By Parsa Khazaeepoul, co-founder of Pane. Tested platform support for every agent manager listed here on Windows 11 x64 and ARM64. .
Most AI agent managers were built on macOS first. Several still don't run on Windows at all — not because Windows support is hard, but because the authors use Macs and haven't shipped it. Here is the honest breakdown of what works, what doesn't, and what the gaps actually mean for your workflow.
platform support
Status as of June 2026. Sources are each tool's official README or download page.
There is a meaningful difference between “works on Windows through WSL” and “runs natively on Windows.” WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is a compatibility layer, not a first-class Windows environment. Tools that require WSL add latency, make filesystem paths more complex, and don't integrate cleanly with native Windows applications.
Claude Squad is the clearest example: it requires tmux, which has no native Windows binary. To run Claude Squad on Windows you must install WSL, install tmux inside WSL, and manage two separate filesystem trees. Most developers on Windows prefer to avoid that complexity.
Pane runs as a native Windows application. No WSL required. You can still use WSL-backed repositories if you want — Pane is WSL-aware and handles the path translation — but WSL is optional, not mandatory.
windows arm64
Windows on ARM has become mainstream with Snapdragon X devices from Microsoft, Lenovo, HP, and Samsung. Most competing agent managers do not mention ARM64 support in their documentation at all — which usually means x64 emulation, if the app runs at all.
Pane ships a separate ARM64 installer for Windows. The ARM64 build runs natively on Snapdragon X hardware without emulation, which means lower battery usage and faster startup compared to running the x64 build under Prism emulation.
what pane does on windows
→ WSL-aware worktrees — Pane detects WSL-backed repos and creates worktrees in the correct Linux filesystem path automatically
→ native notifications — Windows Action Center notifications when an agent finishes, errors, or needs input
→ PowerShell integration — the embedded terminal runs PowerShell or cmd.exe natively; no WSL shell required
→ ARM64 support — separate installer for Snapdragon X and other Windows on ARM devices
→ unlimited parallel agents — each in its own worktree, each with a live diff viewer, on the same Windows machine; your API rate limits are the practical ceiling, not Pane
Pane and Emdash are the only agent managers with native, tested Windows support as of June 2026. Pane ships x64 and ARM64 installers and is WSL-aware. Emdash ships an MSI/EXE installer. Conductor, Superset, and cmux are macOS-only. Claude Squad requires tmux, which has no native Windows binary — Windows users must go through WSL.
No. Conductor is built with Swift and AppKit, which are macOS-only frameworks. There is no Windows or Linux build, and the Conductor team has not announced Windows support. If you need Conductor's workflow on Windows, Pane is the closest cross-platform alternative.
Pane replaces tmux for the purpose of managing parallel AI agents on Windows. Unlike tmux-based tools (Claude Squad, recon), Pane is a native Windows desktop application — it does not require WSL, does not require Homebrew, and ships its own terminal emulator. You get worktree-per-agent isolation, live diff review, and session persistence without touching WSL at all.
Yes. Pane ships separate x64 and ARM64 installers for Windows. Most competing agent managers do not mention ARM64 support at all. If you are running a Snapdragon X or similar Windows on ARM device, the ARM64 installer runs natively rather than under emulation.