--- title: "Cork vs AQ: a shared cloud workspace, or a coordination layer for the agents you already run · Cork" description: "Cork vs AQ: AQ hosts multiplayer cloud workspaces for coding agents. Cork coordinates the agents you already run so they stop overwriting each other." canonical: "https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-aq" last_updated: "2026-11-14" published: "2026-10-03" author: "Kevin Vera" --- # Cork vs AQ: a shared cloud workspace, or a coordination layer for the agents you already run Cork vs AQ: AQ hosts multiplayer cloud workspaces for coding agents. Cork coordinates the agents you already run so they stop overwriting each other. By Kevin Vera · October 3, 2026 · [Comparisons](https://corkcli.com/blog/c/comparisons) · 7 min read How is Cork different from AQ? AQ is a multiplayer coding harness: it gives each task its own cloud workspace with a shared live terminal, a code editor and app previews, running on a VM in your cloud or one AQ runs for you. Cork does not host anything. It is a [coordination layer](https://corkcli.com/blog/coordination-layer-ai-coding-agents) that sits under the agents you already run (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) and keeps them, and the people running them, from overwriting each other on one codebase. The cleanest way to put it: AQ decides where your agents live and lets your team watch them together; Cork decides what your agents know about each other's work while they write code. ## Cork vs AQ at a glance | Topic | Cork | AQ (as of October 2026) | |---|---|---| | What it is | Coordination layer for [parallel AI coding agents](https://corkcli.com/blog/parallel-ai-coding-agents) and the people running them | "The multiplayer coding harness" with shared live terminals, a code editor and app previews | | Where agents run | Where they already run, on your machine | On a runner VM in your own cloud or one AQ runs for you | | Agents covered | Claude Code, Codex and Cursor via hooks; any MCP client via the MCP server | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Kimi Code, Grok, Antigravity, Command Code, [Devin](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-devin), OpenCode, Pi | | What is shared | Live awareness of what other agents are changing, briefings, notes anchored to code | Terminals, workspaces, live previews, guest links | | Conflict handling | [Write gate](https://corkcli.com/blog/write-gate) holds edits against code another agent is changing; renames become lint rules; landing rebases and reruns tests | One git worktree per task, so agents do not share files; changes leave as pull requests | | Install | One command: `curl -fsSL https://corkcli.com/install.sh \| sh` | Browser-based; nothing to install on the Free plan | | Free tier | Cork Free: unlimited agents and repos on one machine, no account | Free: a personal sandbox with $5 monthly AQ Composer credits | | Paid pricing | $20 a month per 100 agent hours, pooled across the workspace | Team $50/user/month early access rate (standard $200) | ## What is AQ? AQ (aq.dev, by BetterLeap, Inc.) describes itself as "the multiplayer coding harness where engineering teams run AI coding agents like Claude Code and Codex together: shared live terminals, a code editor, and app previews, in your own cloud." Each task gets a workspace with its own git worktree; the docs say "Ten agents on ten tasks means ten worktrees, zero stepping on each other." Agents run as real CLIs in persistent terminal sessions on a runner, and "the code, the worktrees, the agent sessions, and the CLI credentials live on that machine, not on shared infrastructure." Teammates can watch the same terminal and hand over the keyboard with one click. Linear issues can create workspaces, and pull requests are tracked per workspace. ## What is Cork? Cork (corkcli.com, by Lithometric) keeps several AI coding agents, and the people running them, from overwriting each other on one codebase, and hands each agent what the others already learned. It does not run agents or host machines. Hooks in Claude Code, Codex and Cursor run the protocol with no extra model calls, and an MCP server lets any MCP client join in. - **Briefing**: when an agent starts or gets a prompt, it receives the exact signatures, callers and recent changes of the code it is about to touch, so it searches less. - **Live awareness**: when another agent renames a function or changes a signature yours depends on, your agent hears it on its next step. - **Write gate**: an edit against code another agent is changing right now is held until your agent has their version. - **[Semantic lint](https://corkcli.com/blog/semantic-lint)**: a teammate's rename becomes a lint rule your agents are checked against. - **Landing**: `git push` becomes one step that rebases onto teammates' commits, reruns the tests and pushes. - **Agent messaging, MCP tools** (get_symbol, blast_radius, recap, remember/recall), a live code graph and a team dashboard on cloud plans. ## Where AQ stands out - **Shared live terminals.** Several people can watch one agent session and take over the keyboard, which Cork does not offer. - **Hosted machines.** AQ runs the dev machine for you, or on your own cloud, so sessions survive a closed laptop and can be resumed from any device. - **Previews and an editor in the browser.** Dev servers stream inside the workspace next to the agent. - **Broad agent list.