Help center
// the fastest route to an answer
Type what you’re stuck on into the search box on the left (press / from anywhere), or start with one of these.
Download, first-run OS warnings, connecting a provider, your first agent.
▤SHOW ME HOW IT WORKSThe Field Manual: short picture guides — belts, crew, goals, Night Shift, phone.
⚠SOMETHING IS BROKENInstall warnings, updates, uninstalling, proxies, Live Voice start-up.
✕MY BELT IS DARKEvery message the floor can show, and the one fix for each.
⌨KEYBOARD SHORTCUTSEvery key the app actually binds, from window navigation to the build tools.
☰WHAT DOES THIS WORD MEANBay, belt, line, dossier, leash, sidecar — the station’s vocabulary in plain English.
Help inside the app
Open ▣ SYSTEM › § FIELD MANUAL. The FIRST STEPS tab has a REPLAY QUICK TOUR button that re-runs the real onboarding tour — the same one that placed your first gear and ran your first command. Every button in the station also has a tooltip that says what it does and, where one exists, its shortcut.
Common questions
Installing
Windows says “Windows protected your PC”
SmartScreen can warn while a signing certificate builds reputation. Open More info, check the publisher matches the release notes, and proceed only then. Details in troubleshooting.
macOS says the app is damaged or can’t be opened
Public Mac builds must pass Apple notarization. A Gatekeeper failure on a real release is something to report, not bypass: androo.agi@gmail.com with the exact message and version.
Which Mac download do I need?
Apple menu → About This Mac. “Apple M…” means Apple Silicon (aarch64.dmg); “Intel” means Intel (x64.dmg). The wrong one won’t run.
Can I run it without installing?
Yes — clone the repo and npm install && npm start with Node 18+. The station opens at localhost:8787. Keys live in a local file instead of the OS keychain in that mode.
Keys, models and cost
Which providers work?
Eighteen, including OpenRouter (the default), OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, xAI, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek, Together, Fireworks, Perplexity, Cerebras, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and Ollama (free, fully local). Three need no key at all — ChatGPT, Grok, and Kimi sign in with a device code. Full list in Providers & Keys.
Where is my API key stored?
In the desktop app: your operating system’s keychain, handed to the local sidecar at start. It is sent only to the provider you chose, from your machine. Nothing goes to a StarNet server. See privacy.
How do I stop it spending money?
Every conveyor line has a per-job budget ($2.00 unless you raise it). SETTINGS › BUDGET adds hard caps per run, per agent, per day, and globally, enforced against the real ledger. Use Stop in COMMS for the current task, and pause scheduled work in its own panel.
What do StarNet Credits change?
Nothing about how the app works — it’s one more provider, STARNET, that runs on a prepaid balance instead of a key you manage. Linking a station opens an account on the billing service; payment always happens in your browser, never in the app. Optional, never required.
Belts and lines
Do I need belts at all?
No. Chatting with an agent in COMMS needs no belts. Belts are for jobs that should flow through several agents on their own. How conveyors work explains the whole idea in five minutes.
The belt is dark and nothing moves
Follow it to the end. You’ll find an empty desk (NO AGENT — CLICK), a gap, or a belt clipping the corner of a signpost instead of going through it (NOT FED). The full list of floor messages is in the conveyor guide.
It says WORK LINE LOOPS
Two desks feed each other, which would run and bill forever. The station refuses to run it. Cut one belt — or, if you want a revision cycle on purpose, put a LOOP tile on it (up to 5 passes by default, 20 max).
I don’t want to build anything
The LINES tool (9 in REFIT) drops one of 19 finished layouts in a click. Your first working line walks through it.
Agents and the station
How many agents can I have?
As many as you have bays for. Every bay is another agent running in parallel. Each needs a computer in its room (the floor says NO COMPUTE otherwise); everything else — dish, cabinet, workbench, core — is placed once and shared by the whole crew.
Why can’t my agent browse the web / read files?
Because the gear isn’t placed. A DISH grants WEB, an INTEL CAB grants FILES, a WORKBENCH grants TERMINAL, a CORE grants MEMORY, a STUDIO grants IMAGES. Place it in REFIT and the ability switches on. Your crew & their gear.
How do I rename an agent or change its look?
☻ CREW › ◉ AGENTS opens the dossier. The ✎ beside the name renames; the CONFIG tab has a SKIN picker with a live preview. Both are cosmetic — nothing about the agent’s record changes.
Does the level unlock anything?
No. Levels are proof of work you rated well. Every tool, model, and permission is available from minute one. Goals, quests & XP.
Night Shift and phones
Will it do things while I’m away?
Not until you turn the dial. INITIATIVE starts at WAIT. Even at FREE, REACH stays at SANDBOX — nothing leaves your machine unless you raise it yourself. Night Shift.
Can I talk to my agents from my phone?
Yes — pair Telegram, Discord, Slack, Matrix, or Signal. Your agents show up as contacts. Run it from your phone.
My Telegram bot says DMs BLOCKED
Telegram requires owner pairing so the first stranger to DM your bot doesn’t own it. Hit PAIR OWNER in the CHANNELS window, then send /pair plus the one-time code to the bot within 10 minutes.