How it compares
Open Conduit is an orchestrator for agents, not an agent itself. It decides which executor handles a piece of work, gives that run only the operations it’s allowed, and keeps the work alive between runs. The tools below overlap with parts of that. Several are good choices for what they do, and some can sit underneath or beside Open Conduit rather than instead of it.
This page reflects each product as we understand it in November 2026. Products move quickly: if something here is out of date, open an issue.
In one table
Section titled “In one table”| Where it runs | What starts work | Who does the work | Between runs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Conduit | a daemon on your machine | GitHub, Linear, Jira, Slack, schedules, webhooks | Claude Code, Codex, a shell command or an extension’s executor; a person can step in | Work parks and wakes on the event it waits for |
| Copilot coding agent | GitHub’s cloud | an issue assigned on GitHub, or a request in GitHub or an editor | GitHub’s agent | each pull request comment starts a new session |
| Claude Code GitHub Actions | your GitHub Actions runners | a GitHub event or an @claude mention |
Claude Code | nothing runs; the next event starts a new job |
| Devin | Cognition’s cloud | Slack, its web app, issue trackers | Devin | sessions are Devin’s own |
| OpenHands | its cloud, or self-hosted | its UI, CLI, or a GitHub label or mention | the OpenHands agent | each trigger starts a conversation |
| Temporal | your workers, against a Temporal cluster | your code | your code | workflows are durable by design |
| n8n | n8n Cloud or self-hosted | triggers in a workflow graph | the nodes in the graph, including AI agent nodes | Wait nodes resume an execution later |
GitHub Copilot coding agent and Claude Code GitHub Actions
Section titled “GitHub Copilot coding agent and Claude Code GitHub Actions”Both put an agent on a GitHub issue or pull request with very little setup, and both work well for that.
- One trigger, one run. Each assignment, mention or event starts a fresh job. If the agent’s pull request goes red an hour later or a reviewer asks for a change, the next comment starts the next job. In Open Conduit the issue is one piece of Work: the same agent session is resumed with the check result or the review, and the Work knows what it was waiting for.
- GitHub only. They are triggered from GitHub. Open Conduit takes the same kind of work from Linear, Jira, Slack, schedules and webhooks, under one history.
- One executor. Copilot’s coding agent runs on GitHub’s platform, and the Action runs Claude Code. Open Conduit’s bindings choose the executor per route, so a formatting fix can be a shell command while an issue goes to Claude Code, and an agent can park its Work on a person’s private decision.
- Where to pick them instead. You want an agent on your GitHub issues today, with nothing to run yourself, and each request fits in a single session.
Devin and OpenHands
Section titled “Devin and OpenHands”Devin and OpenHands are agents: they write the code. Devin is a hosted product. OpenHands is open source, with a hosted cloud and a self-hosted option.
- Agent, not orchestrator. Neither decides which of several executors should handle a piece of work, or holds that work across many runs and waits. Open Conduit could run either as an executor through an extension; it ships with Claude Code and Codex.
- Authority. Open Conduit checks every operation a run asks for against what its binding grants, at the daemon, and can put the run in a sandbox or a container without your credentials. A hosted agent’s limits are the ones its platform sets.
- Where to pick them instead. You want a capable agent with its own workspace and UI, and you’re happy for its vendor to host it.
Temporal and n8n
Section titled “Temporal and n8n”Both are durable: a Temporal workflow survives crashes and can wait for days, and an n8n execution can pause on a Wait node.
- Not agent-native. In Temporal you write the workflow and activities as code; calling an agent is an activity you build. n8n’s AI agent nodes run inside a graph you draw ahead of time. Open Conduit’s Work isn’t a script: an agent works it in turns, decides what to do next, and asks for outcomes through its toolbelt, such as “open a pull request” or “wait until that PR merges”, while the daemon keeps the state.
- Domain built in. Open Conduit’s extensions already know GitHub claims, branches, checks and review threads, and Slack threads. With Temporal or n8n you would build that layer yourself.
- Where to pick them instead. Your process is a fixed sequence of steps you can write down, or you need a production workflow engine for services that aren’t agents. Temporal is the stronger general-purpose engine, and n8n has far more integrations.
What Open Conduit doesn’t do
Section titled “What Open Conduit doesn’t do”- It isn’t hosted. It runs on your machine, or a machine you run, with your own logins.
- Agent runs use Claude Code or the Codex CLI today. Other agents can be added as executors through extensions.
- It’s young. Expect rough edges, and read Getting help before relying on it.