comparison
Pane vs Reliant
TL;DR
Reliant (reliantlabs.io) is a desktop app and cloud service with its own coding agent, where you write your process as YAML workflows: loops, joins, approval gates, test-driven cycles and "three agents build it, a reviewer picks", with durable runs that survive laptop sleep. Pane is a free, open-source desktop app that runs the agents you already use, Claude Code, Codex and any other CLI, locally in their own terminals and worktrees, with an orchestrator that can split, compare and review work across panes. Pick Reliant if you want to encode an AI development process as code and are happy with its agent and cloud; pick Pane if you want your own agents, locally, with no account.
which one should you pick?
pick reliant if
- → you want to encode your AI dev process as versioned YAML workflows with loops and gates
- → you're happy with Reliant's own agent on your keys or subscriptions
- → you want runs to survive laptop sleep on hosted machines
- → a cloud service between you and the model is fine
pick pane if
- → you want to keep using Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or OpenCode as they are
- → your code and prompts shouldn't pass through another company's servers
- → you want no account and open source
- → your code lives inside WSL
at a glance
yespartly, or with a catchno
| pane11 yes · 1 partly · 0 no | reliant5 yes · 4 partly · 3 no | |
|---|---|---|
| basics | ||
| what it is | desktop app: your agents in real terminals, side by side | desktop app and cloud: its own agent in YAML workflows |
| license | AGPL-3.0, open source | BSL 1.1, source-available |
| price | free | free with your own key or subscription; cloud machines from $20/mo |
| platforms | ||
| Windows | yes (x64 and ARM64) | yes, signed |
| repos inside WSL | yes: agents, terminals and git run in the distro | not documented |
| macOS | yes | yes |
| Linux | yes (AppImage, .deb) | yes |
| agents | ||
| agents | any CLI, including Claude Code and Codex | its own agent only, on many model providers |
| where the agent runs | on your machine | through Reliant's cloud |
| reads AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md | the agents read their own files | no; uses reliant.md |
| everyday work | ||
| multi-step workflows | Sessions orchestrator and runpane CLI | YAML workflows with loops, joins, gates and tests |
| same task, several agents | up to five panes from one base | parallel-compete workflow with a reviewer |
| worktree per task | yes, on by default | yes, as workspaces you create |
| safety and setup | ||
| account needed | no | yes |
basics
what it is
pane
reliant
desktop app and cloud: its own agent in YAML workflowslicense
pane
reliant
BSL 1.1, source-availableprice
pane
reliant
free with your own key or subscription; cloud machines from $20/moplatforms
Windows
pane
reliant
yes, signedrepos inside WSL
pane
reliant
not documentedmacOS
pane
reliant
yesLinux
pane
reliant
yesagents
agents
pane
reliant
its own agent only, on many model providerswhere the agent runs
pane
reliant
through Reliant's cloudreads AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md
pane
reliant
no; uses reliant.mdeveryday work
multi-step workflows
pane
reliant
YAML workflows with loops, joins, gates and testssame task, several agents
pane
reliant
parallel-compete workflow with a reviewerworktree per task
pane
reliant
yes, as workspaces you createsafety and setup
account needed
pane
reliant
yesFacts checked on October 3 and 4, 2026: Reliant v1.7.16 and Pane v2.4.157. Rechecked against Reliant's site, docs and releases on November 5, 2026: Reliant v1.8.18.
the real difference: its agent and its cloud, or yours
Reliant is its own agent with a workflow engine. Pane runs the agents you already use.
Reliant isn't an orchestrator of Claude Code or Codex CLIs: it runs its own agent loop against model providers you connect, and its agent loop, model calls and terminal connection go through Reliant's servers. What you get in return is a real workflow engine: YAML workflows with loops, joins, routers, approval gates and tests, versioned in your repo and run durably on Temporal, so a multi-step process keeps going across laptop sleep.
Pane runs Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and any other CLI exactly as they are, locally, each in its own terminal and worktree, with their own settings, AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md. For workflow-style runs, Sessions can start a planner, hand the plan to implementers in other panes and ask another agent to review, and the runpane CLI lets you script loops with your own cron.
account, licence and maturity
Reliant needs an account, is source-available and pre-launch. Pane is open source with no account.
Reliant's onboarding requires a cloud account and a model provider before you can open a project. It's licensed under the Business Source License, converting to Apache-2.0 four years after each release. Its own repo says it hasn't launched, and mid-2026 builds failed to render or pointed at a dead backend. Pane is AGPL-3.0, free, with no account.
our verdict
Reliant's workflows-as-code idea is genuinely interesting for teams that want a repeatable AI development process, if its agent and cloud suit you. If you want to run the agents you already use, locally and in parallel, Pane is the better fit.
how we checked
On October 4, 2026 we installed Reliant 1.7.16 on Windows 11 and ran its tools daemon in WSL2 (Ubuntu 24.04); onboarding requires a cloud account and a model provider before you can open a project, which we don't connect for these tests, so the rest comes from its docs, release notes, licence and source. Pane 2.4.155 ran on the same PC.
Facts about each product come from its own docs, release notes, issue tracker and source code, checked on October 3 and 4, 2026.
- What we ran
- → Pane 2.4.155 on Windows 11, native and WSL2 (Ubuntu 24.04) repos
- → Reliant 1.7.16 installed on the same PC up to its account and provider wall
- Who wrote this
- We make Pane, so we have a stake in this. We tried to be fair: Reliant's strengths are listed as plainly as Pane's, every claim was checked against the product itself or its docs and source, and the screenshots are unedited captures from our own runs.
- Corrections
- If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we'll fix it and update the date at the top. Open an issue on GitHub
- Sources
frequently asked questions
more comparisons
By Parsa Khazaeepoul, co-founder of Pane. .