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The Cortex Bot desktop app is a window built around agents and nothing else. Its rail is Inbox, Routines and Plugins, with your Agents and Rooms listed underneath. It carries no Chat and no Code sidebar, so for those use the web app or the Cortex desktop app. This page covers signing in, the rail, working the Inbox, where an agent runs, the Background computer permission, the settings panes, updates and the keyboard shortcuts the app handles.
Cortex does not publish a public download page yet, so there is no installer link here. See Ways to run Cortex.

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Sign in first

Cortex Bot has no guest mode that does anything useful. The sign-in dialog says Sign in to run your agents, with Agents, routines and rooms follow you across devices. Cortex Bot needs an account — nothing runs as a guest. Continue with Google and Continue with Apple open your browser, and the window waits. Continue with email sends you a link and becomes Check your inbox…. Single sign-on (SSO) is on the same dialog. While it waits the app says Finish signing in in your browser — this window updates on its own. and offers Cancel. Opened without an account, the app shows a banner: You're viewing Cortex Bot as a guest. Agents, rooms, routines and plugins need an account — sign in to keep agents running in the cloud.

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The rail

When no rooms exist at all, the section reads Rooms appear once two agents can talk to each other. When some exist but you have joined none, it reads No rooms joined yet · Browse rooms. The title bar carries Collapse sidebar.

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Work the Inbox

The Inbox is where an agent comes back to you. Its header shows Nothing waiting or a count of items that need you, and it has three tabs: Needs you, Mentions and Done.
1

Open Inbox

Select Inbox in the rail, or use the command palette action Open Inbox.
2

Decide on the Needs you tab

Each row offers Approve, Edit first and Deny. Pressing ↵ approves the row you are on, and ⌘. approves the focused approval. Secret values are masked in the row.
3

Stop being asked, if you want

Tick the always-allow box on the row to skip the question next time. You get the toast Approved with Future posts here won't ask. The other toasts are Denied, Answer sent and Saved to vault.
Decided items move to Done, grouped under Today and Done · earlier, and are kept for 90 days. An empty Needs you tab reads Nothing needs you right now; an empty Mentions tab reads No new mentions. Mention read status is a known gap: the app says so in a tooltip rather than guessing.

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Where an agent runs

When you create an agent, Runs on offers exactly two choices: Afterwards, an agent’s details rail shows Runs on as a read-only row with the value and a location, beside Machine, Memory, Routines and In rooms. There is no host picker there.
No shipped Cortex client offers a This PC or SSH picker for an agent’s computer. If you have read otherwise, that guidance is out of date. This PC is a Cortex Code runtime in the Cortex desktop app, not an agent placement.
An agent’s computer has one state at a time and the states never stack. Open desktop inside Cortex Bot starts one, Sleep this session ends one, and No desktop session means nothing is running. While it starts you see the app’s only spinner, Starting · Loading desktop…, and chat stays usable throughout. If the computer is running but the picture is not arriving, the status reads Running · Cloud with Retry stream. The rail preview is view-only, a chip says Computer running · your desktop is free while an agent works somewhere that is not your screen, and an idle computer hibernates after 30 minutes.

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Background computer

Background computer is the real “use my own machine” feature: it lets an agent click and type in windows that are not frontmost on your machine. It is off by default, with Off by default — agents do not use this Mac until turned on.
1

Turn it on

Open Settings → Privacy & terms → Background computer. The prompt asks Let agents work in other windows?; confirm with Turn on background computer.
2

Allow each app the first time

The first time an agent wants a particular app you are asked Allow {agent} to use {app} in the background?; confirm with the button naming that app.
3

Answer the irreversible ones every time

Spending money, sending and deleting can never be remembered: you are asked {agent} wants to {action} in {app} and can only Allow once. Granting full control of the machine lasts for that session only.
A refused action shows Not allowed and a one-off grant shows Allowed for this action, each with a plain reason, such as Another host prompt is already open, You declined or Money, send and delete cannot be remembered. The audit log keeps the most recent 200 entries.

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Routines, plugins and rooms

Routines run an agent on a schedule or an event and post the result to you or to a room. A routine is made of a Trigger and Instructions, with Recent runs underneath and Run log to open the logs in the transcript. Plugins are the tools your agents work in, grouped into Installed, Verified and Popular with teams like yours. Add custom connector and Custom MCP server cover anything the catalogue does not. Agents only get the plugins you hand them on their profile. Rooms sit in the same rail, with Browse rooms, Create a room, and, once you pick two agents, Add to room. The window describes them as letting two or more agents work on one thing while you watch and step in, and a room composer reminds you: Mention an agent with @ · ↵ to send · ⇧↵ for a new line. The controls are drawn, but nothing behind them is served on this deployment: starting a room reports This deployment does not host bot rooms yet. Nothing was started. Channels are the multi-bot surface that works today. See Channels.

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Settings

Appearance holds Theme (Light, Dark or System), Window controls, Accent, Density, Text size, Animated icons and Show last message in sidebar. On macOS the native window buttons are hidden by default and can be turned back on here. Privacy & terms holds Background computer, where agent memory lives, how long conversations are kept (30 days, 90 days, 1 year or Forever), whether you share anonymous usage (off by default), and Your rights · GDPR with Export my data and a type-to-confirm account deletion.
The Notifications pane is complete, but Cortex Bot does not deliver operating-system notifications yet, and it has no tray icon and no dock badge. Treat Notify me on this Mac, Sound, Quiet hours, Daily digest and Dock badge as preferences waiting for delivery, and use the Inbox as your notification centre.

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Updates

Cortex Bot checks for updates at launch and then every four hours, but it installs nothing behind your back and nothing on quit.
1

Check

Open Settings → About and select Check for updates. The status moves through Checking signed release… to either You’re up to date or an available version.
2

Download

Select Download update. The status reads Downloading verified update…, then Verified update ready to install. Cortex verifies that the release really came from Cortex first; if that fails you see Update check or verification failed.
3

Install

Select Restart and install and confirm Restart to update? The confirmation warns you: Save your work first. Unsaved drafts will be lost when Cortex Bot restarts.
Tick Download updates automatically to skip the download step in future. Update channel offers Production and Staging: Staging is for testing. Production receives only promoted releases. Channel changes never downgrade the app. On Linux, updates apply only to the portable application-image build, and some builds have no update feed at all and say Signed updates unavailable in this build. The same pane carries Release notes, Keyboard shortcuts and Diagnostics, with Copy diagnostics and Open logs folder.

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Keyboard shortcuts

The palette searches agents, rooms, routines and the last 90 days of messages, and carries the actions New agent, New routine, Open Settings, Open Inbox and Background computer.