** Ten agent CLIs are listed, including Devin, Kimi Code and Grok. - **Issue-to-PR workflow.** Linear issues become workspaces, and PRs are tracked back to them. ## Where Cork wins - **Agents that share code, not just a screen.** Worktrees keep agents out of each other's files, but the work still meets at merge time. Cork catches the rename or new signature while the other agent is still writing, so agent merge conflicts are prevented rather than found in review. - **No new place to work.** Your agents keep running in your own terminal and editor. Cork adds hooks; it does not move your work into a browser. - **Informed agents.** Briefings hand each agent signatures, callers and recent changes. In Cork's benchmark (12 Claude Code agents at once on one repository, hard tasks), agents with Cork used 53% fewer tokens than the same agents without it. - **Price and free tier.** Cork Free covers unlimited agents and repos on one machine with no account; in the cloud, Cork bills agent hours, not seats: 10 free a month per account, then $20 a month per 100, pooled across the workspace. ## Can you use both? Yes, and it is a natural pairing. AQ's own model gives each task an isolated worktree, which is exactly the setup where parallel agents stop seeing each other until their branches are merged. Cork is installed per machine and works through hooks in Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, so in principle it can coordinate the agents running in AQ's workspaces the same way it does on a laptop. We have not verified a documented AQ integration, so treat this as something to test on your own runner rather than a supported setup. ## Pricing compared - **AQ**: Free ($0, a personal sandbox and $5 monthly AQ Composer credits). Team at $50 per user per month as an early access rate locked for 12 months (standard price $200 per user per month), with $10 monthly Composer credits per seat and the option of your own cloud VMs. - **Cork**: Cork Free (unlimited agents and repos on one machine, no account) and Cloud Free (10 agent hours a month per account, 30-day history). Agent hours at $20 a month per unit of 100, pooled across the workspace, graduated to $17 and $15, 15% off a year; Enterprise from about 100 units. AQ's price includes the machines; Cork does not host machines. ## Bottom line Choose AQ if you want hosted workspaces where your team can watch and drive agents together in a browser. Choose Cork if your agents already run fine where they are and the problem is that they keep overwriting, duplicating or breaking each other's work. If you use AQ's isolated worktrees for multiple Claude Code agents, Cork covers the gap that isolation leaves: knowing what the other agents are changing before it lands. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Cork an alternative to AQ? Only partly. Cork does not provide cloud VMs, a code editor, live terminal sharing or app previews, which are AQ's core. If you need those, AQ is the better fit. If you need parallel AI coding agents to stop colliding on the same code, Cork is built for that. ### Does AQ stop agents from overwriting each other? AQ gives each task its own git worktree, so agents on different tasks do not edit the same files directly. The work still has to be merged, and AQ's docs do not describe live conflict detection between workspaces as of October 2026. ### Does Cork run agents in the cloud? No. Cork is not an agent and does not host machines. Your agents run where they already run, and Cork coordinates them. ### Which agents does each support? AQ lists Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Kimi Code, Grok, Antigravity, Command Code, Devin, OpenCode and Pi. Cork has hooks for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, and an MCP server any MCP client can use. ### Which is cheaper for a team? Cork bills pooled agent hours, not seats: $20 a month per 100 hours across the workspace. AQ Team is $50 per user per month at the early access rate and includes hosted machines, so the two prices pay for different things and are not per-person equivalents. ## Sources Checked October 2026: - - - - - ## Related reading - [Cork vs Superconductor: a hosted agent workspace, or coordination for the agents you run](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-superconductor): Cork vs Superconductor: Superconductor runs coding agents in cloud sandboxes for teams. Cork stops parallel agents from overwriting each other's code. - [Cork vs HumanLayer: an agent IDE for teams, or coordination under any tool](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-humanlayer): Cork vs HumanLayer: HumanLayer is a multiplayer coding agent IDE and cloud; Cork keeps parallel agents from overwriting each other wherever they run. - [Cork vs Zed (and Delta): an editor and a shared thread, or a coordination layer](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-zed): Cork vs Zed: Zed is an editor with external agents and Delta, a multiplayer agent environment on DeltaDB. Cork coordinates the agents you already run. - [Cork vs Xirp: run many agents, or keep many agents from colliding](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-xirp): Cork vs Xirp: Spotify's Xirp runs parallel coding agent sessions in worktrees on macOS. Cork coordinates those agents so they stop overwriting each other. 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