--- title: "Cork vs Factory: a coordination layer, not another agent platform · Cork" description: "Cork vs Factory: Factory's Droids plan, build and ship code across your SDLC. Cork keeps parallel AI coding agents from overwriting each other's work." canonical: "https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-factory" last_updated: "2026-11-14" published: "2026-10-03" author: "Kevin Vera" --- # Cork vs Factory: a coordination layer, not another agent platform Cork vs Factory: Factory's Droids plan, build and ship code across your SDLC. Cork keeps parallel AI coding agents from overwriting each other's work. By Kevin Vera · October 3, 2026 · [Comparisons](https://corkcli.com/blog/c/comparisons) · 8 min read How is Cork different from Factory? Factory is an agent platform: its Droids are the agents, and they run in your terminal, a desktop app, the web, Slack, Jira, Linear and CI, on your machine or on Factory-managed cloud computers. Cork is not an agent and does not run anything. It sits underneath the agents you already use (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) and keeps them, and the people running them, from overwriting each other on one codebase, while handing each agent what the others already learned. The short version: Factory gives you Droids to delegate work to; Cork keeps many agents working on the same code from colliding. ## Cork vs Factory at a glance | Topic | Cork | Factory (as of October 2026) | |---|---|---| | What it is | [Coordination layer](https://corkcli.com/blog/coordination-layer-ai-coding-agents) for multiple AI coding agents and the people running them | "Agent-native software development platform" with its own agents, called Droids | | Where agents run | Wherever they already run, on your machine | Droid CLI and Factory App locally, plus cloud sessions and persistent Droid Computers (managed or bring your own machine) | | Agents covered | Claude Code, Codex and Cursor via hooks; any MCP client via the MCP server | Factory's Droids, including custom droids (subagents) | | What is shared | Signatures, callers, recent changes, live edits, durable notes anchored to code | Sessions synced to web and mobile, Slack and Jira delegations, AutoWiki | | Conflict handling | Write gate holds an edit against code another agent is changing right now; [semantic lint](https://corkcli.com/blog/semantic-lint) flags renames and signature changes | Git worktrees isolate parallel sessions; Missions coordinate workers on a planned project | | Install | `curl -fsSL https://corkcli.com/install.sh \| sh`, once per machine | `curl -fsSL https://app.factory.ai/cli \| sh`, Homebrew, npm, or desktop app | | Pricing | Free (local, and 10 agent hours a month in the cloud); $20 a month per 100 agent hours, pooled | Pro $20/mo; Teams $60/mo per team plus $40/mo per seat | ## What is Factory? Factory describes itself as "an agent-native software development platform for planning, building, reviewing, testing, and shipping production software." Its agents are Droids, and according to its site they "work across the command line, desktop, web, mobile, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Linear, and CI." The pieces that matter for teams running agents in parallel: - **Droid CLI and Factory App.** A terminal agent and a desktop app (Mac and Windows). The CLI follows a propose, show the diff, wait for approval loop. - **Worktrees.** The Factory App can run a session in a separate Git worktree, which, in Factory's words, lets you "make file changes on the same repository in parallel sessions, without the changes interfering with each other." - **Missions.** A structured workflow for large, multi-feature projects: you plan features and milestones with Droid, then an orchestration layer coordinates workers and validates progress. Factory's docs suggest the sweet spot is "about 1-500 features." - **Droid Computers.** Persistent environments that keep packages, files and services between sessions, either a machine you register or a cloud machine Factory provisions (4 CPU, 8GB RAM). - **Software Factory.** Automations for code review, security review, AutoWiki documentation and scheduled or event-driven Droid runs. ## 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 (https://mcp.corkcli.com) serves any MCP client. - **Briefing:** each agent gets the exact signatures, callers and recent changes of the code it is about to touch, so it searches less. - **Live awareness and a [write gate](https://corkcli.com/blog/write-gate):** another agent's rename or new signature reaches yours on its next step, and an edit against code someone is changing right now is held until your agent has their version. - **Semantic lint:** teammates' renames and signature changes become lint rules your agents are checked against. - **Landing:** `git push` rebases onto teammates' commits, reruns the tests and pushes in one step. - **Messaging and tools:** agents can message each other, and MCP tools include get_symbol, blast_radius, recap and remember/recall. ## Where Factory stands out - **It is a full agent platform.** If you want one vendor for the agent, the desktop app, cloud machines and enterprise controls, Factory covers all of it. Cork provides none of those. - **Missions for large planned work.** Factory has a dedicated planning and orchestration flow with milestones and validation for projects with many features. - **Persistent cloud computers.** Droid Computers keep state between sessions, so a Droid can pick up where it left off on a machine that is not your laptop. - **Delegation from where work starts.** Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Linear and CI can all hand tasks to Droids. - **SDLC automation.