Conductor

Claude's hands for local automation — with a web dashboard for the humans who watch it.

Conductor gives Claude direct, persistent control of a local task runner. Tell Claude what you want automated; it creates the scheduled workers, builds multi-step pipelines, wires up email reports, fires test runs, and reads back the logs when something fails — all through conversation. A web dashboard at 127.0.0.1:5000 runs alongside it for humans who want to peek at status, click pause, or hand-edit a worker.

Originally built to automate warehouse reporting workflows (the daily ShipExec metrics pull) and now general-purpose: any Python / batch / shell script, any schedule, any chain.

MCP layer lives here: conductor-mcp — the thin server that exposes Conductor's REST API as Claude tools. It's bundled and auto-registered on install, so most users won't need to touch it directly.

Claude Integration

Conductor registers itself as an MCP server in Claude Desktop on first launch. After restarting Claude Desktop once, Claude has 21 tools for full control:

Example conversation:

You: Run my metrics script every night at 8:30 PM and email me the report

Claude: I'll set that up using the Run + Email template. (creates the worker, configures the schedule, wires up Gmail, fires it to test) Done — worker "Daily Metrics Report" is live. Check your email for the test run.

You: That uptime check keeps failing. What's going on?

Claude: (pulls the last 10 runs, reads the error logs) The site returned a 503 three times in the last hour. The SSL certificate expired yesterday. Here's the full error from the last run...

You: Chain my backup script and cleanup script together. Run backup first, then cleanup after it finishes. Every day at 2 AM.

Claude: *(creates a chain with stage 0 = backup, stage 1 = cleanup, cron schedule "0 2 * * ") Chain "Nightly Maintenance" created with 2 steps. Backup runs first, cleanup runs after it succeeds.

How it works:

1. Install Conductor (Windows installer or from source)
2. Conductor writes its MCP entry to Claude Desktop's config on first launch
3. Restart Claude Desktop once
4. Claude now controls Conductor through natural language — create workers, build chains, fire tasks, check logs, send emails

Features

• Claude-Controlled — 21 MCP tools let Claude create workers, chains, groups, templates, and more. Non-technical users can automate anything through conversation.
• Flexible Scheduling — Fixed times (09:00, 14:30), intervals (2h 30m), or cron expressions (0 9 * * 1-5 with plain-English preview).
• Task Support — Python (.py), batch (.bat, .cmd), and shell (.sh) scripts. Selenium and GUI scripts run in a visible terminal window via new_console.
• Built-in Email — configure Gmail once, then any template or worker can send emails. Run + Email template for automated reports. Folder Watcher emails files on arrival. Uptime Check sends DOWN alerts. Worker notifications on success/failure.
• Task Chains — multi-step pipelines with parallel execution. Same stage number = run in parallel. Stop-on-failure toggle.
• Worker Groups — collapsible named groups for organization. Bulk pause/delete per group.
• Run History — per-worker/chain history with status, duration, and error details. Colored dots show last run status at a glance.
• Built-in Templates — Folder Backup, File Cleanup, Folder Watcher, Uptime Check, Open URL, Run + Email. Generated scripts are stdlib-only and self-contained.
• Per-worker Environment Variables — inject KEY=VALUE pairs into subprocess environments.
• Worker Timeout — kill and log workers that run over a set number of minutes.
• Email Notifications — per-worker/chain email alerts: Always, On Failure, or On Success.
• Import / Export — portable JSON snapshot of all workers, chains, and groups.
• Saved Profiles — save and load named worker configurations.
• Auto-start on Login — one-click Registry Run key install. No admin required.
• Auto-update Check — modal dialog when a newer release is available.
• System Tray Icon — right-click for Open Dashboard or Stop.
• AI Error Analysis — send error logs to Claude for diagnosis directly in the dashboard.
• Redis Auto-Start — bundled Redis, starts automatically. No separate install needed.
• Persistent State — SQLite database. Workers and chains restore on restart.

Add Workers Form

Built-in Templates

Task Chains

Debug Log

Installation (Windows)

Download and run Conductor_Setup.exe from the latest release.

• No Python required — everything is bundled
• Redis is bundled — no separate install needed
• Installs to %AppData%\Conductor — no admin/UAC required
• Adds Start Menu shortcut and optional desktop shortcut
• Optional auto-start at login
• Uninstaller included

Setup from Source

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Redis server (Windows: winget install Redis.Redis — macOS: brew install redis — Ubuntu: sudo apt install redis-server)

git clone https://github.com/jarmstrong158/conductor.git
cd conductor
pip install -r requirements.txt
python launch.py

The dashboard opens at http://127.0.0.1:5000. Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Building the Installer

.\build.bat

Forces a full rebuild:

.\build.bat --rebuild

Output: Output\Conductor_Setup.exe. Requires Inno Setup.

Task File Format

Python (.py)

Scripts run as subprocesses:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("Task executed!")

Batch / Shell (.bat, .sh, .cmd)

Executed as subprocesses. The worker's output directory (if set) is used as the working directory.

