AI Engineer World's Fair 2026
Orchestras, Not Factories: How the Fastest Builders Work — Charlie Holtz, Conductor
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25 slide and demo groups · Timestamps are approximate.
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Orchestras, Not Factories: How the Fastest Builders Work
Charlie Holtz’s Conductor workflow combines early experimentation, selective human review, shared organizational context and persistent cloud agents. The goal is to give people more room to direct and craft software with a team.
From a talk by Charlie Holtz
At a glance
Ideas worth remembering
Try new capabilities early, then limit workflow customization to places where knowledge of your users or codebase changes what the agent should do.
Apply human review selectively. Migrations need enforced scrutiny, and recurring agent instructions deserve care because they influence every new task.
Centralized organizational information and a SQL tool give agents a way to retrieve context beyond the repository.
Persistent cloud workspaces separate execution from the laptop and support shared review, live conversation and remotely initiated tasks.
Design agent tools so people can direct the whole effort, inspect details when needed and retain the experience of crafting software with a team.
One interface for a team of coding agents
At a wedding in New York, Charlie Holtz mentioned that he was preparing a presentation about AI engineering. His conversational partner’s eyes glazed over. An audience that actually wanted to hear about coding agents was a welcome change. Holtz, Conductor’s co-founder and CEO, used that opening to introduce a practical question: what do the fastest builders do with these tools?
Conductor is a desktop app for managing multiple coding agents at once. Instead of distributing their sessions across terminal windows, it brings them into one interface. Building that interface gave Holtz a close view of other engineers’ workflows: where they invested effort, what they delegated and what they avoided. The principles that follow are his synthesis of those observations and Conductor’s own experience.
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Try new capabilities before the workflow settles
“Stay near the frontier” starts with trying new tools and workflows when they arrive. For a startup, that exposure can change what seems worth building. Conductor itself began this way. The team was working on a different app, Chorus, when heavy use of a coding agent started reshaping its development process.
The first response was to clone the repository five times. Then the team discovered Git worktrees, and the workflow gradually became an internal tool: Conductor. The product idea emerged from using the new capability enough to encounter a concrete coordination problem. Multiple agents were useful; managing their work needed a better interface.
Inside an established company, the same habit can make someone the person who knows which workflows are newly possible. Holtz warns that waiting for useful practices to trickle through a social network can leave a builder three to six months behind; that is his assessment of the pace, rather than a measured adoption delay. But the word near matters. Experimentation stops paying when improving the workflow consumes all the time that was supposed to go into the work.
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Spend custom-workflow effort where you know something specific
Conductor’s heuristic for deciding how far to customize is “don’t try and beat the market.” Ask why a promising workflow is not already the default. If it works broadly, Holtz expects providers such as Anthropic or OpenAI to incorporate it into their agent harnesses—the tools that run and coordinate the model’s work. Under that expectation, extensively rebuilding a generally useful workflow yourself may buy only a temporary advantage.
The exception is “real alpha”: information about your users or codebase that a general model may not know. Conductor needs to render very long chats quickly. That product requirement justifies spending time optimizing its React queries, even when doing so requires sacrifices elsewhere in the codebase. The useful customization comes from knowing which behavior matters most for this app.
This puts a stopping rule around experimentation: invest when specific knowledge changes how the work should be done. Otherwise, keep the setup from becoming its own project. Holtz’s warning is familiar to anyone who has spent too long configuring an editor: an amazing Emacs setup does not ensure that anything gets finished.
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Protect migrations and the instructions agents repeatedly read
A “slop-free zone” is an area that requires strict human review. Conductor applies that care selectively: some parts of the codebase get close scrutiny, while others allow much looser development. Holtz connects this practice to costly experience—the team had to rewrite its app a couple of times after failing to protect important areas.
- Migrations: CI requires a human review whenever the migrations file changes. This makes scrutiny a required step for that file, rather than a general aspiration.
- Team communication: Conductor treats Slack messages as human-written material. That is a team convention about who authors the communication.
- Documentation and agent instructions: Docs and skill files receive substantial attention. They shape what agents know and how they begin their work.
The instruction-file analogy is an intern joining the company. Imagine being able to whisper advice into that intern’s ear every time they sit down to work. You would choose those words carefully because they keep influencing subsequent decisions. Agent instruction files play that recurring role: their contents enter the agent’s context when it starts working. Time spent improving them can affect many tasks, which explains why the builders Holtz admires put unusual effort into these files.
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Feed agents the organization’s working context
Careful instructions provide standing guidance. “Feed the beast” adds information about what is happening now. Conductor’s internal tool, the Conductor Internal Agent—CIA—collects organizational activity in a central database. A new Slack message is picked up and saved to a Postgres table. Discord bug reports enter the same collection process, and recorded meetings go into the CIA as well.
How does information scattered across conversations become available to an agent? The diagram follows the collection and access paths. Centralizing the material gives agents one place to look for company-specific context; a SQL tool lets them query the database. Holtz’s prescription is deliberately simple: put the information in a database and give the agent a way to ask questions of it. The mechanism supplies access to context, without establishing that every query will find or interpret the right information.
From team activity to queryable context
Read the diagram as text
- Slack messages. sources — New messages are picked up as they arrive.
- Discord bug reports. sources — User reports enter the collection process.
- Recorded meetings. sources — Meeting recordings go into the CIA.
- Conductor Internal Agent. Collects organizational activity centrally.
- Central database. Slack messages are saved to a Postgres table.
- Agent with a SQL tool. Can query the collected information.
- Slack messages → Conductor Internal Agent: Pick up new messages.
- Discord bug reports → Conductor Internal Agent: Collect reports.
- Recorded meetings → Conductor Internal Agent: Collect recordings.
- Conductor Internal Agent → Central database: Store centrally.
- Agent with a SQL tool → Central database: Query through SQL.
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Move execution to the cloud, then share the workspace
“Free-range agents” need somewhere to work that survives the user closing a laptop. Holtz proposes persistent sandboxes where agents can explore the codebase, tackle difficult tasks, create more agents and collaborate with people. His reasoning is that longer-running, more capable models need an execution environment that does not inherit the interruptions of a personal computer.
The demonstration introduces a Conductor version centered on cloud collaboration. Each workspace has a cloud icon that exposes information about the sandbox running its agent. Holtz describes a change from tasks built around local Git worktrees to tasks running in cloud sandboxes, so work can continue after the laptop closes. He announces a rollout for the week of the presentation; that announcement does not establish subsequent availability.
Cloud execution also gives the interface a shared place for collaboration. The organization view lists work across teammates, and Holtz opens a colleague’s workspace to review its changes. He sends a request to use tabs instead of spaces. The colleague can see the message and chat in the same workspace; a typing indicator appears during the demonstration. The sequence establishes shared review and live conversation, though no corresponding code edit is shown.