** Automated PR review, security review and AutoWiki are built in. ## Where Cork wins - **It works with the agents you already chose.** If your team runs multiple Claude Code agents next to Codex and Cursor, Cork coordinates all of them. Factory coordinates Factory's Droids. - **It handles the collision, not just the isolation.** Worktrees keep parallel sessions from touching each other's files, but those branches still meet at merge time. Cork's write gate, live awareness and semantic lint deal with the overlap while agents are working, and Landing rebases and reruns tests before each push. - **Agents arrive informed.** Briefings hand each agent the signatures, callers and recent changes it needs. 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. - **Low cost and no account to start.** Cork Free runs on one machine with unlimited agents and repos and keeps all data local; past that, Cork bills $20 a month per 100 agent hours, pooled across the workspace. ## Can you use both? Partly. Cork's hooks cover Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, not Droids, so Cork will not automatically coordinate Factory sessions. Where they meet well is a mixed team: some people delegate to Droids, others run [parallel AI coding agents](https://corkcli.com/blog/parallel-ai-coding-agents) locally. Cork keeps the local agents from overwriting each other and briefs them on recent changes, while Droid work arrives through Git like any teammate's commits, which Cork's Landing step rebases onto before pushing. If your whole team runs on Factory's Droids, you probably do not need Cork. ## Pricing compared **Factory** (from factory.com/pricing, as of October 2026): Pro $20/month, Plus $100/month (about 5x Pro usage, includes Droid Computers), Max $200/month (about 10x Pro usage). Teams is $60/month per team plus $40/month per seat, up to 10 seats. Business and Enterprise are custom priced and add SSO, SAML/SCIM, audit logging, zero data retention and on-premise options. **Cork:** Cork Free is unlimited agents and repos on one machine, no account. Cloud Free is 10 agent hours a month per account (30 bonus hours the first month) with a 30-day history window. Beyond that you pay for agent hours, not seats: $20 a month per unit of 100 hours, pooled across the workspace, graduated to $17 (units 11 to 50) and $15 (51 and up), with 15% off a year. Every member is a player, with teammates' machines, prompt matching by meaning and 90-day history. Enterprise starts from about 100 units. Note that Factory's price includes the agent and model usage. Cork's price does not include any agent: you keep paying for Claude Code, Codex or Cursor as you do today. ## Bottom line Factory is a strong choice if you want a single platform that supplies the agents, the machines and the SDLC automations. Cork is for teams that already run several agents from different vendors on the same codebase and keep hitting agent merge conflicts or agents working from stale context. One replaces your agent stack; the other makes the stack you have play well together. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Cork an alternative to Factory? Not directly. Factory is an agent platform; Cork is a coordination layer for agents you already run. If you are choosing an agent, compare Factory with Claude Code, Codex or Cursor. If you are trying to stop multiple AI coding agents from overwriting each other, Cork is the tool for that job. ### Does Factory stop agents from overwriting each other? Factory isolates parallel sessions with [Git worktrees](https://corkcli.com/blog/git-worktrees-parallel-ai-coding-agents), and Missions coordinate workers inside a planned project. Cork works at a different point: it holds an edit when another agent is changing the same code right now, and tells agents about teammates' renames and signature changes as they happen. ### Does Cork run agents in the cloud like Droid Computers? No. Cork does not provide cloud VMs, sandboxes or an editor, and it is not an agent. Your agents keep running where they already run. ### Which is cheaper for a small team? It depends on what you are buying. Factory Teams is $60/month plus $40 per seat and includes agent usage. Cork bills pooled agent hours ($20 a month per 100 hours across the workspace), not seats, and covers coordination only, on top of whatever you pay for your agents, so the two are not per-person equivalents. ## Sources Checked October 2026: - - - - - - - ## Related reading - [Cork vs qm: a team agent harness, or a coordination layer for coding agents](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-qm): Cork vs qm: YC's open source qm is a multiplayer agent harness for Slack and web. Cork keeps parallel AI coding agents from overwriting each other's code. - [Cork vs Amika: VMs for your agents, or coordination between them](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-amika): Cork vs Amika: Amika provisions multiplayer VM Rigs for coding agents. Cork keeps parallel agents on one codebase from overwriting each other. - [Cork vs GitButler: sorting agents' changes, or keeping agents from colliding](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-gitbutler): Cork vs GitButler for parallel AI coding agents: GitButler sorts each agent's work into branches, Cork keeps agents from overwriting each other's code. - [Cork vs Multica: assigning agent work vs keeping it from colliding](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-multica): Cork vs Multica: Multica assigns issues to AI coding agents on a shared board. Cork keeps parallel agents from overwriting each other's code. [All articles](https://corkcli.com/blog.md) · [Cork in Markdown](https://corkcli.com/index.md) · [llms.txt](https://corkcli.com/llms.txt) This page in HTML: https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-factory