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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://ade-app.dev/docs/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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What is ADE?

ADE (Agentic Development Environment) is a macOS desktop application that lets you run multiple AI coding agents against the same repository without losing control. Each task gets its own isolated workspace (a lane), agents stay context-aware through durable packs, and ADE watches for merge conflicts before they become cleanup work. ADE is not another AI code editor. It is the orchestration layer that sits between you and your agents — whether they run through Claude, Codex, Cursor, or any other tool.
Think of ADE the way you think about a CI/CD dashboard — except instead of watching pipelines, you’re watching AI agents build features across multiple branches simultaneously.

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Who is ADE for?

Solo developers

Run 3–5 agents in parallel across different features. Ship a full day’s work in an hour.

Small teams

Share lane templates, automation rules, and AI budgets through a committed ade.yaml. Each developer keeps their own API keys and preferences locally.

Agent power users

Orchestrate multi-step missions with planning, validation, and cost tracking. Use the CTO agent to delegate work to specialized workers automatically.

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How ADE works

You define the work

Describe what you want built — a feature, a fix, a refactor. ADE handles the rest.

ADE creates isolated lanes

Each task gets its own git worktree. Agents never block each other or step on shared files.

AI agents execute in parallel

Claude, Codex, Cursor, or any configured provider works simultaneously across lanes.

ADE tracks everything

Context, conflicts, budgets, sessions, and artifacts — all in one place.

You review and merge

Inspect diffs, approve PRs, and land results with full audit trails.

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The app at a glance

ADE’s sidebar mirrors this documentation. Each tab in the app has a matching section in the App Guide:
App tabWhat it doesDocs
RunStart your dev stack, manage processes, run testsRun →
LanesCreate and manage isolated workspacesLanes →
ChatTalk to AI agents scoped to a lane, mission, or the CTOChat →
WorkTerminal sessions with transcripts and checkpointsTerminals →
FilesMonaco editor with lane-scoped file trees and diffsFiles →
GraphVisual topology of lanes, branches, PRs, and conflictsGraph →
PRsGitHub PR management with stacked PR supportPRs →
HistoryTimeline of all operations, sessions, and checkpointsHistory →
AutomationsTrigger-driven AI rules for PR review, testing, and moreAutomations →
MissionsStructured multi-step AI execution with audit trailsMissions →
CTOAlways-on project agent with memory, workers, and Linear syncCTO →
SettingsAI providers, integrations, permissions, budgetsSettings →
Press ⌘K anywhere in ADE to open the Command Palette — a fuzzy-searchable jump-to for every tab, lane, and recent action. Use G followed by a letter (e.g. G L for Lanes, G R for PRs) to jump between sections by keyboard alone.
Click the Help icon in the top bar to open the Help menu. The first entry — Start Full Tutorial — runs the in-app guided tour of every tab (Lanes, Graph, Files, Work, Git actions, PRs, History, Run, Automations, CTO, Settings) and hands off to shorter per-tab tours as it goes. Below the full tutorial, the menu also lists focused tours for each tab so you can jump straight to one.

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Start here

Install and set up

Download ADE, connect a provider, and open your first project. Takes about 5 minutes.

Learn the concepts

Understand lanes, packs, missions, the CTO, and how they fit together before diving in.

Follow the quickstart

A checklist that walks you from install to your first working agent in one session.

Explore the app guide

Jump straight into the feature documentation organized by app tab.