Emdash AI and the alternatives for teams

Short answer: Emdash is really two products now. Emdash Classic is a free, open source desktop app for one developer, and it's a good one. Emdash 2.0 is a new team product in early access, with no public pricing yet. If your team wants a shared place for its coding agents today, Coagy is available now, free for up to 4 developers, and your agents and AI accounts stay on each person's own computer.

Emdash Classic: the open source app

Emdash is made by General Action (YC W26) and is open source under Apache-2.0 (GitHub).

• It's a desktop app for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows and Linux.
• It detects the coding CLIs you have installed, including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Amp, Devin, Qwen Code, Droid and Copilot. The docs say 22+ providers.
• Each task gets its own git worktree and branch. You review diffs, open pull requests and merge inside the app.
• You can send issues from Linear, GitHub, Jira, GitLab or Asana straight to an agent.
• It can run agents on remote machines over SSH. State is kept locally in SQLite, and the README says no code is sent to Emdash's servers.

It's actively maintained: v1.2.11 shipped on November 6, 2026 (releases). For one developer who wants an issue-driven desktop app, it's one of the best free choices.

Emdash 2.0: the team product

emdash.com now leads with "Coding agents for your whole team." That is Emdash 2.0, in early access. As described on the site, agents run on your own infrastructure or in Emdash's cloud, and you can start tasks from Emdash, Slack, Linear, GitHub or your phone. It lists shared dev environments, skills, MCP servers and secrets, shared sessions, live previews and PR reviews, SSO and roles, usage tracking and spend limits, and bringing your own subscriptions.

The site calls the open source app "Emdash Classic" and says new development has moved to 2.0. Emdash 2.0 has no public price yet; the button says "Get early access."

That's a serious product direction, and if it fits your team, it's worth getting on the list. The catch is that you can't sign up and use it today without waiting, and you don't know what it will cost.

How Coagy compares

Coagy is a shared workspace for a team's coding agents. Each developer keeps running Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Cursor on their own computer with their own Claude, ChatGPT, Google or API key login. A small connector mirrors their sessions into the team's workspace.

	Emdash Classic	Emdash 2.0	Coagy
Who it's for	One developer	Teams	Teams
Availability	Free download	Early access	Available now
Price	Free, open source	Not published	Free for up to 4 developers
Each task in its own worktree	Yes	Not stated	Yes
Uses your own AI subscriptions	Uses the CLIs you have installed	Yes	Yes
Where agents run	Your computer, or remote over SSH	Your infra or Emdash cloud	Each person's own computer, or Coagy cloud
Teammates see each other's sessions	No	Shared sessions	Yes, live
Ask or steer a teammate's agent, with the owner's approval	No	Not stated	Yes

A few things about how Coagy works:

• Sessions are private by default. The owner chooses what to share.
• Teammates can watch an agent live, ask it a question (the owner approves the answer) and steer it. Every edit or command from someone else's message asks the owner first.
• Hand a session to a teammate with its context. Shared project memory every agent can search.
• The connector runs on macOS, Linux and Windows 10 or 11 without admin rights. People who only watch, comment and chat are free.

Which one to pick

• You work alone: Emdash Classic is a great free choice. So are Claude Squad, T3 Code and our own Coagy Local.
• Your team wants a hosted platform with SSO and spend limits, and can wait: ask for Emdash 2.0 early access.
• Your team wants to share its agents today, without moving them off each person's machine: try Coagy. See how teams run Claude Code, Codex and Cursor together and Claude Code for teams.

Questions

What is Emdash AI?

Emdash is a set of tools for running coding agents from General Action (YC W26). Emdash Classic is a free, open source desktop app that runs many CLI agents, each task in its own git worktree. Emdash 2.0 is a newer team product in early access.

Is Emdash free?

Emdash Classic is free and open source under Apache-2.0. Emdash 2.0, the team product, has no published price yet and is in early access.

What is the difference between Emdash Classic and Emdash 2.0?

Emdash Classic is the open source desktop app for one developer. Emdash 2.0 is aimed at whole teams, with agents on your infrastructure or Emdash's cloud, shared sessions, SSO and roles, and spend limits. Emdash says new development has moved to 2.0.

What is a good Emdash alternative for a team?

Coagy is available today and free for up to 4 developers. Each developer keeps running Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Cursor on their own computer with their own AI account, and teammates can watch, ask and steer each other's agents with the owner's approval.