agent-orchestrator vs Firstmate
Pros and cons · checked 2026-10-24 · read from both projects' own code and docs; agent-orchestrator was not installed or run
The short version
- agent-orchestrator (Orchestrator.inc) is a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux, plus iPhone and Android apps. It shows every coding agent on a live board and tracks each one through its PR, CI and review.
- Firstmate is chat-only. You talk to one agent, and it dispatches, supervises and escalates for you across all your projects. It has no app.
- agent-orchestrator is ahead on: the visual board, phone apps, Windows, a built-in browser for each agent, and sending CI failures and review comments back to the right agent automatically.
- Firstmate is ahead on: one supervisor for every project, hard safety rules, a choice of delivery paths, a full check run before any PR, a backlog and decision record that survive restarts, and investigation-report tasks.
- Bottom line: agent-orchestrator is a cockpit you fly yourself. Firstmate is a crew chief you hand work to. They fit together more than they compete.
Pros & cons
agent-orchestrator
Pros compared with Firstmate
- A visual board: you see every agent, PR, CI result and review at a glance
- iPhone and Android apps with push notifications; also runs on Windows
- CI failures, review comments and merge conflicts go straight back to the agent that owns the PR
- Each agent gets its own built-in browser with DevTools
- A structured chat view with approvals, and you can switch an agent between chat and terminal mid-task
- Board status is computed by ordinary code, not by an AI, so it costs no tokens
- Scheduled automations and reusable prompts
- Works with 40+ agent tools; hosted cloud sandboxes (account required)
Cons compared with Firstmate
- You stay the supervisor: its planning agent covers one project at a time and is optional
- No full check run before the PR and no per-project delivery rules
- Never merges on its own, even for work you would trust it with
- No backlog of queued work and no durable record of decisions
- No "investigate and write a report" task type
- A heavy, closed stack (desktop app + server + database); you change behaviour by changing the product
- Usage telemetry is on by default and includes your GitHub username
Firstmate
Pros compared with agent-orchestrator
- One supervisor across all your projects; you only see outcomes and real decisions
- Hard rules: it never edits projects itself, never merges without your word, and never deletes unfinished work
- A delivery path per project: full checks then PR, PR only, or local only
- Optional automatic merge of passing, in-scope work, and it refuses failing merges
- A backlog, held decisions and deferrals that survive restarts
- Investigation tasks that end in a written report
- Picks which agent tool runs each task based on quota and fit
- Second mates on other machines over plain SSH, no account needed
- Plain text and scripts under the MIT licence, easy to read and change
Cons compared with agent-orchestrator
- No app, no phone app, no Windows support
- The supervisor is an AI model: quality depends on it following a long rulebook, and its turns cost tokens
- Fewer agent tools (16 vs 40+) and no structured chat view for each agent
- No built-in browser for agents and no scheduler
- Steeper learning curve, and you need to be comfortable in a terminal
- No hosted cloud option
What only one of them can do
Only agent-orchestrator
- Native phone apps with push notifications
- Windows
- A browser and DevTools for each agent
- Chat view that hands off to and from the terminal
- Board status computed from PR, CI and review data
- Automatic PR feedback to the owning agent
- Scheduled automations
- Hosted cloud sandboxes (account required)
Only Firstmate
- One supervisor that triages work across all projects
- A full check run before the PR as a delivery path
- Optional automatic merge, with failing merges refused
- Landing locally with no PR at all
- A backlog with held and deferred decisions
- Report-only investigation tasks
- Choosing the agent tool by quota
- Whole second-mate setups on other machines over SSH
- Answering public posts on X and Discord; a voice inbox
Side by side
Tap a topic to open it.
What it is
agent-orchestrator
A desktop app plus a background server and database on your machine. Each project gets its own planning agent and worker agents.Firstmate
Instructions plus about 230 shell scripts. Any supported coding agent run inside it becomes the first mate. One supervisor for every project.How agents are supervised
agent-orchestrator
Ordinary code checks agents every 5 seconds and PRs every 30 seconds, then updates the board and nudges agents. The planning agent only plans and hands off work; it never writes code.Firstmate
An AI supervisor, woken by a monitor that uses no tokens. It writes each task's instructions, watches the work, and decides what needs you.AO's supervision is mostly mechanical; Firstmate's is judgement-based.
Agent tools supported
agent-orchestrator
40+ listed (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini, Aider, Devin…). Chat view for about 14 of them; support differs by role.Firstmate
9 tools that can run the supervisor or workers (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi, Grok, Kimi, Cursor, OMP…), plus 7 for workers only.Keeping tasks apart
agent-orchestrator
A separate git copy and branch per task, and a separate browser profile per agent. Its own docs say this is not an operating-system sandbox. Real sandboxes exist only in its cloud.Firstmate
A separate, throwaway git copy per task, and it refuses to work in your main copy. No containers.Equal on your own machine. Neither has a true sandbox there.
Tracking tasks
agent-orchestrator
The board columns are Working, Needs you, In review and Ready to merge. It can start agents from GitHub/GitLab issues but never writes back to them. Scheduled automations.Firstmate
A backlog of queued, running, held and deferred work, including decisions waiting for you.Review and merge
agent-orchestrator
CI failures and review comments go back to the agent automatically. Optional AI reviewers can comment. Merging is always a manual action.Firstmate
A delivery path per project: a full check run (review, tests, docs, CI) then PR, PR only, or local only. Optional automatic merge of passing work.AO is stronger after the PR opens; Firstmate is stronger before it and at merge time.
How it gets your attention
agent-orchestrator
The "Needs you" column, a notification feed, desktop pop-ups and phone push. You can type to any agent directly.Firstmate
Plain-language messages only for real decisions, reviews and failures. Away and quiet modes, a note and voice inbox, and optional X/Discord replies.Surviving restarts
agent-orchestrator
Agent sessions keep running through app quits and updates. It never deletes a git copy with unsaved changes.Firstmate
A restart is meant to be a non-event: everything is rebuilt from records on disk, and cleanup refuses to remove unfinished work.Other machines
agent-orchestrator
Phone pairing on your local network or through a tunnel. Driving a remote machine needs an AO account. Hosted cloud workers.Firstmate
A whole second-mate setup on another machine over SSH. No accounts, no cloud.Setup
agent-orchestrator
Download an installer and open it. You still install and sign in to each agent tool yourself.Firstmate
Sign in to the GitHub command-line tool, clone the repo and start an agent in it. macOS and Linux only.Maturity & activity
agent-orchestrator
LicenceApache-2.0
StartedFeb 2026
Stars / forks13.6k / 1.9k
Merged PRs, last 30 days589
ReleasesEvery 1–3 days, v0.14.6
TelemetryOn by default
Firstmate
LicenceMIT
StartedJun 2026
Stars / forks8.3k / 2.6k
Merged PRs, last 30 days292
ReleasesNone; updates straight from main
TelemetryNone found
Recommendation
If you want to stay hands-on with a few projects and like a visual board and phone access, agent-orchestrator suits you. If you want to hand off work across many projects with strict safety and merge rules, Firstmate suits you.
Ideas Firstmate could borrow, each a separate decision and none started: send PR feedback straight to the agent that owns the PR, a read-only visual board, and phone push for reviews and decisions.
Sources: agent-orchestrator at commit 08b10ff (README, docs/STATUS.md, docs/architecture.md, product guides, backend/internal/session_manager/prompt.go); Firstmate at commit d46a643 (AGENTS.md, README.md, docs/). Activity figures come from the GitHub API on 2026-10-24. agent-orchestrator was read, not run. The full report with line references is in report.md next to this file.