What is an ADE.

An IDE is organized around the file you are editing: the buffer, the project tree, the debugger, the terminal as a side panel. You type the change. An ADE is organized around the agent doing the change. The primary surface is a session with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or another coding agent, and the editor, when you still want one, sits next to that session.

That split is why an ADE does not have to replace your editor. Starkomand is a one-time Mac app that runs the agent CLIs you already pay for, each in a real terminal on an infinite canvas, and leaves the editor you already use alone. The subscriptions and the usage stay with the providers.

One shape gives each task its own git worktree and a review of the diff. Conductor puts the agent in a chat pane, with a terminal beside it, and is free locally. Superset and Emdash run the agent’s own CLI in a terminal, one worktree per task. Emdash is free and open source on macOS, Windows and Linux. Superset is free for one user.

Another shape is a canvas of terminals, so several agents are in view at once. AgentGrid adds a master that delegates to workers, on macOS, Windows and Linux. Maestri, CNVS and Starkomand are Mac canvases. Maestri and CNVS are native Swift. CNVS leads with voice. 49Agents is a web canvas you self-host, with tmux sessions in the browser. Zeron is the chat-in-tabs shape: one native window that drives the agents through their own protocols, free and open source, on macOS, Windows and Linux.

Hosted agents, such as Devin and Cursor Cloud Agents, are the third shape. The vendor’s agent runs in the vendor’s VM, and you work in a web chat. Your repository is cloned onto their servers. That is a different trade from every app above, which runs the work on your machine or on a machine you host.

A canvas ADE fits when you want more than one agent session visible, and you want each one to stay the CLI you already know. On Starkomand that means the real terminal: flags, slash commands, keybindings and config untouched. A saved brief can hand the job to a fresh agent, review rounds stay bounded, and holding Space flips every window to a short recap. Diagrams, browser previews and GitHub issue notes sit on the same canvas. Voice and hand control are optional and on-device unless you turn a cloud option on.

It fits less well when you need Windows or Linux, a free open-source license, or a git worktree and diff review as the center of the app. Those are what Emdash, Zeron, Superset and Conductor are for, and the comparison states the price and the platform of each.

Use the worktree apps when each task should have its own checkout and a diff before you merge. Use a canvas when the thing you lack is seeing the agents at the same time and handing work between them. Use a hosted agent when you want the vendor’s VM instead of your machine. Starkomand is the canvas that keeps every CLI, charges once per Mac, and is free for 3 days.

Starkomand next to Conductor, Maestri, Superset and the other ADEs is the table. Agent orchestration for coding is the practice those apps are trying to hold: roles, briefs, review loops and file ownership.