The collaboration case follows from ambition. As models improve, teams can attempt larger projects, and larger projects call for more people and agents working together. A shared workspace gives those participants a place to inspect work and discuss its direction while it is underway. Holtz expects collaboration to become an important interface change because the unit of work increasingly includes a team.
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A message becomes a new cloud workspace
The next example turns cloud execution into remotely initiated work. A personal agent has access to the Conductor API. Holtz describes reaching it from a phone, Telegram or Slack and asking it to create a workspace. His concrete task is simple: make all the buttons blue.
The request passes to the personal agent, which can call Conductor’s API to start the work. Holtz then reports that the workspace has been created and the coding agent is on the task. Opening Conductor shows that workspace setup is still underway. The observable change is therefore a new workspace beginning its task; the demonstration does not establish that the buttons were changed.
What separates sending a request from executing it? The diagram shows the handoff from a messaging interface through an API to a cloud workspace. The phone supplies the request, while the sandbox supplies the execution environment. That separation lets a person initiate a task while away and return to its workspace later, without requiring the laptop to remain the host.
Starting the blue-buttons task remotely
Read the diagram as text
- Message from the user. Create a workspace to make all the buttons blue.
- Personal agent. Has access to the Conductor API.
- Conductor API. Lets the personal agent kick off work.
- New cloud workspace. cloud — Created; setup is still underway.
- Coding agent. cloud — Assigned the task; can work while the user is away.
- Message from the user → Personal agent: Send the task.
- Personal agent → Conductor API: Use API access.
- Conductor API → New cloud workspace: Create workspace.
- New cloud workspace → Coding agent: Begin task setup.
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Keep people at the center of the work
The final principle gives the talk its title. Holtz dislikes the term “software factory,” even while recognizing that automation improves efficiency and makes it possible to produce more. His objection concerns the working experience and the goal that the metaphor encourages: a person managing an assembly line of agents that continually pumps out features.
An orchestra offers a different role for the person directing the work. A gesture starts one group of agents; another brings people and agents together. The conductor can zoom in on details when needed and spend much of the time looking across the whole effort. This is a design aspiration for the interface: make it possible to move between directing a team and examining its work, while retaining a sense of craft.
The shared-workspace demonstration makes part of that aspiration concrete: teammates can see ongoing work, review changes and discuss a decision in the place where the task is happening. The selective review policy supplies another part: a human deliberately gets close to migrations and recurring agent instructions. Cloud agents provide room to keep work moving between those interventions. Together, these choices let direction, review and execution happen at different levels of attention.
For tool builders, the ending is a responsibility as much as a metaphor. Holtz wants software to feel human and crafted, and wants the people making it to feel capable, absorbed and excited. His image is designing the Mac with a team of people and AI agents in the same place. The closing recap returns to all six principles, but the orchestra explains what their speed is meant to preserve: the pleasure and judgment of making something together.
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Read the complete timestamped transcript
10 slide groups · 15 demo milestones. Extracted from the recording; expand builds to follow changes. Timestamps are approximate.
- 0:01
[music]
- 0:25
>> Hello.
- 0:26
I was at a wedding this weekend
- 0:29
and it was in New York and there were a
- 0:31
bunch of trendy people there
- 0:33
and uh I I told I was talking to someone
- 0:36
who I'd never met before and uh I told
- 0:38
him I was prepping for this presentation
- 0:40
and he was like, "Oh, that's cool. Like,
- 0:41
what what's the conference about?" And I
- 0:43
said it was about AI engineering. And I
- 0:46
could just see his eyes glaze over and
- 0:49
he started like looking behind me to
- 0:51
find the next person to talk to. And I'm
- 0:53
it's like so cool to actually be in a
- 0:55
room full of people who actually want to
- 0:56
hear about this stuff.
- 0:57
So, I I I I'm very excited to be here.
- 1:00
Um I am the co-founder of Conductor. Um
- 1:02
has anyone here used Conductor?
- 1:05
Okay, nice. Nice. Okay, cool. So, uh
- 1:09
uh for those who don't know, uh
- 1:10
Conductor is a desktop app for managing
- 1:12
a team of coding agents all at the same
- 1:14
time. So, instead of having a bunch of
Conductor
Conductor is a desktop app for managing a team of coding agents in one interface.
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CONDUCTOR
- 1:16
terminal windows for your Cloud Codes,
- 1:18
your Code Accesses, or your uh whatever
- 1:21
uh coding agent, you have one interface
- 1:23
to manage them all.
- 1:24
And one of the really cool things about
- 1:26
building Conductor has been that I've
- 1:28
seen a lot of the best builders up
- 1:31
close. I've like watched their workflow,
- 1:32
I've seen how they work, I've seen the
- 1:34
things they do do and the things that
- 1:36
they avoid doing. And so, I thought I
- 1:37
would compile a bunch of the principles
- 1:40
um that I've seen the best engineers use
- 1:42
um and give them to you all.
Conductor interface
Conductor shows an agent conversation alongside workspaces, changed files, and a terminal. In the conversation, the agent reports fixing an import error and replacing a custom search interface with a Command component.
Text in image
ReferenceError: Can't find variable: useDefaultOpenInApp in @RepositoryDetailsDialog.tsx 13 tool calls, 7 messages Perfect! I've added the missing imports. Now let me run the validation to make sure everything compiles correctly: 1 file changed RepositoryDetailsDialog.tsx +4 -1 cool works now. i was thinking it could be nice to use a version of the @command.tsx in the @RepositoryDetailsDialog.tsx instead of trying to reinvent the wheel of searching/navigating with keyboard 15 tool calls, 13 messages Perfect! The refactoring is complete. Let me summarize what was done: Summary I successfully replaced the custom search and virtualized list implementation with the Command component from shadcn/ui. Here are the key improvements: What Changed: 1. Replaced custom search with CommandInput - The manual Input component with Search icon is now a CommandInput with built-in search styling 2. [illegible] -window with CommandList - No more manual virtualization or [illegible] Interface text: Home archive-in-repo-details /kampala-v3 Open PR #1432 Ready to merge Merge All changes Debugging ReferenceError Review branch changes conductor + New workspace archive-in-repo-details +312 -332 kampala-v3 · Ready to merge #1 system-tray-status +611 -1 caracas-v2 · Merge conflicts #2 melty_home + New workspace update-instructions-codex +1 -1 papeete-v1 · Ready to merge #3 add-agent-workspaces-txt +1 maputo-v2 · Archive #4 cbh123/melty-labs-ho... +1037 -96 austin · 2mo ago #5 swipe + New workspace conductor-docs + New workspace conductor_api chorus api Add repository Changes 10 All files Review src/App.tsx +2 -5 src/core/conductor/WorkspaceAPI.ts +53 -1 src/ui/components/FileBadge.tsx +2 -3 src/ui/compone... RepositoryDetailsDialog.tsx +225 -117 src/ui/components/ToolRenderers.tsx +17 -2 src/ui/components/WorkspaceSidebar.tsx +1 -15 src/ui/components/git/diff/GitDiffFileHeader.tsx +1 src/ui/components/read... ReadOnlyFileHeader.tsx +3 src/ui/hooks/useWorkspaceContext.ts +8 src/ui/pages/ArchivedWorkspacesPage.tsx -189 Run Terminal Run kampala-v3 git:(archive-in-repo-details) Scroll to bottom 2 ⌘L to focus Sonnet 4.5 Link issue
1:44Demo milestone
- 1:44
Um
- 1:45
so, here's what Conductor looks like.
