agent-orchestrator/backend/internal/skillassets/using-ao/SKILL.md

name: using-ao
description: Catalog of the AO (Agent Orchestrator) ao CLI: spawning workers, managing sessions and projects, sending messages, previewing pages, and daemon control. Use when using the ao CLI, spawning workers, or managing AO sessions in an AO workspace.
trigger: Using the ao CLI in an AO workspace: spawning workers, managing sessions/projects, sending messages, previewing pages.

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	Open a URL in the desktop browser panel	Demoing a local server or file from inside a session	commands/preview.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.

See references.md for natural-language-to-command mappings.