Ellipsis vs local Claude Code
Claude Code on your laptop is great for hands-on coding. Ellipsis runs agents in the cloud on a schedule, on a pull request, or from a Slack or Linear mention, with the team-wide visibility and central governance a local setup cannot provide.
| Capability | Ellipsis | Claude Code on a laptop |
|---|---|---|
| Runs without you at the terminal | Agents run in the cloud, day or night | Only while your terminal is open |
| Triggers | Pull requests, pushes, cron, and @ellipsis in Slack and Linear | You start every run by hand |
| Scheduled agents | Native cron schedules | Your laptop would have to stay on and awake |
| Team-wide visibility | Every run, cost, and diff in one shared dashboard | Local to one developer |
| Governance | Central tool allow-lists, repo scoping, and spend caps | Each developer configures their own |
| Cost tracking | Spend by agent, repo, and day across the team | Each developer has a separate bill |
| Audit trail | Every action and every config version recorded | No shared record of what ran |
| Code review on every PR | Built in, from any agent or engineer | Not part of a local setup |
| Shared configuration | One versioned YAML per agent, in your repo | Local settings, not centrally governed |
| Hands-on, interactive coding | Built for automated and triggered work, not live pairing | Excellent for pairing at your desk |
The two work well together. Keep Claude Code at your desk for live coding, and let Ellipsis run the automated, scheduled, and team-wide work in the cloud.
Observability
Permissions
Tracing
Move the scheduled, event-driven, and team-wide work off your laptop and into the cloud, with the governance and visibility a local setup cannot give you.