- 1:48
Uh can you can you guys see this?
- 1:50
Okay, nice. Okay. So, here's what
- 1:52
Conductor looks like. Um
Six principles for faster building
Charlie Holtz introduces six principles he has seen the best engineers use, from staying near the frontier to thinking in terms of orchestras.
Text in image
1. Stay near the frontier 2. Don’t try to beat the market 3. Create slop-free zones 4. Feed the beast 5. Free-range agents 6. Orchestras, not factories
- 1:54
and here are my principles for being the
- 1:57
fastest builder in your organization.
- 2:00
So, let's start with
Stay near the frontier
Holtz recommends trying new tools as they launch. His team’s evolving coding workflow became Conductor, but he warns against spending all your time tuning workflows instead of doing work.
Text in image
1. Stay near the frontier
- 2:01
number one, stay near the frontier.
- 2:06
Staying near the frontier means you are
- 2:08
always trying the latest things,
- 2:09
basically the day they come out. Uh it
- 2:11
means that when uh uh ultra code comes
- 2:14
out, you're trying it. It means that
- 2:17
when uh uh slash go comes out, you're
- 2:20
giving it a go. Um it's really important
- 2:22
to stay near the frontier um for a few
- 2:24
reasons. Um if you are doing your own
- 2:27
startup, then staying near the frontier
- 2:29
means that you will um come up with lots
- 2:31
of new ideas for what you should
- 2:32
actually be building. Um and this
- 2:33
literally happened to us. We were
- 2:35
building a totally different app called
- 2:37
Chorus. Um
- 2:38
but we started using We were such power
- 2:40
users of cloud code back in February of
- 2:43
last year that we uh started building
- 2:45
our whole workflow around cloud code,
- 2:47
and we started cloning our repo five
- 2:49
times, and then we discovered work
- 2:50
trees, and then bit by bit we had built
- 2:52
conductor as an internal tool. And we
- 2:54
couldn't have figured that out if we uh
- 2:56
weren't staying near the frontier.
- 2:58
And if you're not doing a startup, you
- 3:00
should be the person at your company who
- 3:02
always knows what the latest uh the
- 3:04
latest workflows are. Um it used to be
- 3:07
that you could just kind of like use
- 3:09
your social graph and the information
- 3:11
that was important about the best
- 3:13
workflows to use would trickle down to
- 3:14
you. But things just like move way too
- 3:16
fast now. You're You're always going to
- 3:17
be three to six months behind if you do
- 3:19
that.
- 3:20
Um so, it's a very important to stay
- 3:22
near the frontier. And there's an
- 3:23
important word here, near. Um there is a
- 3:27
danger if you are at the frontier, um
- 3:30
you can you can do what uh I call
- 3:32
mid-whip miming, where you're spending
- 3:34
all of your time working on your
- 3:35
workflow and not doing actual work. And
- 3:38
so, internally we've come up uh with a
Don’t try to beat the market
Holtz recommends optimizing workflows when you know something about your users or codebase that models may lack. For broadly useful workflows, he suggests waiting for providers to make them defaults.
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2. Don’t try to beat the market
- 3:40
heuristic for this. Um we call it don't
- 3:42
beat the market. Don't try and beat the
- 3:44
market. Um uh the concept here, like the
- 3:48
heuristic you should use when you're
- 3:50
you're to decide if you're near the
- 3:51
frontier or at the frontier and uh too
- 3:54
deep in into
- 3:56
the latest trends is you should ask
- 3:58
yourself
- 3:59
why isn't this workflow the default?
- 4:02
So for example when
- 4:06
Ralph loops were becoming a big thing
- 4:10
you should ask yourself like should I
- 4:12
spend a ton of time optimizing my
- 4:14
workflow to work with Ralph loops
- 4:16
because
- 4:17
if Ralph loops work for everyone like if
- 4:19
they are the default then you probably
- 4:22
should just wait for Anthropic or Open
- 4:24
AI or ever to build the workflow into
- 4:27
the into the default harness. You can
- 4:30
think of this is sort of like an
- 4:31
efficient market hypothesis where
- 4:34
unless you have like real alpha you
- 4:36
shouldn't be optimizing your workflow
- 4:38
too much. And what I mean by real alpha
- 4:41
is like some kind of information about
- 4:42
either your users or your code base that
- 4:45
the models might not know about. So an
- 4:48
example for us is we it's
- 4:51
we're we're a chat app. We have to
- 4:52
render really long chats really quickly
- 4:54
and performance is is important to us
- 4:56
and so we need to spend a lot of time
- 4:58
optimizing our react queries
- 5:00
to render the chats quickly and we're
- 5:02
willing to make sacrifices in other
- 5:05
parts of our code base to make that
- 5:06
happen.
- 5:07
Um So if you have some kind of alpha
- 5:09
like some kind of information about the
- 5:11
app you're building that the models
- 5:12
might not know about then you should put
- 5:14
time into the workflow. Otherwise don't
- 5:17
don't midwit meme. Don't don't be the
- 5:19
person who has an amazing Emacs setup
- 5:20
but like doesn't actually get stuff
- 5:22
done.
Create slop-free zones
Conductor designates parts of its codebase or app for strict human review. Its CI requires a human to review changes to the migrations file.
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3. Create slop-free zones
- 5:24
Okay three.
- 5:26
Create slop free zones. So at Conductor
- 5:29
we have this term we call a slop free
- 5:30
zone.
- 5:32
And a slop free zone is a part of the
- 5:34
code base or a part of the app that
- 5:37
requires really strict human review.
- 5:40
And we're actually I think a little bit
- 5:42
unusual in this way. I think a lot of
- 5:43
people assume that we are uh pure token
- 5:46
maxers and we are like ripping through
- 5:47
like 30,000 line PRs, but we're actually
- 5:50
not. Um we're actually quite careful
- 5:52
with certain parts of our codebase, and
- 5:54
then very loose with other parts of our
- 5:56
codebase. Um
- 5:58
the reason this is important is because
- 5:59
if you are not careful about your slot
- 6:01
free zones, your your code your codebase
- 6:03
can get in a really tricky spot. Um and
- 6:06
this actually happened to us. We have
- 6:08
We've had to rewrite our whole app like
- 6:10
a couple of times because we weren't
- 6:11
careful about slot free zones. Um
- 6:14
specifically, we have a uh migrations
- 6:17
file. And
- 6:19
uh in our CI
- 6:21
uh any change to migrations file
- 6:23
requires the AI uh a human to review it.
