Grain vs Nimbalyst

Quick answer

Nimbalyst is where agents do the work. It is a local-first desktop app that runs Claude Code, Codex and other agents in parallel sessions, with worktrees, diff review and visual editors for markdown, mockups, diagrams and trackers. Its Teams layer syncs shared docs so people and their local agents edit them together. Grain publishes the result. Your agent writes files, Grain gives them a URL that stays published after the agent session, and an app can add Postgres, logins and scheduled jobs.

Fit first

What is different, verifiably

Where Nimbalyst is better

• It is where the agents run. Parallel sessions, a session board, worktrees and diff approval live in the same app.
• Visual editors for agent output: WYSIWYG markdown, mockups, Excalidraw diagrams, data models, spreadsheets and mind maps that you edit directly.
• Live multiplayer editing on Teams, where people and each teammate's local agents work in the same doc with cursors and presence.
• Windows and Linux desktop builds, plus an iOS app that drives sessions on your desktop.
• Teams is free during the beta, and Individual has no feature limits.

Where Grain is better

• Links that last. Published artifacts stay published after the agent session and after a user stops paying, while Nimbalyst share links expire after at most 30 days.
• Sharing outside the team with a password or an invite list. Nimbalyst share links are read-only with no password option.
• A running app behind the URL, with Postgres, logins and scheduled jobs.
• The database and scheduled jobs behind a published artifact stay published too.
• The server is open source too. Grain is AGPL-3.0 on GitHub; Nimbalyst's sync server is a separate closed project.

Moving between them

1. From Nimbalyst to Grain: your local work is already plain files in your project folder, with images in .nimbalyst/assets. Run grain init in that folder.
2. Copy anything that lives only in Teams shared docs into local files first. Nimbalyst documents no export for shared docs, so comments, revision history, votes and tracker comments stay in its sync service.
3. Ask your agent to turn the markdown, mockups or data models into a page or app. Use the workspace's Postgres database for data that people update.
4. Run grain push, grain checkpoint -m "publish from Nimbalyst" and grain share --public, or --password <pw> for a private link.
5. From Grain to Nimbalyst: run grain pull and open the folder in Nimbalyst. The files come with you; Grain's database, logins, scheduled jobs, share links and custom domains do not.

Choice rule

Choose Nimbalyst

if you want a desktop workspace to run Claude Code and Codex side by side, edit their output visually, and co-edit docs with teammates in real time.

Choose Grain

if the output needs a lasting URL for people outside the tool, with password or invite-only access, a database, or scheduled jobs.

Use both

if agents work in Nimbalyst and publish the finished page, report or app to Grain with grain push and grain share.

Frequently asked questions