Termic and Conductor share a core idea: run multiple coding agents in parallel, each in its own git worktree, with a diff view to check their work. This page maps the concepts across, flags the few places they diverge, and covers the variable aliases that keep most existing setups working unchanged.
Where they differ: Termic is AGPL-3.0, ships macOS, Linux and Windows builds, supports more terminal agents, adds main checkout and multi-repo task modes, and can put each task behind an OS-level sandbox. The full feature comparison lives at termic.dev/vs/conductor, and the broader alternatives guide lives at Best Conductor alternative.
Concept map
| Conductor | Termic | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Project | Same idea: a repo plus its scripts and settings. |
| Repository | Repository | A Termic project can hold several repos. See multi-repo. |
| Isolated workspace | Task (worktree) | A git worktree on its own branch. The default mode. |
| (worktree per workspace, always) | Main checkout task | Termic also lets you attach an agent to the live checkout with no worktree. |
| Branch | Branch | Same. |
| Checkpoints | Spotlight | Same goal, no commit on your branch. See below. |
conductor.json | .termic.yaml | Per-repo, committed config. |
| Files to copy | files_to_copy | Globs seeded into each new worktree. |
Conductor variables ($CONDUCTOR_PORT) | $TERMIC_PORT | The old names still work, see below. |
| Diff viewer | Diff viewer | Side-by-side or unified, against HEAD. |
| Git panel | Staging & commits | Stage, commit and push from Termic. |
| Keyboard shortcuts | Keyboard shortcuts | Different keys; see the reference. |
| Settings | Settings | Appearance / General / Agents / Shortcuts / Repository. |
Your Conductor variables still work
Termic reads your preview-URL and script variables under both names. $TERMIC_PORT is canonical, but $CONDUCTOR_PORT (and the other legacy $CONDUCTOR_* aliases) resolve to the same value. So a preview URL or run script you copy over from Conductor that says http://localhost:$CONDUCTOR_PORT works unchanged. See Scripts: setup & run for the full variable list.
Checkpoints vs Spotlight
Conductor’s checkpoint feature, to let you run your full dev stack from the repo root against a workspace’s changes, creates a checkpoint commit on your currently checked-out branch. If its cleanup doesn’t run (a crash, a force quit, a power loss), your branch is left permanently advanced with a leftover commit you have to find and undo. Conductor also hides Run while checkpoint mode is on and drops you into a terminal at the repo root to restart things by hand.
Termic’s Spotlight does the same job (sync a task’s changes into your main checkout so you can run and test the whole stack) but never writes a commit onto your branch. It checks out the task’s commit at the main checkout as a detached HEAD, so your branch ref never moves, and a hard crash leaves only a detached HEAD that a single git checkout recovers. Run keeps working while a task is spotlighted.
What Termic adds
These have no Conductor equivalent:
- Free and open source (AGPL-3.0).
- Direct CLI sessions. Termic runs the interactive
claude,codex, Grok, Copilot and Antigravity CLIs in PTYs, so you see exactly what the vendor CLI does. - OS-level sandbox. Per-task macOS Seatbelt plus a network allowlist, so an agent can run unattended without touching
~/.sshor the open internet. See Sandbox. - Multi-repo tasks. Backend, frontend and infra in one task with a shared
CLAUDE.md. See Multi-repo tasks. - Antigravity and Grok, plus bring-your-own-agent:
aider,opencode,ollama, anything that runs in a terminal. - Broadcast the same prompt to several agents at once to compare answers.
What’s not there yet
GitHub and GitLab pull requests already ship (see Pull requests), and so do staging, committing and pushing from inside Termic (see Git: staging & commits). The Seatbelt cage is macOS-only (though Docker mode cages wherever Docker runs), and Linear integration is on the roadmap.
Suggested first move
Install Termic, add one of your existing repos as a project, and open a main checkout task first; it needs no branch. Then try a worktree and point your old preview URL at it; $CONDUCTOR_PORT still resolves.
Related
- Termic vs Conductor.build: feature-by-feature comparison.
- Best Conductor alternative: Termic, AgentsRoom, Superset and Paseo in one decision guide.
- Spotlight: main checkout testing without checkpoint commits.
- Sandbox overview: the OS-level sandbox.
- Git: staging & commits: the in-app staging area.