- 6:26
Um we also assume that anything written
- 6:28
in Slack is slot free. It's It's not
- 6:30
written by the AI. It's written by a
- 6:31
human. All of our docs, um all our cloud
- 6:34
MDs, like all our skills, we put a ton
- 6:37
of time into making them good. Um
- 6:40
and this is also something I've seen
- 6:41
with all the the the best builders up
- 6:43
close. Like they put an unusual amount
- 6:45
of time into the cloud MD or their skill
- 6:47
files. Um and I I think like another way
- 6:50
that I've thought about this is like if
- 6:52
you had a new intern that was joining
- 6:55
your company, and you had the
- 6:57
opportunity to like whisper something in
- 7:00
their ear every time they started
- 7:02
working. Like every day, anytime they
- 7:04
sat down, you could like whisper
- 7:05
something in their ear. You would
- 7:06
probably put a lot of thought into like
- 7:08
what it is that you're whispering in
- 7:09
their ear. And this is what the cloud MD
- 7:11
or agent's MD is. It's like information
- 7:14
that gets loaded into the agent's
- 7:15
context every time they start working.
- 7:17
Um and so you probably want to put a lot
- 7:19
of thought into
- 7:20
into those.
Stay near the frontier
Holtz recommends trying new tools as they launch. His team’s evolving coding workflow became Conductor, but he warns against spending all your time tuning workflows instead of doing work.
Text in image
1. Stay near the frontier
- 7:22
Um okay, four.
- 7:25
Feed the beast.
- 7:26
Uh
- 7:28
at Conductor, we have a uh internal tool
- 7:31
we call the Conductor Internal Agent. Um
- 7:34
and it is
- 7:36
uh we also also known as the CIA.
- 7:38
And the CIA is basically like the the
- 7:42
uh centralized database of everything
- 7:44
that's happening in the organization.
- 7:46
So, anytime a new Slack message gets
- 7:47
sent, the CIA picks it up. The CIA agent
- 7:51
will see that a new message sent Slack,
- 7:52
it will pick it up, and it will save it
- 7:54
to a Postgres uh
- 7:56
uh table. Anytime a user has a bug
- 7:58
request in Discord, the same thing
- 7:59
happens. Anytime we have a meeting, we
- 8:02
are recording it, uh and it goes into
- 8:04
the CIA. Um we call this feed the beast
- 8:07
because you you want to for if your
- 8:09
agents to be effective uh
- 8:11
in your company, you want them to have
- 8:13
as much information and as much context
- 8:15
as they can have about the way you guys
- 8:17
specifically work. And the best way to
- 8:19
do that is by having a centralized place
- 8:22
for all of the information to go.
A database and a SQL tool
Holtz recommends centralizing company information so agents have context, then giving them a SQL tool to work with the database.
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tuxedo sam @NotTuxedoSam the unreasonable effectiveness of just putting everything in a database and handing an agent a SQL tool Interface text: 8:18 AM · May 6, 2026 · 12K Views 10 7 235 27
- 8:25
Uh I think this this tweet sums it up
- 8:27
pretty well. Uh uh
- 8:29
It's really effective to just put
- 8:31
everything in a database and then give
- 8:33
your agent a SQL tool and let it handle
- 8:36
uh
- 8:37
uh handle the rest.
Stay near the frontier
Holtz recommends trying new tools as they launch. His team’s evolving coding workflow became Conductor, but he warns against spending all your time tuning workflows instead of doing work.
Text in image
1. Stay near the frontier
- 8:40
Okay.
- 8:41
Next is free-range agents.
- 8:46
Give your agents
- 8:47
a lot of space to play. Give them Give
- 8:50
them a sandbox where they that won't get
- 8:52
killed, where they can explore your code
- 8:54
base, where they can work on really hard
- 8:56
tasks, where they can they know that
- 8:58
they're not going to get shut down when
- 9:00
you close your laptop lid. Uh Give them
- 9:03
Give them opportunities to create more
- 9:05
of themselves. Um
- 9:07
Give them ways uh to collaborate with
- 9:09
other agents and other humans. Um
- 9:12
I think what's really in- interesting
- 9:14
about free-range agents and like this
- 9:16
this concept and why this is important
- 9:18
is the models are getting better, and
- 9:21
they are able to run for much longer,
- 9:23
and there're going to be many more of
- 9:24
them. And so, if they are confined to
- 9:27
your laptop, then the they're not going
- 9:30
to be nearly as effective as uh as if
- 9:32
they are free roaming.
- 9:34
Um The other thing that's important here
- 9:36
is that once you give them a a sandbox
- 9:39
to play in that isn't confined to your
- 9:40
laptop, there's a bunch of really cool
- 9:42
stuff that you can build on top. Um and
- 9:45
we have built some of those things into
- 9:46
Conductor and I
- 9:48
I'll give you a quick glimpse into into
- 9:50
some of those cool things.
- 9:52
So,
- 9:56
this is Conductor.
- 9:58
I'm going to make it a bit bigger.
Conductor workspace browsing
Conductor groups workspaces by person; scrolling reveals Kaden Hyatt’s work and a workspace preview. A cloud terminal sits beside the agent chat and changed files. Holtz says agents keep running when his laptop closes.
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Hi Charlie! 👋 What can I help you with today? I see you’re on the cbh123/test-python-file branch and there’s an untracked test.py file. Let me know what you’d like to work on. Interface text: Conductor Create Workspaces Charlie Holtz 43 cool-new-feature +16 Conductor/api 66365fbf Bucharest v1 Conductor/api 0bb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All changes Start chat Chatting Running Create PR hi All files Changes 1 Checks test.py U +16 7s Run Running in cloud [vercel-sandbox@d7cb9c1b-73ace]$ Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands ⌘L to focus Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:50 AM narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
9:58Demo milestone
- 10:00
Um and this is actually a new version of
- 10:01
Conductor that is
- 10:03
uh coming out this week and it is
- 10:06
centered around collaboration in the
- 10:08
cloud.
- 10:10
And so, the the the thing I said was you
- 10:12
need a a sandbox for agents to play. You
- 10:14
need a free-range agent. And so, you'll
- 10:16
notice that each workspace has a little
- 10:18
cloud icon at the top and I can click it
- 10:21
and get information about the sandbox
- 10:23
that the agent is running in.
Conductor workspace browsing
Conductor groups workspaces by person; scrolling reveals Kaden Hyatt’s work and a workspace preview. A cloud terminal sits beside the agent chat and changed files. Holtz says agents keep running when his laptop closes.
