Quickstart

Five minutes from a fresh machine to a first AI prompt. The fastest path is the desktop app — it bundles the same Go core as the CLI plus a GUI.

What you need

A Mac, Windows, or Linux laptop with internet access.
A working email address (for OAuth sign-in).
Five spare minutes.

1. Download and install the desktop app

Grab the right installer from cmdop.com/downloads :

Platform	File
macOS	`.dmg` (universal)
Windows	`.msi`
Linux	`.AppImage`

Open it, drag-to-install on macOS or run the installer on Windows. On Linux, mark the AppImage executable and double-click.

Prefer the CLI? curl -sSL https://cmdop.com/install.sh | bash on macOS / Linux, or iwr -useb https://cmdop.com/install.ps1 | iex on Windows. Then jump to step 3 — the rest reads the same.

Launch the desktop app. The first screen is the sign-in flow:

Click “Sign in with browser”.
The cabinet opens; complete the OAuth device flow.
The browser redirects back; the desktop app picks up the token and finishes the workspace setup.

You now have a default workspace and the local daemon is starting in the background. The status pill at the top of the window flips to “ONLINE” when the relay handshake completes.

If you used the CLI:


cmdop login
cmdop agent start
cmdop agent status

Verdict should be ONLINE within a few seconds.

3. Run your first prompt

The desktop opens to the Chat tab. Type a question that exercises a local tool:

“What’s my macOS version, and is my disk healthy?”

The local agent picks execute_command (probably sw_vers and diskutil verify ...), runs them, summarizes the output. You see token-by-token streaming and the tool results inline.

From the CLI:


cmdop chat "What's my macOS version, and is my disk healthy?"

4. Look at what just happened

Open the Activity tab in the desktop client (or run cmdop permissions audit --tail 20 in a terminal). Every tool call your prompt produced is logged — tool name, arguments, decision, timing. This is the same audit log a remote caller would generate; nothing is hidden.

5. (Optional) Connect a remote machine

If you have a server like vps-audi you want to manage from this laptop:

SSH (or otherwise log in) to the server once.
Install CMDOP on it (same install.sh works).
Run cmdop register — it pairs the server with your account.
Start the daemon: cmdop agent start.
Back on the laptop, open the Machines tab. vps-audi shows up online.

Click it to open the per-machine inspector chat. The next prompt you type goes straight to that machine’s agent — no local LLM paraphrasing.

Full walkthrough: First connection.

What just got installed

Path	What
`cmdop` (binary)	The CLI. Same core the desktop uses.
`cmdop-desktop` (or app bundle)	The GUI.
`~/.cmdop/cmdop.pid`	Per-user PID file for the daemon.
`~/.cmdop/daemon.status`	Status the desktop watches.
`~/.cmdop/ssh_workspaces.json`	Workspace credential store (mode 0600).
`~/.cmdop/permissions.yaml`	Permission rules (created on first remote call).

Where to go next

Pair a remote machine and run something on it.

Wrap a recurring task in a skill or trigger.

Tour the seven tabs and the launcher.

Wire CMDOP into Claude Desktop or Cursor.

If something went wrong

Daemon stuck on STARTING: cmdop agent logs -f.
Desktop hangs at sign-in: quit and relaunch, the OAuth callback sometimes needs a fresh window.
“OAuth failed” in the browser: clear cookies for the cabinet domain and retry.