Conductor

A CLI tool for defining and running multi-agent workflows with the GitHub Copilot SDK and Anthropic Claude.

Why Conductor?

A single LLM prompt can answer a question, but it can't review its own work, research from multiple angles, or pause for human approval. You need multi-agent workflows—but building them means coding custom solutions, managing state, handling failures, and hoping you don't create infinite loops.

Conductor provides the patterns that work: evaluator-optimizer loops for iterative refinement, parallel execution with failure modes, and human-in-the-loop gates. Define them in YAML with built-in safety limits. Version control your workflows like code.

Features

• YAML-based workflows - Define multi-agent workflows in readable YAML
• Multiple providers - GitHub Copilot or Anthropic Claude with seamless switching
• Parallel execution - Run agents concurrently (static groups or dynamic for-each)
• Script steps - Run shell commands and route on exit code without an AI agent
• Conditional routing - Route between agents based on output conditions
• Human-in-the-loop - Pause for human decisions with Rich terminal UI
• Safety limits - Max iterations and timeout enforcement
• Web dashboard - Real-time workflow visualization with interactive DAG graph, live streaming, and in-browser human gates
• Validation - Validate workflows before execution

Installation

Quick Install (Recommended)

macOS / Linux:

curl -sSfL https://aka.ms/conductor/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://aka.ms/conductor/install.ps1 | iex

The installer checks for uv (installs it if missing), fetches the latest release with pinned dependencies, and verifies integrity via SHA-256 checksum.

Updating

conductor update

Manual Install

# Install from GitHub
uv tool install git+https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git

# Run the CLI
conductor run workflow.yaml

# Or run directly without installing
uvx --from git+https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git conductor run workflow.yaml

# Install a specific branch, tag, or commit
uv tool install git+https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git@branch-name
uv tool install git+https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git@v1.0.0
uv tool install git+https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git@abc1234

Using pipx

pipx install git+https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git
conductor run workflow.yaml

# Install a specific branch or tag
pipx install git+https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git@branch-name

Using pip

pip install git+https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git
conductor run workflow.yaml

# Install a specific tag or commit
pip install git+https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git@v1.0.0

Quick Start

1. Create a workflow file

# my-workflow.yaml
workflow:
  name: simple-qa
  description: A simple question-answering workflow
  entry_point: answerer

agents:
  - name: answerer
    model: gpt-5.2
    prompt: |
      Answer the following question:
      {{ workflow.input.question }}
    output:
      answer:
        type: string
    routes:
      - to: $end

output:
  answer: "{{ answerer.output.answer }}"

2. Run the workflow

conductor run my-workflow.yaml --input question="What is Python?"

3. View the output

{
  "answer": "Python is a high-level, interpreted programming language..."
}

Web Dashboard

Conductor includes a built-in real-time web dashboard that lets you visualize and interact with your workflows as they run. Launch it with --web:

conductor run workflow.yaml --web --input question="What is Python?"

Key features:

• Interactive DAG graph — Zoomable, draggable workflow graph with animated edges showing execution flow and conditional routing
• Live agent streaming — Watch agent reasoning, tool calls, and outputs stream in real-time as each step executes
• Three-pane layout — Resizable panels for the graph, agent detail, and a tabbed output pane (Log, Activity, Output)
• In-browser human gates — Respond to human-in-the-loop decision points directly in the dashboard, no terminal needed
• Per-node detail — Click any node to see its prompt, metadata (model, tokens, cost), activity stream, and output
• Background mode — Run with --web-bg to start the dashboard in the background, print the URL, and exit. Use conductor stop to shut it down later.

# Run in background — prints dashboard URL and exits
conductor run workflow.yaml --web-bg --input topic="AI in healthcare"

# Stop a background workflow
conductor stop

Providers

Conductor supports multiple AI providers. Choose based on your needs:

| Feature | Copilot | Claude | |---------|---------|--------| | Pricing | Subscription ($10-39/mo) | Pay-per-token | | Context Window | 8K-128K tokens | 200K tokens | | Tool Support (MCP) | Yes | Planned | | Streaming | Yes | Planned | | Best For | Heavy usage, tools | Large context, pay-per-use |

Using Claude

workflow:
  runtime:
    provider: claude
    default_model: claude-sonnet-4.5

Set your API key: export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

See also: Claude Documentation | Provider Comparison | Migration Guide

CLI Reference

conductor run

Execute a workflow from a YAML file.

conductor run <workflow.yaml> [OPTIONS]

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | -i, --input NAME=VALUE | Workflow input (repeatable) | | -p, --provider PROVIDER | Override provider | | --dry-run | Preview execution plan | | --skip-gates | Auto-select at human gates | | --web | Start real-time web dashboard | | --web-bg | Run in background, print dashboard URL, exit | | --web-port PORT | Port for web dashboard (0 = auto) | | -q, --quiet | Suppress progress output | | -s, --silent | Suppress all output except errors | | -l, --log-file PATH | Write logs to file |

conductor validate

Validate a workflow file without executing.

conductor validate <workflow.yaml>

conductor init

Create a new workflow from a template.

conductor init <name> --template <template> --output <path>

conductor templates

List available workflow templates.

conductor templates

Full CLI documentation: docs/cli-reference.md

Examples

See the examples/ directory for complete workflows:

| Example | Description | |---------|-------------| | simple-qa.yaml | Basic single-agent Q&A | | for-each-simple.yaml | Dynamic parallel processing | | parallel-research.yaml | Static parallel execution | | design-review.yaml | Human gate with loop pattern | | script-step.yaml | Script step with exit_code routing |

More examples and running instructions: examples/README.md

Documentation

| Document | Description | |----------|-------------| | Workflow Syntax | Complete YAML schema reference | | CLI Reference | Full command-line documentation | | Parallel Execution | Static parallel groups | | Dynamic Parallel | For-each groups and array processing | | Claude Provider | Claude setup and configuration | | Provider Comparison | Copilot vs Claude decision guide |

Development

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+
• uv for dependency management

Setup

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/conductor.git
cd conductor
make dev

Windows

On Windows, use uv directly instead of make:

uv sync --all-extras    # instead of make dev
uv run pytest tests/    # instead of make test
uv run ruff check .     # instead of make lint
uv run ruff format .    # instead of make format

Copilot CLI path: Windows subprocess cannot resolve .bat/.ps1 wrappers by name alone. If you see [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified when running workflows, set the full path to the Copilot CLI:

# Find your copilot CLI
Get-Command copilot* | Format-Table Name, Source

# Set the path (use the .cmd variant from npm)
$env:COPILOT_CLI_PATH = "C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\npm\copilot.cmd"

Common Commands

make test             # Run tests
make test-cov         # Run tests with coverage
make lint             # Check linting
make format           # Auto-fix and format code
make typecheck        # Type check
make check            # Run all checks (lint + typecheck)
make validate-examples  # Validate all example workflows

Code Style

• Ruff for linting and formatting
• ty for type checking
• Google-style docstrings

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit Contributor License Agreements.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will