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Hi Charlie! 👋 What can I help you with today? I see you’re on the cbh123/test-python-file branch and there’s an untracked test.py file. Let me know what you’d like to work on. Interface text: Conductor Create Workspaces Charlie Holtz 43 cool-new-feature +16 Conductor/api 66365fbf Bucharest v1 Conductor/api 0bb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All changes Start chat Chatting Running Create PR hi All files Changes 1 Checks test.py U +16 7s Run Running in cloud [vercel-sandbox@d7cb9c1b-73ace]$ Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands ⌘L to focus Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:50 AM narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
10:24Demo milestone
- 10:25
Um and what's what's awesome about this
- 10:27
is I can close my laptop and the agents
- 10:29
are going to keep running.
- 10:30
Up up until basically this week, every
- 10:33
uh every task in Conductor was built on
- 10:34
a get work tree, but now they're in a
- 10:36
cloud sandbox. They are free-range
- 10:38
agents.
- 10:38
But what's also really cool um that you
- 10:41
can that we can build on top of uh cloud
- 10:44
is collaboration.
- 10:46
So, you'll see here, I'll make this even
- 10:48
bigger.
- 10:49
That's me.
- 10:51
And here are a list of the things that I
- 10:52
am working on. And you can see that I am
- 10:54
in the Conductor org. But if I scroll
- 10:57
down, I can see what Cadence is working
Conductor workspace browsing
Conductor groups workspaces by person; scrolling reveals Kaden Hyatt’s work and a workspace preview. A cloud terminal sits beside the agent chat and changed files. Holtz says agents keep running when his laptop closes.
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bucharest-v1 Bucharest v1 Hello! 😊 What would you like to work on today? 2h ago I see you’re on the cbh123/test-python-file branch and there’s an untracked test.py file. Let me know what you’d like to work on. Interface text: Conductor Create Workspaces rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... Nedak23/search sessions api Nedak23/valencia +457 Nedak23/attribution config sta... Nedak23/sdk auto compacti... +22 All c... Start ... Chatti... Running Create PR hi All files Changes 1 Che... test.py U +16 7s Run Running in cloud [vercel-sandbox@d7cb9c[illegible] ace]$ Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /com... ⌘L to focus Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:51 AM narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
10:57Demo milestone
- 11:00
on.
- 11:01
I can see what Lewis is working on. I
- 11:04
can see what Tywan is working on and I
Team workspaces
Holtz points out Jackson’s avatar in the workspace list and says he can open a colleague’s work in real time.
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Conductor + Create Workspaces Let users force-stop a r... +121 -15 Rewrite proxy origin hea... +127 -21 San juan v1 +27 -12 Org gh oauth +685 -90 Cloud machine snapshots Jackson 31 Show image preview o... +1.1k -234 Jacksondc/typing indicator ex... Move "Copy link" into the t... +4 -6 Teach babysit skill about Macr... +5 Jacksondc/archive state rever... Update local execution a... +89 -26 hi Hi Charlie! 👋 What can I help you with today? I see you’re on the cbh123/test-python-file branch and there’s an untracked test.py file. Let me know what you’d like to work on. 7s Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /com... ⌘L to focus Opus 4.8 1M Fast High All files Changes 1 Che... test.py U +16 Run Running in cloud [vercel-sandbox@d7cb9c[illegible] ace]$ Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Quick MTG: Ch... in 9m 9m left Tue Jun 30 11:51 AM All c... Start ... Chatti... Running Create PR narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
11:05Demo milestone
- 11:05
can I can I can see that I can see
- 11:08
Jackson's face pop up there. I can click
- 11:09
in and see what he's working on in real
- 11:11
time. Um and I think collaboration is
Workspace changes
Holtz opens Jackson’s workspace to see his work in real time, with the discussion and 34 changes side by side.
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[illegible] file types on hover” for free, with no new rendering code. So you don’t build pdf/text preview speculatively (that’d be the same YAGNI trap as the dead github arm) — you just stop blocking it by not forking a new image-only card. Net: the right abstraction isn’t ImageFileAPI. It’s a generic file-source read hook + a single type-dispatching preview body, with the genuinely-new path-resolution code (the resolver, minus the union over-build) sitting on top. That deletes a card, deletes two duplicate readers, and makes the “image” specialness vanish — which is exactly the thing that was bugging you. Want me to sketch this as a concrete refactor diff (the useFileSrc rename + folding the new hover into AttachmentPreviewContent), so you can see whether it actually lands smaller? Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:51 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Let users force-stop a r... +121 -15 Rewrite proxy origin hea... +127 -21 San juan v1 +27 -12 Org gh oauth +685 -90 Cloud machine snapshots Jackson 31 Show image preview o... +1.1k -234 Jacksondc/typing indicator ex... Move "Copy link" into the t... +4 -6 Teach babysit skill about Macr... +5 Jacksondc/archive state rever... Update local execution a... +89 -26 Simplify PR co... Running #6540 R... Merge All files Changes 34 sGitAPI.test.ts -13 ImageFileAP... +14 s... GitAPI.ts +2 -79 ImageFileA... +123 attachment... +183 attach... 1 +180 draftAttach... +11 1s Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
11:13Demo milestone
- 11:16
the the one one of the most important
- 11:18
new concepts uh in these tools that no
- 11:20
one is really talking about right now.
- 11:21
Um collaboration is important because
- 11:24
uh not only as not only
Browsing workspace groups
The sidebar lists Charlie Holtz’s workspaces beside an open discussion and changed files. Holtz says more ambitious projects will need more people and agents working together.
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[illegible] file types on hover” for free, with no new rendering code. So you don’t build pdf/text preview speculatively (that’d be the same YAGNI trap as the dead github arm) — you just stop blocking it by not forking a new image-only card. Net: the right abstraction isn’t ImageFileAPI. It’s a generic file-source read hook + a single type-dispatching preview body, with the genuinely-new path-resolution code (the resolver, minus the union over-build) sitting on top. That deletes a card, deletes two duplicate readers, and makes the “image” specialness vanish — which is exactly the thing that was bugging you. Want me to sketch this as a concrete refactor diff (the useFileSrc rename + folding the new hover into AttachmentPreviewContent), so you can see whether it actually lands smaller? Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Quick MTG: Ch... in 8m Tue Jun 30 11:52 AM Simplify PR co... Running #6540 R... Merge Conductor Create Workspaces Charlie Holtz 43 cool-new-feature +16 Conductor/api 66365fbf Bucharest v1 Conductor/api 0bb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more All files Changes 34 sGitAPI.test.ts -13 ImageFileAP... +14 s... GitAPI.ts +2 -79 ImageFileA... +123 attachment... +183 attach... 1 +180 draftAttach... +11 Run 1s Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
11:24Demo milestone
- 11:26
it is it true that all great things are
- 11:28
built with teams of people. Like they're
- 11:30
not built by individuals. They're
- 11:31
they're built by teams. Um but also as
- 11:34
the models get better, um as we've seen
- 11:36
this with the two days of Fable, you can
- 11:38
get a lot more ambitious with the kinds
- 11:39
of things you're building. And if you're
- 11:41
getting more ambitious, you're going to
- 11:42
need more people and more agents to work
- 11:44
on those things. So, I'm going to go
Another workspace group
Charlie finds Kaden Hyatt’s workspace group in the sidebar and prepares to review a teammate’s changes.
