agents in containers, while open-source Superset uses isolated workspaces to coordinate agents and branches.

Conductor's bet is that developers will want a neutral management layer across several agent providers, especially as coding work becomes asynchronous and spreads across machines, teammates and automated systems. Cloud workspaces give Holtz and de Campos a route from a single-developer Mac application into team budgets. The API extends the same bet further: agent work can be assigned by another application or bot before a developer opens Conductor at all.