Building with AI, together

A team steering one AI coding agent together, live, in one shared session — what it requires, how it differs from multi-agent, what it looks like.

A multiplayer AI coding workspace is a place where several people work with AI coding agents on one codebase and can see each other doing it. The three shapes it comes in, what to check, and who makes which, as of September 2026.

Claude Code has no native multi-user sessions. Your four options — shared setup, transcript sharing, Agent Teams, a shared live room — and what each gives you.

Six properties to check before a team shares one AI coding agent: per-run isolation, no open internet, no secrets in the sandbox, approvals from any seat, attribution. How Poly and the alternatives compare.

One agent, many observers, one controlled stream of changes. A playbook for using an AI coding agent during an incident without five people typing at once, with roles, modes and the record you keep for the postmortem.

Nine questions to ask before a team picks a multiplayer AI coding workspace: shape, approvals, cost attribution, non-coder access, keys, sandboxing, agents, output and price model. With what a good answer looks like.

At fifty engineers, multiplayer AI coding is three different needs: parallel agents for the engineers, governance for the platform team, and shared rooms for the product and ops people building outside the backlog. Which tools fit each, including where Poly does and does not.

How Poly, GitHub Copilot's coding agent, Cursor, AQ, Superconductor and 143 work with a GitHub repository: who commits, how changes land, whether the human is the author, and what stays out of git. With Poly's setup in detail.

Replit, Lovable, Bolt, AQ and Poly compared for two cofounders building one product with AI: who can steer, who approves, who pays, and what setup each needs. Honest verdicts, including ours.

Replit gives each teammate their own AI thread on a shared project, merged later. Poly gives a team one AI they steer together in one session. Which fits, and the honest limits of each.

Lovable builds full-stack apps from prompts with drafts for teammates and hosting included. Poly puts a team in one session with one AI they steer together. Which fits which pair.

Claude Tag puts one Claude in a Slack channel for Team and Enterprise orgs. Poly puts one AI, Claude or ChatGPT, in a browser room any small team can open. What each gives you and who each is for.

AQ runs real agent CLIs on a VM your team joins live, terminal first. Poly runs one AI in a browser room with approvals, receipts and a preview, built for teams that include non-engineers. Compared honestly.

Coshell is a self-hosted multiplayer coding workspace built on OpenCode, free to run on your own compute with your own keys. Poly is a hosted room with no keys, approvals per change and receipts. Compared honestly.

Superconductor runs many agents in cloud sandboxes around tickets, with QA, review and native apps, on your own model subscriptions. Poly is one room, one AI, no keys, approvals and receipts. Compared honestly.

Six alternatives to Replit for two founders building one product with AI, sorted by what each is actually for: Lovable, Bolt, Poly, AQ, Superconductor and Zed's Delta. With prices and honest gaps.

Eleven ways a team can use Claude Code together, sorted by what each shares: Anthropic's own Claude Tag and Agent Teams, share links, and the third-party workspaces including Poly. Honest verdicts.

Where your work runs, what the AI can reach, how keys and secrets are handled, who can see a room, how accounts are protected, and where your data lives. Plain answers from the Poly team.