squad alternatives
Curated alternatives to squad — and why you'd switch.
contrabass
Terminal-first orchestrator for issue-driven AI coding-agent runs — polls Linear/GitHub, runs Codex/OpenCode in git worktrees with retries and verification. Go/Charm rebuild of OpenAI's Symphony.
Why switchBoth coordinate fleets of local coding-agent CLIs in the terminal; Squad does ad-hoc manager/worker collaboration over SQLite with no daemon, Contrabass dispatches from Linear/GitHub issues with worktrees, retries and branch-advance verification.
Full comparison →alook
Self-hosted collaboration layer that turns local coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode) into an always-on "AI company" — per-agent email, org chart, kanban, shared memory.
Why switchBoth coordinate multiple local coding agents into a team; alook builds the full always-on 'AI company' (email, org charts), squad strips it to slash commands + SQLite you can hold in your head.
Full comparison →three-man-team
A disciplined 3-agent dev process as context files — Architect plans, Builder builds the brief, Reviewer gates — running in one Claude Code session via subagents. Token-frugal by design.
Why switchSame manager/worker/inspector shape, different substance: Squad is tooling — agents coordinating through shell commands and SQLite; Three Man Team is pure process — personas and handoff rules inside a single Claude Code session.
Full comparison →