Armadai vs Starkomand: two paid canvas apps for coding agents on a Mac

Starkomand and Armadai are both paid Mac apps that put Claude Code and Codex terminals on an infinite canvas, and they differ most in how you pay and in what sits around the agents. Starkomand is a one-time licence for Apple silicon Macs, runs eleven named agent CLIs and any other you configure, and adds task briefs, handoffs, review loops, diagrams and voice control. Armadai is a subscription that runs on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, works with Claude Code and Codex, and adds a lead agent, approvals from a sidebar, a built-in code editor, task boards and several projects on one canvas.

The comparison in one table

How you pay is the biggest difference

Starkomand Pro is a single purchase for one Mac. Its price depends on how many seats have sold: $49 for the first 10 buyers, $89 for the next 20, $129 for the next 30 and $169 for everyone after that, with the current price shown at checkout. The licence includes a year of updates. After that year you keep using the version you have, and later updates may cost extra. A second Mac needs a second licence, and purchases are final unless the law says otherwise.

Armadai is a subscription with no free plan: $20 a month, or $120 a year, which works out to $10 a month. Updates come with the subscription, and the annual plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee. Current plans are under pricing.

Even at its standard price, Starkomand costs less than two years of Armadai on the annual plan. If a one-time price matters most to you, Starkomand wins on cost.

The trials differ too. Starkomand's lasts three days, needs no account or card, and needs an internet connection to start and at least once every 24 hours. Armadai's trial is 7-day and requires a payment method; cancel before it ends to avoid the first charge.

Starkomand runs more agents; Armadai runs Claude Code and Codex

Both apps run the agent command-line tools you already have installed, signed in with your own accounts, and neither resells model usage. Starkomand names eleven: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Grok CLI, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode (including GLM through Z.ai), Amp, Pi, Aider and Goose, plus any other CLI you configure. Armadai's homepage names Claude Code and Codex, which run in real terminals in their own tiles, and it also has plain terminal tiles. If Cursor, Gemini or Copilot is part of your daily work, Starkomand names them and Armadai does not.

What Starkomand has that Armadai's homepage does not list

• Handoffs between models. A task keeps its objective, acceptance criteria, evidence and handoff history across agent sessions. You choose a model and pass work in progress to a fresh agent with a focused brief, and the canvas shows who is working for whom.
• Bounded review loops. Review rounds record what was checked against a particular revision and stop if the files change in the meantime. Accepting the work stays with you.
• Usage-limit handoff. When Claude runs out of usage, you can continue the task in Codex from Starkomand's recorded conversation. Usage rings show the remaining runway per provider, with reset times.
• GitHub issues on the canvas. Drop a GitHub issue on an agent's window to hand it over. A flight board shows pull requests by stage and what needs you.
• Diagrams. An agent can draw an editable architecture diagram beside its terminal.
• Recaps. Hold Space and every window flips to a short summary of what that agent did.
• Voice and gestures. Hold Option and speak to an agent by name. Local dictation runs on the Mac; cloud dictation, which sends audio to OpenAI, is optional. Hand gestures are optional too.
• No account. Starkomand has no account system, and its local server listens only on 127.0.0.1.

What Armadai has that Starkomand's site does not list

• Several projects on one canvas. Each project folder becomes a workspace with its own agents, terminals, notes and task board, and you pan and zoom between them. You can also keep separate canvases. In Starkomand, each workspace keeps its own agents and layout, and you switch between them.
• A master agent. From one sidebar conversation, a Claude Code or Codex master opens projects, launches agents, sends them work and reads their replies across workspaces. If you enable computer use and grant macOS permissions, it can also click, type and scroll in apps on your Mac.
• Approvals from the sidebar. The sidebar shows which sessions are working, idle or waiting for approval across all projects. You hover a waiting session, review the request and choose a response, such as accept, accept for the session, decline or cancel, without leaving your place on the canvas. The choices depend on the agent and the request, and some requests still need you to open the session.
• Task boards with hand-off. You put a task's brief and definition of done on a board and choose Run with Claude or Run with Codex. Each run gets its own Git worktree, and successful work comes back as a draft pull request for you to review.
• Claude Code and Codex working toward one goal. Coordinate connects Claude Code and Codex inside a project so they exchange plans, implementation and reviews. You review and edit each message before delivery or choose Auto, set a message budget, inspect the transcript and stop the connection at any time.
• A built-in code editor. An IDE tile lets you edit code, search the project and review source control beside your agents. Starkomand says it does not replace your editor.
• Intel Macs. Armadai supports Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Starkomand has no Intel Mac version.

What the two have in common

Both are Mac apps built around an infinite canvas, with one workspace per project folder. Both put a browser beside the agents so you can preview what they built, and let you pick a backdrop for each workspace. Both can keep agents working when the canvas is out of the way: Starkomand while its local server runs, Armadai through an optional background session helper. Both keep the canvas on your Mac and leave your Claude Code and Codex subscriptions as they are. If running the two agents together is what you are after, using Claude Code and Codex together covers the general methods that work with either app or with none.

Which one to choose

Choose Starkomand if you want to pay once, if you use agents other than Claude Code and Codex, if you want to pass work in progress from one model to another and run bounded review loops, if you work from GitHub issues, or if you want to talk to your agents. Over two years or more it also costs less, even at its standard price, though updates after the first year may cost extra.

Choose Armadai if you run agents in several projects at the same time and want them on one canvas, if you want to answer agents' approval requests from one list, if you plan work on a task board and hand tasks to agents from it, if you want a code editor beside the agents rather than in a separate app, or if you have an Intel Mac. If you are still deciding between canvas apps, Armadai vs Maestri covers another canvas app, and Conductor alternatives covers apps built around one worktree per task.