Text in image
[illegible] file types on hover” for free, with no new rendering code. So you don’t build pdf/text preview speculatively (that’d be the same YAGNI trap as the dead github arm) — you just stop blocking it by not forking a new image-only card. Net: the right abstraction isn’t ImageFileAPI. It’s a generic file-source read hook + a single type-dispatching preview body, with the genuinely-new path-resolution code (the resolver, minus the union over-build) sitting on top. That deletes a card, deletes two duplicate readers, and makes the “image” specialness vanish — which is exactly the thing that was bugging you. Want me to sketch this as a concrete refactor diff (the useFileSrc rename + folding the new hover into AttachmentPreviewContent), so you can see whether it actually lands smaller? Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Quick MTG: Ch... in 8m Tue Jun 30 11:52 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Gitignore copy error Oauth token fallback Show 22 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... Nedak23/search sessions api Nedak23/valencia +457 Nedak23/attribution config sta... Nedak23/sdk auto compacti... +22 Nedak23/cmdk org s... +97 -10 Add key endpoints sectio... +32 -1 Nedak23/api session create me... Simplify PR co... Running #6540 R... Merge All files Changes 34 sGitAPI.test.ts -13 ImageFileAP... +14 s... GitAPI.ts +2 -79 ImageFileA... +123 attachment... +183 attach... 1 +180 draftAttach... +11 Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. 1s Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
11:46Demo milestone
- 11:46
into an uh
- 11:48
a workspace that Caden is working on.
- 11:51
Uh this one, and I'm going to say um I
Requesting a formatting change in a shared workspace
Charlie reviews Kaden’s workspace and asks to use tabs instead of spaces. He says Kaden should see the message in real time and can chat in the workspace.
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a non-component function from a component file. Validation • pnpm typecheck — ✅ passes (28 packages + root). • eslint on all three files — ✅ clean. I couldn’t drive the running Mac app from here to click through it, so the one thing worth a quick manual check: open Cmd+K as a user who belongs to 2+ orgs and confirm the “Switch organization” group shows your orgs with the active one checked, and that selecting another re-scopes the cloud surfaces (e.g. the sidebar’s cloud workspace list) without navigating away. Want me to open a PR? 22m, 49s CommandPalette.tsx +84 -0 OrgSwitcher.tsx +2 -2 Interface text: Conductor Alpha Conductor Create Workspaces Oauth token fallback Show 22 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... Nedak23/search sessions api Nedak23/valencia +457 Nedak23/attribution config sta... Nedak23/sdk auto compacti... +22 Nedak23/cmdk org s... +97 -10 Add key endpoints sectio... +32 -1 Nedak23/api session create me... Conductor/api 49804e52 All chang... Add org s... Running Create PR All files Changes 3 CommandP... …orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here.
11:52Demo milestone
- 11:54
can review the changes that he's made.
- 11:57
Um
- 11:58
I'll make this a little smaller, and
- 12:02
this looks fine, but I'm just going to
- 12:03
say uh can we actually use tabs, not
- 12:07
spaces?
Requesting a formatting change in a shared workspace
Charlie reviews Kaden’s workspace and asks to use tabs instead of spaces. He says Kaden should see the message in real time and can chat in the workspace.
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out specifically because react-refresh/only-export-components forbids exporting a non-component function from a component file. Validation • pnpm typecheck — ✅ passes (28 packages + root). • eslint on all three files — ✅ clean. I couldn’t drive the running Mac app from here to click through it, so the one thing worth a quick manual check: open Cmd+K as a user who belongs to 2+ orgs and confirm the “Switch organization” group shows your orgs with the active one checked, and that selecting another re-scopes the cloud surfaces (e.g. the sidebar’s cloud workspace list) without navigating away. Want me to open a PR? 22m, 49s CommandPalette.tsx +84 -0 OrgSwitcher.tsx +2 -2 can we actually use tabs not spaces 4.2s Interface text: Conductor Alpha Conductor Create Workspaces Name the /v0 API smoke-te... +1 -1 Show 11 more Jackson 32 Jacksondc/update anthropic... Show image preview o... +1.1k -234 Jacksondc/typing indicator ex... Move "Copy link" into the t... +4 -6 Teach babysit skill about Macr... +5 Jacksondc/archive state rever... Update local execution a... +89 -26 Geneva v9 Gitignore copy error Oauth token fallback Show 22 more Lewis Ellis 20 All changes Add org sw... Running Create PR All files Changes 3 Checks CommandPalette... U +85 src/c...orgDisplay.ts U +10 sOrgSwitcher.tsx U +2 -10 Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here.
12:08Demo milestone
- 12:10
And
- 12:12
Caden should be able to see that message
- 12:15
happen in real time, and he can actually
- 12:17
chat in the workspace as well. So, we
- 12:19
can see here that he's typing.
- 12:22
So, I see Caden is typing.
- 12:24
Let's see what he says.
Typing in the shared workspace
Kaden’s typing indicator appears in the shared workspace while the agent checks the project’s formatting configuration after a request to use tabs.
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Want me to open a PR? 22m, 49s CommandPalette.tsx +84 -0 OrgSwitcher.tsx +2 -2 can we actually use tabs not spaces Thin... The user wants tabs instead of spaces, but I'm not... Let me check the project's formatting config to see what's actually expected. Check forma... cd /home/vercel-sandbox/workspac... Thin... The prettier config only specifies a tab width of 4 ... Inspect inden... cd /home/vercel-sandbox/workspa... 24.2s Kaden Hyatt is typing Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:53 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Bucharest v1 Conductor/api 0bb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/cmdk org s... +97 -10 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All chang... Add or... Running Create PR All files Changes 3 CommandP... U +85 orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
12:29Demo milestone
- 12:31
Seems like he's typing a lot.
Collaborative workspace formatting request
A shared workspace shows a request for tabs, the agent checking formatting, and an interrupted response followed by “kaden are u there”. Charlie describes the workspace as shared in real time with teammates.
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[illegible] without navigating away. Want me to open a PR? 22m, 49s CommandPalette.tsx +84 -0 OrgSwitcher.tsx +2 -2 can we actually use tabs not spaces Thin... The user wants tabs instead of spaces, but I'm not... Let me check the project's formatting config to see what's actually expected. Check forma... cd /home/vercel-sandbox/workspac... Thin... The prettier config only specifies a tab width of 4 ... Inspect inden... cd /home/vercel-sandbox/workspa... 30.3s Next unread Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:53 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Bucharest v1 Conductor/api Obb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/cmdk org s... +97 -10 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All chang... Add or... Running Create PR All files Changes 3 CommandP... U +85 orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
12:32Demo milestone
Show 2 builds
- 12:32
The conversation still shows formatting checks, but the participant typing indicator is no longer visible.
