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. If you’ve used Conductor, you already understand Termic. This page maps the concepts across, flags the few places they diverge, and shows you the shortcut that makes most existing setups work unchanged.
The short version of why people move: Termic is AGPL-3.0, ships macOS and Linux builds, supports more terminal agents, adds main checkout and multi-repo task modes, and can put each task behind a real 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 | Related but not identical, and safer. 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. |
The one thing that makes this easy: variable aliases
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 just works, no find-and-replace required. See Scripts: setup & run for the full variable list.
Checkpoints vs Spotlight
This is the one place the models genuinely differ, and it’s worth understanding because it’s where Termic’s design is deliberately safer.
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 hunt down and undo.
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. A hard crash leaves only a harmless detached HEAD that a single git checkout recovers, and if Termic ever finds the main checkout detached on startup it refuses to proceed and tells you exactly how to clean up. Zero commits left behind, ever.
What you gain
These have no Conductor equivalent:
- It’s free and open source (AGPL-3.0). Fork it, audit it, package it.
- Direct CLI sessions. Termic runs the interactive
claude,codex,gemini, Grok and Antigravity CLIs in PTYs, so vendor CLI behavior stays visible instead of being hidden behind a custom agent loop. - A real 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. - Gemini 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
To set expectations honestly: the sandbox is macOS-only for now, and GitHub / Linear issue integration is on the roadmap rather than shipped. If one of those is load-bearing for you, that’s the gap to know about. Staging, committing and pushing from inside Termic already shipped; see Git: staging & commits.
Suggested first move
Install Termic, add one of your existing repos as a project, and open a main checkout task first, it’s the lowest-friction way to feel the difference, since you don’t even create a branch. Then try a worktree, point your old preview URL at it (the $CONDUCTOR_PORT alias means it’ll just work), and you’re migrated.
Related
- Termic vs Conductor.build: feature-by-feature comparison.
- Best Conductor alternative: Termic, AgentsRoom, Superset and Paseo in one decision guide.
- Spotlight: safer main checkout testing than checkpoint commits.
- Sandbox overview: the OS-level boundary Conductor does not provide.
- Git: staging & commits: the in-app staging area.