Meta has acquired Conductor, a startup whose software lets a developer run several AI coding agents at once. The agents it deploys aren't developed in-house. They come from major labs like Anthropic and OpenAI. Conductor says more than 100,000 people use it. Conductor's own products are now closing in stages, starting with a halt to new sign-ups and downloads.

What Changed

AI-generated summary, reviewed by an editor. More on our AI guidelines.

Agents From Other Labs

The software gives each agent an isolated copy of the codebase. The developer then reviews and merges what the agents produce. Supported agents include Anthropic's Claude Code, OpenAI's Codex and SpaceX's Cursor, and users pay for them through their own subscriptions and keys.

The desktop app runs on Macs. A hosted version, Conductor Cloud, puts agents in sandboxed virtual machines where they can keep working for hours. Users can check on them from an iPhone app.

Chief Executive Charlie Holtz and Chief Technology Officer Jackson de Campos founded the company, formally Melty Inc., in 2024. It raised a $22 million Series A in March from Spark Capital and Matrix. Y Combinator and the founders of Notion and Linear are also backers.

Engineers at Meta were using Conductor well before the deal. When the startup announced that round, it named Meta, Google and Spotify among the companies with dozens of engineers on the product.

What Meta Is Buying

"I have big news: Conductor is joining Meta," Holtz wrote on Wednesday. "We have some big, crazy plans for the next interface," he added, teasing "something new" for customers by "early next year."

On X, Holtz said he was looking forward to working with Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, and Nat Friedman, head of product at the company's Superintelligence Labs. "They've been on an absolute tear, and I'm convinced MSL has the highest talent density of all the labs," he added.

Sources familiar with the deal told Axios that Conductor's rapid pace of product development and focus on developer experiences are expected to help Meta build its next generation of AI coding products. Meta confirmed the acquisition but wouldn't comment further or provide additional details. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the 100,000 figure comes from Conductor's own website.

Meta launched its own coding agent, Muse Code, in August. On Oct. 15 it released Muse Spark Open, an open-weights version of its Muse Spark model aimed at coding and long-running agent work. Its more capable Muse Wonder models stay closed inside the Muse Code terminal and application programming interface.

OpenAI Moves the Same Day

OpenAI said the same day that it plans to acquire Pierre Computer, another developer tools startup. Pierre focuses on storing and managing AI-generated code. OpenAI had already announced plans in June to buy Ona, which runs coding agents in cloud sandboxes.

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An independent researcher told Axios that excelling at coding, programming and math is necessary for firms to make their AI models better.

The Shutdown Dates

Pro subscribers now get their paid features free. The cloud service goes read-only on Nov. 13 and shuts on Nov. 20, after which the company will start deleting the data users stored there. Users can export their data or move cloud workspaces onto their own machines. Active subscribers will get refunds.

Local copies of the Mac app keep working until early 2027, when the team expects to release a new interface. New models and critical bug fixes stop arriving at that point, and Conductor will delete the app's user data. The company said it has never sold Conductor user data or trained models on it, and does not plan to.

The team has not yet described that interface. Will it still run Claude Code and Codex?

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Conductor do?

Its software lets a developer run several AI coding agents at once. Each agent gets an isolated copy of the codebase, and the developer then reviews and merges what the agents produce.

Which agents does Conductor support?

Supported agents include Anthropic's Claude Code, OpenAI's Codex and SpaceX's Cursor. Users pay for them through their own subscriptions and keys.

How much did Meta pay?

Financial terms were not disclosed. Meta confirmed the acquisition but wouldn't comment further or provide additional details.

What happens to Conductor Cloud?

The cloud service goes read-only on Nov. 13 and shuts on Nov. 20, after which the company will start deleting the data users stored there. Users can export their data or move cloud workspaces onto their own machines.

How long will the Mac app keep working?

Local copies keep working until early 2027, when the team expects to release a new interface. New models and critical bug fixes stop arriving at that point, and Conductor will delete the app's user data.

AI-generated summary, reviewed by an editor. More on our AI guidelines.

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