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[illegible] without navigating away. Want me to open a PR? 22m, 49s CommandPalette.tsx +84 -0 OrgSwitcher.tsx +2 -2 can we actually use tabs not spaces Thin... The user wants tabs instead of spaces, but I'm not... Let me check the project's formatting config to see what's actually expected. Check forma... cd /home/vercel-sandbox/workspac... Thin... The prettier config only specifies a tab width of 4 ... Inspect inden... cd /home/vercel-sandbox/workspa... 30.3s Next unread Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:53 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Bucharest v1 Conductor/api Obb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/cmdk org s... +97 -10 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All chang... Add or... Running Create PR All files Changes 3 CommandP... U +85 orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
- 12:41
Conductor shows a request to use tabs, an interrupted response, and a follow-up message.
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list) without navigating away. Want me to open a PR? 22m, 49s CommandPalette.tsx +84 -0 OrgSwitcher.tsx +2 -2 can we actually use tabs not spaces 2 tool calls, 3 messages INTERRUPTED BY USER 32s kaden are u there 10.4s Next unread Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:53 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Bucharest v1 Conductor/api Obb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/cmdk org s... +97 -10 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All chang... Add or... Running Create PR All files Changes 3 CommandP... U +85 orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
- 12:32
- 12:37
Okay, maybe he stopped typing.
- 12:45
I'll give him a second to take a look at
- 12:47
it. But, the point is
- 12:48
we can now have collaborative workspaces
- 12:50
that are shared in real time with people
- 12:52
on our team.
Formatting clarification
The agent says switching its files to tabs would conflict with the repository’s formatting and fail CI. It asks whether to leave the changes as-is and open a PR.
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— is space-indented. My new orgDisplay.ts also uses spaces and passes prettier --check. So switching my files to tabs would actually make them inconsistent with the whole repo and fail the format:check CI step. A couple ways I can read your request — which did you mean? 1. You just want my changes to match the repo → they already do (spaces, Prettier-clean). Nothing to do. 2. You personally prefer tabs and want the whole repo converted → that’s a much bigger, separate change (and would fight the Prettier config). I’d recommend against it unless the team decides to flip useTabs globally. Want me to leave it as-is and move on to opening the PR? Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:53 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Bucharest v1 Conductor/api 0bb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/cmdk org s... +97 -10 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All chang... Add org s... Running Create PR All files Changes 3 Che... CommandP... U +85 orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. 11s Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands Opus 4.8 1M Fast High narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
12:52Demo milestone
- 12:54
Um
- 12:55
Okay, he's typing again.
Collaborative workspace message
A teammate posts “COME BACK, THE AGENTS HAVE ESCAPED” while Jackson is typing, showing a shared workspace updating in real time.
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A couple ways I can read your request — which did you mean? 1. You just want my changes to match the repo → they already do (spaces, Prettier-clean). Nothing to do. 2. You personally prefer tabs and want the whole repo converted → that’s a much bigger, separate change (and would fight the Prettier config). I’d recommend against it unless the team decides to flip useTabs globally. Want me to leave it as-is and move on to opening the PR? COME BACK, THE AGENTS HAVE ESCAPED Jackson is typing Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:53 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Bucharest v1 Conductor/api 0bb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/cmdk org ... +97 -10 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All chang... Add or... Running Create PR All files Changes 3 CommandP... U +85 orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 11s 5.0s Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /com. ⌘L to focus Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
12:59Demo milestone
- 13:01
Okay, come back. The agents have
- 13:03
escaped.
- 13:04
All right. So, I'm really excited about
- 13:07
this, and we're rolling this out to all
Agent status recap
The agent reports validated Cmd+K organization switching and three ready files. Holtz says collaboration is rolling out to all Conductor users that week.
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Quick status recap so we’re grounded: • Org switching in Cmd+K is implemented and validated (typecheck ✅, eslint ✅, prettier ✅). • Tabs vs spaces: the repo uses spaces (Prettier tabWidth: 4, useTabs off), and my changes match — so nothing to change there. Three files are ready: • CommandPalette.tsx — the new “Switch organization” group • OrgSwitcher.tsx — exported OrgIcon, moved orgLabel out • orgDisplay.ts (new) — shared orgLabel helper What would you like next — open the PR, or is there something else going on? Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Quick MTG: Ch... in 7m Tue Jun 30 11:53 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Bucharest v1 Conductor/api 0bb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/cmdk org ... +97 -10 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All chang... Add org s... Running Create PR All files Changes 3 CommandP... U +85 orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. 6s Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /com. ⌘L to focus Opus 4.8 1M Fast High narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
13:08Demo milestone
- 13:09
conductor users this week. Um I think I
- 13:12
think collaboration is going to be one
- 13:13
of the most important one of the most
- 13:15
important new interface changes this
- 13:17
year. Um the other really cool thing
- 13:20
about cloud is that um and giving it the
Workspace follow-up
A follow-up asks the agent for an update. It reports that Cmd+K organization switching is validated, with three files changed or added and nothing committed or pushed, then asks what to do next.
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what's up? Hey! Not much on my end — the org-switching work is done and sitting ready. Where we are: • Cmd+K org switching built and validated (typecheck, eslint, prettier all green). • Tabs vs spaces sorted — your changes match the repo (spaces). • Three files changed/added, nothing committed or pushed yet. So the ball’s in your court. Want me to open the PR, make tweaks to the palette behavior, or are we working on something else now? Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:53 AM All chang... Add org s... Running Create PR Conductor Create Workspaces Bucharest v1 Conductor/api 0bb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Move Workspaces button ... +33 -16 Show 33 more Kaden Hyatt 21 Nedak23/cmdk org s... +97 -10 Nedak23/comment flicker scroll... All files Changes 3 CommandP... U +85 orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 5s Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /com... ⌘L to focus Opus 4.8 1M Fast High Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. narrator Conductor Alpha Result 2026-0...9-42.csv Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
13:21Demo milestone
- 13:23
agents the free-range sandbox is that we
- 13:25
can give the agents APIs to spawn
- 13:27
themselves. So, I have here a uh I'll
- 13:30
bring up my open claw.
- 13:32
Uh this is my open claw called Lord
- 13:34
Crandon.
- 13:36
And
- 13:37
you can see that it has I don't know how
- 13:39
how well you can see this text, but it
- 13:42
has access to a conductor API. And so,
- 13:44
from my phone or from my Telegram or
- 13:47
from really or from Slack or wherever I
- 13:49
am, I can say, "Hi, can you create a new
- 13:52
workspace for me that makes
- 13:56
Yeah, makes all the buttons
Requesting a workspace through Telegram
Charlie texts Lord Crandon to create a workspace that makes all the buttons blue. The bot’s menu shows how it can create workspaces and send tasks to agents through the Conductor API.