Schedule Formats

Type	Format	Example
Fixed	HH:MM or HH:MM,HH:MM	09:00, 14:30, 17:00
Interval	Xh Ym	2h 30m, 1h, 45m
Cron	5-field crontab	0 9 * * 1-5 (weekdays at 9am)

Task Chains

Chains run multiple scripts in sequence. Each step has a stage number — steps with the same stage run in parallel, stages execute in order. Stop on failure halts the chain when any step fails.

Stage 0: backup.py  ──┐
Stage 0: cleanup.py ──┤  (both run at once)
                      ↓
Stage 1: report.py    (runs after both finish)

Templates

Template	What it does	Email capability
Folder Backup	Copy folder, keep N backups	Summary email
File Cleanup	Delete old files by pattern	Summary email
Folder Watcher	Move/email files by extension	Per-rule: move, email, or both
Uptime Check	Monitor URL, log status	Alert email on DOWN
Open URL	Open URL in browser	—
Run + Email	Run script, email output file	Sends output as attachment

All generated scripts use Python stdlib only.

Architecture

conductor/
├── launch.py          # Entry point — Flask, browser, tray, MCP registration
├── app.py             # Flask backend + APScheduler + SQLite + Redis
├── server.py          # MCP server for Claude Desktop
├── CLAUDE.md          # Context file for Claude Code / Desktop
├── static/
│   └── index.html     # Frontend — HTML + CSS + JS (no frameworks)
├── tasks/
│   └── example_task.py
├── templates/
│   └── generated/     # Auto-generated template scripts
├── build.bat          # One-click installer build
├── build_icon.py      # Generates conductor.ico
├── conductor.spec     # PyInstaller spec
├── installer.iss      # Inno Setup script
└── conductor.db       # SQLite database (auto-created)

Layer	Technology
Backend	Python 3, Flask
Scheduling	APScheduler (BackgroundScheduler + MemoryJobStore)
Persistence	SQLite
Worker State	Redis (port 6379, bundled on Windows)
Frontend	Vanilla JS, single HTML file
AI Integration	Claude via MCP (21 tools) + Anthropic API (error analysis)

AI Error Analysis

The debug log includes an Analyze Errors button. When ERROR entries are present, click it to send them to Claude for diagnosis. Requires an Anthropic API key in .env:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Example — before / after:

Raw error in the debug log:

[ERROR] worker "Daily Metrics Report" exit code 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\scripts\metrics.py", line 142, in <module>
    driver.find_element(By.ID, "report-table").click()
  File ".../selenium/.../webdriver.py", line 830, in find_element
    raise NoSuchElementException(message)
selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element:
Unable to locate element: {"method":"css selector","selector":"[id="report-table"]"}

Claude's diagnosis (one click later):

The script is failing on a find_element call before the page has finished loading — Selenium is racing the DOM. The element #report-table is rendered after an XHR completes. Two fixes, in order of preference:

1. Wrap the lookup in a WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, "report-table"))) so it polls until the element exists.
2. If you don't want to import the wait helpers, a time.sleep(2) before the click will work but is brittle. The traceback shows this happened on the first run after a ShipExec UI change yesterday — they may have also renamed the element. Verify the ID is still report-table in DevTools before adding the wait.

Email Setup

Click 📧 Email in the header to configure Gmail credentials. Requires a Gmail App Password (2-Step Verification must be enabled first). Credentials are stored locally in .env and never transmitted except to Gmail's SMTP server.

Once configured, all templates and worker notifications can send email.

API

Method	Path	Purpose
GET	/api/workers	List all workers
POST	/api/workers	Register worker(s)
PUT	/api/workers/<id>	Update worker
POST	/api/workers/<id>/pause	Toggle pause/resume
POST	/api/workers/<id>/run-now	Fire immediately
GET	/api/workers/<id>/history	Run history
POST	/api/workers/<id>/assign-group	Assign to group
DELETE	/api/workers/<id>	Delete worker
POST	/api/workers/pause-all	Pause all workers
DELETE	/api/workers/all	Delete all workers
GET	/api/chains	List all chains
POST	/api/chains	Create chain
PUT	/api/chains/<id>	Update chain
POST	/api/chains/<id>/pause	Toggle pause/resume
POST	/api/chains/<id>/run-now	Fire immediately
GET	/api/chains/<id>/history	Run history
DELETE	/api/chains/<id>	Delete chain
GET	/api/groups	List groups
POST	/api/groups	Create group
DELETE	/api/groups/<id>	Delete group
GET	/api/profiles	List profiles
POST	/api/profiles	Save profile
GET	/api/profiles/<id>	Load profile
DELETE	/api/profiles/<id>	Delete profile
POST	/api/templates	Create from template
GET	/api/export	Export all as JSON
POST	/api/import	Import from JSON
GET/POST	/api/email-settings	Email configuration
GET	/api/service/status	Auto-start status
POST	/api/service/install	Install auto-start
POST	/api/service/uninstall	Remove auto-start
GET	/api/update-check	Check for updates
GET	/api/logs?since=N	Log entries
GET	/api/redis-status	Redis status
GET	/api/browse?mode=file|dir	Native file picker

License

MIT