Cloud · Cogno decides
Workspacemembers · Memory · Instructions
Projecta set of repositories
Taskstatement · conversation · delivery
points at
runs as
Your machines · work runs
Machineruns the Engine
Environmenta folder + agent + model
Sessionone task’s work, on disk
The cloud half
This half is always on and independent of your computers. It runs whether or not anything of yours is awake.The machine half
Nothing here is a cloud sandbox. Work runs in a real checkout, on a real computer, as you.Where the halves meet
Two seams, and only two.A project points at a folder
A project lives in the cloud, but the code it works in does not. Each member connects their own environment — one folder on their machine — from the project’s page (Choose folder, or Clone repositories). One project, one environment per person. Until someone does that, the project has nowhere for its work to run. See Set up a project.A task runs as a session
A task’s conversation is its session. When a run starts, the task binds to one environment and keeps it, so every later run lands in the same folder with the same history. That is why a task’s messages, its branch and its working directory all line up.What crosses the line
The Engine reaches out to Cogno and claims work; nothing reaches into your machine. Its only listener is a local socket for the desktop app on the same computer.Cognothe cloud half
anything to run here?
what to do · environment · branch · model
messages · status · branch + PR
Engineon your machine
Claude Code or Codex runs here — your checkout, your tools, your credentials
- Down to the machine: what to do, which environment and branch to use, which model.
- Back up to the cloud: the agent’s messages as it works, the run’s status, and the delivery — repository, branch, PR number.
- Never: your Claude or Codex credentials. You sign those CLIs in yourself and they hold their own. Cogno does not keep a copy of your repository either — the checkout stays where it is.
The loop, end to end
1
Something happens in your tools
A Slack thread, a decision in a meeting, a Notion comment. It arrives as an event.
2
Cogno decides whether it is work
Weighed against Memory, your Instructions and the tasks you already have. If it is worth
doing, Cogno files it against a project, in the status it belongs in, marked with the source
it came from.
3
You glance
The task is already on your board in the status Cogno chose. Leave it, move it, or archive
it — seconds, not a workflow.
4
A machine picks it up
The task binds to an environment, the Engine claims the turn, and a coding agent runs in
that folder. If no machine is free the work waits rather than failing.
5
The result comes back to the Task
The Task shows the delivery and the conversation shows how it got there. Git work can
return as a pull request; direct work stays in its connected folder. You review the result
and decide when the Task becomes Done.
6
And round again
That merge is itself an event. The loop has no separate start: connect a tool and it begins
at step one, or type a task yourself and join at step four.
Related docs
- Introducing Cogno — what Cogno is and what it does.
- Getting started with Cogno — set it up end to end.
- Work with tasks — what Cogno proposes, the conversation, day-to-day flow.
- Set up projects — repository sets and environments.
- Manage your machines — the Engine, readiness, and enrolled servers.