How does Catalyst differ from Apache Airflow for agent workloads?

Catalyst is purpose-built for agent workloads, while Apache Airflow is optimized for traditional scheduled batch data pipelines—their core key distinguishing design trait. Catalyst supports both deterministic and probabilistic long-lived agent work with durable execution that is not exactly-once delivery, unlike Airflow’s fixed, well-defined DAG-based scheduled pipelines with strict predefined execution steps. Airflow remains a solid choice for teams focused exclusively on their scheduled data pipeline work rather than complex flexible agentic workloads.