Rating certificate · AW/26-09/59526 Sept 2026
Not enough evidence
The Register / Orchestrators & meta-harnesses / Sculptor
Register entry · Orchestrators & meta-harnesses · updated 26 Sept 2026
Sculptor
Sculptor is a desktop app (macOS Apple Silicon and Linux) for running several coding agents in parallel, each in its own workspace, and reviewing and merging their changes from one window. It launched in September 2025 as a closed beta that ran Claude Code in Docker containers with a 'Pairing Mode'; by 2026 workspaces default to git worktrees and containers became an experimental backend option. Imbue open-sourced it under MIT in June 2026; it integrates Claude Code and the Pi harness and can host any terminal agent, and ships skills such as spec writing, bug-fix TDD and a CI babysitter.
In beta. Actively maintained; README calls it 'an experimental research preview'. Open-sourced under MIT on 2026-06-12 (earlier closed-source beta launched September 2025).
What reviewers and users praise
- Early users valued running agents in isolated containers so they could 'go rogue' safely
- Free and now MIT-licensed; works with any model through Pi
What they criticise
- Reviewer found the Docker-based setup hard and the product 'really beta' compared with Conductor
- Small user community; few public discussions in 2026
- Only macOS (Apple Silicon) and Linux; requires an account email
- Before June 2026 the site described it as open source while the licence was all-rights-reserved
Experts vs the crowdneeds both scores
Experts—
Crowd—
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Use it via | Desktop app |
| Runs on | macos, linux |
| Licence | MIT |
| Updated | Evidence collected 26 Sept 2026 |
How the rating was worked out
Weights for Orchestrators & meta-harnesses: adoption 40%, experts 30%, crowd 30%. Fewer than two pillars have enough evidence. The method.
| Adoption & momentumweight 40% | 32 | GitHub stars 232 → 11 · 9 releases in 90 days → 80reach × 0.7 + momentum × 0.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Expertsindependent reviews · weight 30% | — | Only 1 independent review (3 needed) |
| Crowdcommunity sample · weight 30% | — | Only 3 community items sampled (6 needed) |
| Rating | — | Not rated: fewer than two pillars have enough evidence. |
Evidence checks. 3 GitHub issues not counted as sentiment. 3 posts over the three-per-thread limit not counted. How evidence is checked.
Trust & safety
Seven dimensions graded A–D from documented facts. Overall: A.
B
Permission model
Docs: in the integrated Claude Code harness 'Claude runs sandboxed, with tool permissions auto-approved.' Plan mode (opt-in) makes the agent wait for approval before changes. No per-action approval mode is documented, so A is not met; the default sandbox lifts it above C. Grade is a judgement on an imperfect rubric fit. source
B
Data access scope
Each workspace is an isolated git worktree (or clone) of one repository; agents in a workspace share that working copy. Broader host access limits are not specified beyond 'sandboxed'. source
A
Data storage
Product page: 'Sculptor runs on your computer, not Imbue's servers.' SECURITY.md: designed to run locally only. source
n/e
Data retention & training
Account email required; Settings > Privacy has a telemetry toggle. No retention or training policy for Sculptor telemetry was found. source
A
Incident history (24 months)
No GitHub security advisories or NVD CVEs found; SECURITY.md provides private vulnerability reporting. source
n/e
Compliance
No SOC 2/ISO statements found for Sculptor or Imbue; the product is a free local beta.
A
Transparency
MIT-licensed source on GitHub since 2026-06-12 with tagged releases and release notes; docs in-repo. source
The experts
1 named independent reviews found; dated reviews from the last 12 months are scored.
- mixed
so at this current state I wouldn't recommend sculptor but it is really promising I like I like that they are really simple
Bernardo Amorim (YouTube) · 3 Dec 2025 · youtube.com
The crowd
3 coded posts from hackernews.
2 positive1 mixed0 negative
- positive
This is awesome, I love how it lets claude code "go rogue" safely inside a container.
Show HN: Sculptor – A UI for Claude Code · 30 Sept 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
Been fortunate to get to try out Sculptor in pre-release - it's great. Like claude code with task parallelism and history built in, all with a clean UI.
Show HN: Sculptor – A UI for Claude Code · 30 Sept 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - mixed
Congrats, looks good! Lacks an option to configure anthropic base url though
Show HN: Sculptor – A UI for Claude Code · 30 Sept 2025 · news.ycombinator.com
Pricing
As published, checked 26 Sept 2026.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Free, local, open source; users bring their own model provider subscription |
Recent changes
- 21 Sept 2026
v0.48.0: configurable auto-naming for workspaces/agents/branches, Night Mode, CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN support source
- 2 Sept 2026
Added Claude Opus 5 and Fable 5.1 models; managed Claude CLI and Pi bumped source
- 12 Jun 2026
Source published under MIT licence ('open-source start of Sculptor') source
- 15 May 2026
Imbue acknowledged the site called Sculptor open source while the licence was all-rights-reserved and removed the wording pending release source
Ranked alongside
Other ranked entries in Orchestrators & meta-harnesses.
OrcaStably AI78
SupersetSuperset Inc.70
HerdrHerdr (Can Celik; YC F26)68
T3 CodePing Labs (ping.gg / T3 Tools)67
Vibe KanbanBloop (company shut down April 2026; now community maintained)60
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these, observed up to 26 Sept 2026.