In simple English
This tool acts as a traffic controller for complex software tasks that take a long time to finish. If your server loses power or your internet drops out, it remembers where it stopped and picks up right there. You write your workflow rules in JSON files instead of burying them deep inside your code. It costs you computer memory and server space to run, plus some time to learn how its workflow rules work. Originally created by Netflix, it is free to use and self-host on your own equipment.
What it is
Conductor is a distributed workflow orchestration engine that tracks the state of multi-step processes and coordinates worker applications. It provides a visual dashboard, built-in task types for artificial intelligence models, and support for multiple programming languages.
What it is good for
Solo builders who need to run long tasks like customer onboarding, automated data processing, or multi-step artificial intelligence agent loops that must not lose their progress if a server crashes.
- Survives server restarts and network crashes by saving every step of your workflow.
- Includes native tasks for artificial intelligence models, chat prompts, and tool calling.
- Provides a web dashboard to inspect running workflows, check logs, and retry failed steps.
- Requires Java 21 and Node.js installed on your system before you can run it.
- Needs external database storage like PostgreSQL or Redis to save workflow states.
- High setup complexity for non-programmers who are not used to managing server software.
Writing custom retry logic and background job queues by hand in your application code.
PostgreSQL (a robust SQL database used to store workflow history and state).
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npm install -g @conductor-oss/conductor-cli conductor server start