Open Swarm is an AGPL-3.0, local-first mission-control desktop app for launching, monitoring, approving, and coordinating multiple AI coding agents in parallel on a spatial canvas. **Open Swarm's bet is that the bottleneck is supervision, not spawning: it puts every agent on one pan-and-zoom canvas, funnels every tool-use request into a single approval workflow, and keeps the whole thing on your machine with no cloud relay or telemetry.** ## What it is A desktop app (Electron shell over a React frontend and a FastAPI backend on port 8324) from openswarm-ai that runs Claude-powered agents through the Claude Agent SDK. The spatial dashboard is an infinite canvas of drag-and-drop agent cards, view cards, and embedded browser cards; agent chat streams over WebSockets with per-session cost tracking and persistent history. Its differentiators are a unified human-in-the-loop approval workflow (per-tool permissions of always-allow, ask, or deny, with batch approval from the dashboard), message branching that forks a conversation by editing a prior message, prompt templates, a skills library that syncs to `~/.claude/skills/`, and an MCP tools library with registry browsing. Each agent gets its own git worktree and branch, with a diff viewer for uncommitted changes, and there are five built-in agent modes plus custom modes, interactive HTML/JS/CSS output views, dark and light themes, and keyboard shortcuts. It currently targets macOS; Windows and Linux builds are documented as planned. ## Status Active but small: about 820 stars and 171 forks as of 2026-09-27, created 2026-03-13, with development through 2026-09-23. The current release line is explicitly experimental (v1.8.0-exp.2 on 2026-09-23), with a stable v1.7.11 before it. **The signal is a license inconsistency: the README and the curated directory call it MIT, but the repository's LICENSE file is AGPL-3.0 and GitHub's API reports AGPL-3.0, so the permissive badge is the one piece of documentation not to trust.** ## Strengths - The unified approval workflow is the strongest part of the design: one place to approve or deny tool calls across every agent. - Cost tracking per session and per agent, which the parallel-agent category mostly leaves to the provider dashboard. - Git worktree isolation per agent plus a diff viewer, so parallel work is contained and reviewable locally. - Skills, MCP tools, prompt templates, and message branching give it real depth beyond a chat multiplexer. - Fully local by design: no cloud relay, no telemetry, and the backend can be run directly for self-hosting. ## Cautions - The README's MIT badge contradicts the AGPL-3.0 LICENSE, so confirm the actual terms before commercial or embedded use. - macOS only as of 2026-09-27; Windows and Linux are planned but not shipped. - Built on the Claude Agent SDK and Anthropic models; README says other models are coming, so it is effectively single-provider today. - The advertised release line is experimental (v1.8.0-exp), so expect churn. - The name collides with an unrelated `Intrect-io/OpenSwarm` Show HN project, which confuses search and comparisons. ## Pricing Free and open source (AGPL-3.0 per the repository's LICENSE). No hosted tier and no token markup; agents run on your own Anthropic API key. ## Compared to - [Lanes](../lanes/index.md): macOS board-first with real PTY sessions and an access-governance endpoint; choose Open Swarm for the approval-centric canvas and cost tracking. - [Conductor](../conductor/index.md): the polished closed Mac worktree dashboard; choose Open Swarm for a free, local, approval-gated alternative. - [OpenChamber](../../surfaces/openchamber/index.md): a scheduled and interactive session surface; choose Open Swarm when you need many agents coordinated on one visible canvas. ## Bottom line **Recommended for macOS engineers who run several Claude agents and want one local canvas with unified tool approvals and per-session cost tracking.** Not for cross-platform teams, multi-provider fleets, or anyone who needs the README's MIT terms. ## Changes - 2026-09-27 - Created. ## See also - [Orchestration Feature Matrix](../orchestration-feature-matrix/index.md) - the category comparison this note joins - [Lanes](../lanes/index.md) - the board-first macOS workspace - [Conductor](../conductor/index.md) - the closed Mac incumbent - [Claude Squad](../claude-squad/index.md) - the free terminal alternative - [OpenChamber](../../surfaces/openchamber/index.md) - the session-centric surface ## References - https://github.com/openswarm-ai/openswarm - repository, architecture, features, stars, and the AGPL-3.0 LICENSE - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openswarm-ai/openswarm/HEAD/README.md - features, approval workflow, skills and MCP libraries, and the MIT badge - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47593100 - the author's Show HN post and the cost and approval rationale - https://openorchestrators.org/ - the curated directory's Open Swarm entry - https://openswarm.com/privacy - the no-cloud-relay and no-telemetry positioning