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Lord Crandon bot can u make me a workspace called beep boop? and send a message in it that says hi 9:50 AM Done — beep-boop created and "hi" sent. 🤖 9:50 AM what else can u do with the Conductor API? 10:45 AM Here's the full menu: Workspaces • List all workspaces across a project • Create a new workspace • Rename a workspace • Check workspace status (sleeping/running/etc) Sessions (the agent thread inside a workspace) • Create a new session in an existing workspace • Rename a session • Check session status Messages • Send a message into a session (kick off an agent task) • Read message history from a session Projects • List all your projects • Get project details So practically: I can spin up workspaces, send tasks to agents, monitor what they're working on, read their outputs, and rename things. What I can't do yet: stop/pause a running session, delete workspaces, or push files directly. Want me to wire any of this into your morning checkin or build something more useful on top of it? 10:45 AM hi can u create a new workspaec for me that makes all the buttons blue 11:54 AM Interface text: Telegram @ Charlie Today Write a message... Conductor what's up? All files Changes 3 CommandP... U +85 [illegible]orgDisplay.ts U +10 OrgSwitc... U +2 -10 Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. Running Create PR
13:58Demo milestone
- 13:58
blue."
- 14:00
And so, I'll I'll text that to Lord
- 14:02
Crandon, and Lord Crandon has access to
- 14:05
the conductor API and so can kick off
- 14:06
work itself. Um
- 14:09
So, let's see what it does here.
- 14:15
Okay, so just created the workspace. The
- 14:17
agent is on it. And then I can go into
- 14:21
my conductor while I'm out and about,
Workspace setup in Conductor
The new “All buttons blue” workspace shows the request to make all app buttons blue. Conductor is still setting up while the agent works.
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Make all buttons in the app blue Interface text: Conductor Alpha File Edit View Window Help Tue Jun 30 11:54 AM Conductor Create Workspaces Charlie Holtz 44 All buttons blue cool-new-feature +16 Conductor/api 66365fbf Bucharest v1 Conductor/api 0bb554a9 multiplayer rounded-corners Victoria v1 Fix sidebar toggle vertical al... +6 -1 Add .astro syntax highlighti... +15 -1 Show 34 more Untitled Setting up Working... All files Changes Chec[illegible] 1.2s Next unread Ask to make changes, @mention files, run /commands GPT-5.5 Fast Run Start Run ⌘R Test your changes here. narrator Conductor Alpha Result Images Movies Screenshots test conductor-certificate no-git-repo-3 no-git-repo-yet
14:21Demo milestone
- 14:23
but it's still setting up the workspace,
- 14:25
and it will do work for me while I am
- 14:27
gone.
- 14:29
So, I'm pretty excited about all the all
- 14:31
the cool things you can build on top of
- 14:33
of
- 14:34
free range agents.
Orchestras, not factories
Holtz imagines a person conducting teams of humans and agents, zooming into details when needed while staying in the flow of crafting software.
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6. Orchestras, not factories
- 14:38
Okay.
- 14:40
The final principle that I want to talk
- 14:42
about today and the title of this talk
- 14:44
is orchestras, not factories.
- 14:48
The whole like talk track today is about
- 14:50
software factories. And I honestly kind
- 14:54
of hate the term.
- 14:55
I think it's the wrong way of thinking
- 14:57
about these new tools that are emerging.
- 15:00
I think like when I think of a factory,
- 15:03
I think of automation. And I think of
- 15:06
like there's a lot of amazing things
- 15:08
about automation and like it makes our
- 15:09
lives more efficient, and we can like
- 15:11
create more of everything. But
- 15:14
I don't want the future to be built
- 15:15
around factories. I want the future to I
- 15:19
want to feel like a human. I want to
- 15:20
like be in the flow. I want to be like
- 15:23
in front of an orchestra like waving my
- 15:25
baton and we're and like I wave it this
- 15:27
way and this this team of agents starts
- 15:30
working and then this intermingling of
- 15:31
humans and agents starts working as I go
- 15:33
here. And I can when I want to I can
- 15:35
zoom in on the details, but most of the
- 15:36
time I can zoom out. And I don't think
- 15:39
the future should be we are like
- 15:41
managing swarms of agents and we are
- 15:44
like factory line managers like pushing
- 15:46
buttons getting the agents to like pump
- 15:48
out the next feature. Like we can we can
- 15:50
we tried this like 10 years ago with the
- 15:52
term feature feature factories and it
- 15:55
just doesn't work. Like I want my
- 15:57
software to feel human and crafted. I
- 16:00
want to feel like a human at the center
- 16:01
of it all. And I think because we're all
- 16:03
building these tools we actually have a
- 16:04
responsibility to make the tools great
- 16:08
for humans. I think it's really
- 16:10
important to like use the words that
- 16:12
make us feel excited and like feel feel
- 16:14
capable and feel
- 16:16
like we're in the flow and having fun.
- 16:18
And so I don't think the future is
Dark Factory of Mass Production
Holtz rejects the dark factory as a model for building: he wants tools that help humans feel capable, in flow, and have fun, rather than feel like line managers.
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DARK FACTORY OF MASS PRODUCTION [SPELL CARD] Target 2 Normal Monsters in your Graveyard; add those targets to your hand. [illegible] 1st Edition ©1996 KAZUKI TAKAHASHI
- 16:22
is is something like this. I don't want
- 16:24
to be I don't want to be in in my dark
- 16:26
factory.
- 16:27
I don't want to be a line manager. I
- 16:29
want to feel like this.
The orchestra
Holtz imagines building like an orchestra: crafting in flow with a team of humans and AI agents. The image shows a conductor leading musicians before an audience.
- 16:31
I want to be in the flow. I want to be
- 16:33
having fun. I want to be crafting
- 16:34
things. I want to feel like I'm Steve
- 16:36
Jobs designing the Mac with a team of
- 16:39
amazing humans and AI agents all in the
- 16:41
same place. Like I want to feel like I'm
- 16:44
in an orchestra.
Six principles for faster building
Charlie Holtz introduces six principles he has seen the best engineers use, from staying near the frontier to thinking in terms of orchestras.
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1. Stay near the frontier 2. Don’t try to beat the market 3. Create slop-free zones 4. Feed the beast 5. Free-range agents 6. Orchestras, not factories
- 16:46
So here are my principles for
- 16:49
for being the best builder in your
- 16:50
organization.
- 16:52
Stay near the frontier. Don't try and
- 16:54
beat the market. Create slop free zones.
- 16:57
Feed the beast. Free range agents and
- 17:00
think about orchestras not factories.
- 17:05
Came up with this handy acronym for for
- 17:06
remembering it. Stickfo.
- 17:08
All right. So thanks thanks a ton for
- 17:10
for having me. I'll be around. Feel free
- 17:12
to ask questions and
- 17:14
I'll see you on the internet.
AI Engineer World's Fair
AI Engineer World's Fair branding in white on a black background, with the event website below.
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