Welcome to KageOps
A desktop control plane where Sensei orchestrates nine AI specialists through a six-phase product lifecycle. Local-first. Budget-capped. You hold the kill-switch.
What is KageOps?
KageOps takes an idea — a sentence, a brief, a half-formed prompt — and runs it end-to-end through a team of AI agents. You describe what you want; the agents research, design, build, test, and ship.
Three things that make it different from other AI coding tools:
- It's a team, not a single chat. Nine specialists each own a part of the lifecycle, coordinated by an orchestrator called Sensei.
- It runs on your machine. Your code, your database, your project files — all local. Cloud only handles auth and billing.
- You set the budget. Every project run has a hard USD cap. The system kills the run before it overspends.
Getting started
1. Install
Download the latest build from kageops.ai/downloads for macOS, Windows, or Linux. Open the installer and follow the prompts.
2. Sign in
On first launch, KageOps opens a sign-in window. You can sign in with email + password, magic link, Google, or GitHub. Enterprise customers can use SSO (Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace).
3. Pick a plan
After sign-in you'll see the plan selection window. Free is enough to evaluate the product (1 active project, 20 agent runs/month). You can upgrade any time from Settings → Billing.
4. Configure an AI provider
KageOps doesn't ship with a built-in AI key — you bring your own. Open Settings → Providers and add at least one of:
- Claude CLI — uses your Claude.ai Pro/Max subscription (no per-call cost). See "Using Claude CLI" below.
- Claude API — premium quality, pay-per-token (set
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) - OpenRouter — pay-as-you-go across many models (recommended for budget runs)
- Ollama — fully local, free, slower (great for dry runs)
- OpenAI, Gemini — also supported
5. Run your first project
Click + New Project in the Command Center. Give it a name, write a prompt describing what to build, set a budget cap, and pick which phases to run. Click Create & Start.
The Autonauts
KageOps coordinates nine AI specialists. Each owns a slice of the product lifecycle.
Project lifecycle
Every project flows through up to six phases. You pick which ones to run when you create the project — skip what you don't need.
- Discovery — Scout researches the problem space.
- POC — Smallest possible thing that proves the idea works.
- Business viability — Costs, market fit, pricing assumptions.
- Design & Planning — Pixel designs, Blueprint architects.
- Development — Forge, Cipher, and Aegis build. Vigil tests.
- Launch & Growth — Herald handles announcement, copy, growth.
Phase gates run between stages. Depending on your trust level, gates either pause for your approval or auto-advance:
- Low trust — approve every gate (best for first-time use)
- Medium trust — auto-advance routine gates, pause for risky ones
- High trust — autonomous after design phase
AI providers
You bring your own AI keys. Configure them in Settings → Providers.
| Provider | Best for | Where to get a key |
|---|---|---|
| Claude API | Premium quality, complex projects | console.anthropic.com |
| OpenRouter | Pay-as-you-go, many models, budget runs | openrouter.ai/keys |
| Ollama | Fully local, free, no internet needed | ollama.ai (install locally) |
| OpenAI | GPT-4o, GPT-4 Turbo | platform.openai.com/api-keys |
| Gemini | Google's models | aistudio.google.com |
You can mix providers per agent. For example: Claude for Forge, OpenRouter+Haiku for Scout, local Ollama for Vigil's test scaffolds. KageOps ships with several presets — pick one from the Command Center dropdown to apply a sensible mix.
Using Claude CLI
If you have a Claude.ai Pro or Max subscription, the Claude CLI provider is the most cost-effective option — KageOps spawns the official claude binary and it runs against your subscription quota with no per-call charge.
Prerequisites
- An active Claude.ai Pro or Max subscription
- Node.js 20+ already installed (you almost certainly have this)
1. Install the CLI
One npm command, globally:
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Reference: Claude Code quickstart · GitHub repo.
2. Authenticate
From any terminal, run:
claude
It opens a browser window, you sign in to Claude.ai once, and the session is cached in ~/.claude/. KageOps reads from this same cache — you don't need to do anything else.
3. Verify KageOps can find it
Open Settings → Providers → Claude CLI and click Test connection. If KageOps can't locate the binary on its own (rare; we check Homebrew, ~/.local/bin, npm-global, and Windows Program Files), set the KAGEOPS_CLAUDE_CLI_PATH environment variable to the absolute path.
Workspace isolation
When KageOps spawns the Claude CLI for a project, it sets the subprocess working directory to that project's workspace — not the KageOps install directory. The CLI reads the project's own CLAUDE.md (if any) and writes files into the project, never into KageOps itself.
Cost controls
The biggest fear with AI agents is "what if it spends $200 while I'm getting coffee?" KageOps stops that from happening.
- Per-run budget cap — hard USD limit. Set it on the New Project form. The run is killed the moment cumulative spend hits the cap.
- Per-task call cap — each agent task can make at most N AI calls. Default: 8.
- Per-agent token cap — each agent has a max-tokens-per-call ceiling so a single response can't run away.
- Zombie guard — if no progress is made within 60s, the run aborts.
- Live cost meter — top-bar shows current run cost in real time.
- Dry-run mode — preview the entire plan without making any AI calls.
Plans & billing
| Plan | Price | Seats | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 | Evaluating the product |
| Starter | $12/mo | 1 | Solo builders, unlimited projects |
| Team | $49/mo | up to 5 | Small teams, project assignments, Slack/Discord |
| Enterprise | $149/mo | unlimited | Custom SSO, priority support, self-hosted |
Annual plans get 20% off. All paid plans include a 14-day free trial. Manage your subscription from Settings → Billing — that opens the Stripe customer portal in your browser.
Privacy & data
KageOps is local-first. The desktop app is the only place your project data lives.
- Your code — never leaves your machine. Git, files, build artifacts: local only.
- Your prompts — sent to whichever AI provider you configured. KageOps doesn't proxy them.
- Your AI keys — stored in your OS keychain, never in plain-text files.
- Sign-in — handled by Clerk; only a short-lived session token is kept.
- Billing — handled by Stripe; KageOps never sees your card.
- Telemetry — opt-in only; anonymised crash reports.
Embedded Postgres data lives at ~/.kageops/pgdata on your machine. You can inspect, back up, or delete it with normal filesystem tools.
Troubleshooting
Sign-in window doesn't load
The sign-in flow opens a window that connects to api.kageops.ai. Check your firewall isn't blocking it. If you see a "Worker not deployed" error, KageOps is unreachable — try again in a few minutes or contact support.
Splash screen hangs
The splash is timed (5s by default). If it stays open longer, the embedded database may have a stale lock from a previous crash. Quit the app from the tray, then delete ~/.kageops/pgdata/postmaster.pid and relaunch.
Project run starts but no agents do anything
Most likely your AI provider key isn't valid, or the model isn't available. Open Settings → Providers, click Test connection, and check the response.
Run hits the budget cap immediately
Some models charge by token; a single Claude Opus call can cost $0.50+. Either increase the cap or switch to a cheaper preset (try openrouter_budget).
"Plan window keeps appearing on every login"
This is fixed in v1.0+. If you're on an older build, your plan choice didn't sync to the cloud. Update the app from /downloads.
Support
Need help?
- Email: [email protected]
- Bug reports: include the version (top-right corner of Command Center) and your platform.
- Feature requests: we read every one — be specific about the use case.
- Enterprise / custom deployment: [email protected]