How is AO different from several agent terminals?
AO adds isolated worktrees, durable session identity, Chat or TUI control, pull-request observation, lifecycle reactions, review runs, notifications, and browser previews around those agents.
Do I have to use Claude Code?
No. AO includes adapters for more than twenty harnesses, including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Aider, OpenCode, Droid, Kimi Code, and others. Native Chat currently supports installed Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, and Droid; other harnesses use Terminal UI.
Does AO merge pull requests?
AO provides a merge action, but merging is a deliberate user or workflow decision, not an unconditional default. Review code and repository policy before requesting a merge.
Which source-control systems are supported?
GitHub is the shipped SCM observer in the current Go rewrite. It supplies pull-request, CI, review, and mergeability facts. Historical docs listed broader GitLab and tracker plugins; those integrations are not all active in the current daemon lifecycle.
Does AO need webhooks?
No. The current GitHub SCM observer polls with authentication, ETag guards, and semantic diffing. Live desktop updates come from the daemon's SQLite CDC event stream.
Does it work on Windows?
Yes. Windows supports the desktop app, Chat, and native Terminal UI through AO's conpty host. tmux and iTerm2-specific behavior applies only to other platforms.
Where does AO store data?
Under ~/.ao by default. Durable daemon state is SQLite under ~/.ao/data; the same AO home also contains the run file, managed worktrees and metadata, Electron data, and mobile configuration. Advanced daemon paths can be overridden with AO_DATA_DIR and AO_RUN_FILE.
Can I expose AO on a remote server?
Do not expose the primary daemon listener. It is unauthenticated and fixed to 127.0.0.1. Connect Mobile is the only built-in LAN path: it is opt-in, password-protected, plaintext, and intended only for a trusted home network.
What does AO cost?
AO is Apache-2.0 licensed. Agent usage is billed according to the provider account or subscription used by each installed harness. Chat records usage data when the provider reports it.
Does AO upload my source code?
AO coordinates local worktrees and invokes your installed agents and GitHub tooling. Those tools follow their own provider data policies. AO's Electron renderer also sends anonymous usage events to PostHog in standard builds; session recording is disabled by default, and local paths and URLs are redacted if a time-boxed investigation enables it.
Can I still install AO from npm?
The legacy @aoagents/ao package remains available, but 0.10.0 is its final release and it will not receive updates. Prefer the desktop download. Existing npm users can run ao start to fetch and open the desktop build.
Can Chat and Terminal UI run at the same time for one session?
No. A session commits to one controller at a time. Compatible Claude Code and Codex sessions can hand off between interfaces, but AO drains or interrupts the old controller before activating the new one.
How do I uninstall AO?
Remove the desktop application using your operating system's normal process. If you also remove ~/.ao, you permanently delete AO's database, session history, managed state, Electron data, and mobile pairing configuration. Inspect and preserve any work you need first. Legacy CLI users can separately run npm uninstall -g @aoagents/ao.