February 24, 2026
Parallel bots, singular drama
Show HN: Emdash – Open-source agentic development environment
Open-source Emdash unleashes parallel AI coders; devs debate control vs chaos
TLDR: Emdash launched as an open-source app that runs multiple AI coding agents in parallel and lets you hand them tickets. Comments split between calls for an orchestrator bot, worries about conflicting changes and runaway costs, and cheers for an open-source Cursor—potentially speeding dev work if guardrails land.
Show HN just met Emdash, an open‑source app that lets you run multiple AI “coding helpers” side by side, even on remote servers via SSH (secure shell). You can toss Jira, Linear, or GitHub issues at them, then review changes in separate workspaces, like parallel sandboxes. It supports 20+ tools, from Claude Code to Qwen, and promises clean diffs and easy installs.
But the comments lit up faster than a build error. das‑bikash‑dev wants to know how Emdash avoids “agents stepping on each other” when they change the same settings and dependencies; they also asked about custom wrappers vs native command‑line tools. FiloVenturini pitched an “orchestrator” boss bot to direct sub‑agents and wondered if human‑in‑the‑loop is a cost control move. thesiti92 declared, “the market needs an open source Cursor right now,” and folks piled on with memes about herding robot cats.
Privacy side‑eye? Emdash sends only anonymous usage stats to PostHog and lets you turn it off, but reminds you your code goes to each agent’s cloud. The vibe: power users are hyped, skeptics want guardrails and a traffic cop for bots, and everyone’s asking if this is the open‑source Cursor clone they’ve been waiting for. Cue the popcorn, folks
Key Points
- •Emdash runs multiple coding agents in parallel, isolating each in its own Git worktree for clean changes.
- •The tool integrates with Linear, Jira, and GitHub Issues to pass tickets directly to agents and review diffs side-by-side.
- •Remote development is supported via SSH/SFTP with SSH agent/key auth and secure credential storage in the OS keychain.
- •Emdash currently supports 21 CLI providers, including Claude Code, Qwen Code, Codex, Gemini, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Mistral Vibe.
- •Telemetry is anonymous and allow-listed via PostHog, can be disabled, and app state is stored locally in SQLite (with specified OS paths).