AO CLI Catalog

ao is a thin CLI over the local AO daemon. Every command is ao <command> --help for the authoritative flag list.

| Command | What it does | When to use | Details | |---|---|---|---| | spawn | Spawn a worker agent in a fresh git worktree | Starting a new task or issue | commands/spawn.md | | session | Manage agent sessions (list, kill, rename, restore, etc.) | Inspecting or controlling running/terminated sessions | commands/session.md | | project | Register, inspect, configure, or remove projects | Setting up or managing repos AO knows about | commands/project.md | | orchestrator | List orchestrator sessions | Viewing which sessions are orchestrators | commands/orchestrator.md | | review | Submit a reviewer result for a worker's PR | Completing a code review loop | commands/review.md | | send | Send a message to a running agent session | Correcting or directing a live agent | commands/send.md | | preview | Start a session-owned app or open an exact URL/file | Running and showing the worker's relevant app, Markdown, HTML, PDF, or image | commands/preview.md | | browser | Inspect and control the session's shared live browser | Verifying a web app through snapshots, interactions, waits, screenshots, console, and errors | commands/browser.md | | start | Fetch (if needed) and open the AO desktop app | Launching the app | commands/start.md | | stop | Stop the AO daemon | Shutting down AO | commands/stop.md | | status | Show daemon status | Verifying the daemon is up and healthy | commands/status.md | | doctor | Run local health checks | Diagnosing AO setup problems | commands/doctor.md | | import | Import projects from a legacy AO install | Migrating from the old flat-file store | commands/import.md | | version | Print version information | Checking installed version | - | | completion | Generate shell completion scripts | Setting up tab completion | - |

Conventions

• Most read commands accept --json for machine-readable output.
• -p / --project scopes session subcommand lookups to one project.
• Session and project ids are shown by ao session ls and ao project ls.
• --agent is an alias for --harness on ao spawn.
• Every command accepts -h / --help for the full flag list.
• For frontend launch, preview selection, or artifact handoff, read

commands/preview.md before acting. Its static-file, project-runtime, and automatic-handoff rules are load-bearing.

• For page inspection, interaction, or request diagnosis, read

commands/browser.md. It defines shared-tab behavior and the opt-in network policy.

Use references.md only when a natural-language request does not map clearly to a command above.