Machines and clients

A machine is a computer running the ADE brain: the always-on process that owns projects, lanes, chats, terminals, Git state, and proof. A client is any surface that attaches to a brain. That split is why the computer in front of you does not have to be the computer doing the work. Your laptop can drive a desktop at home running three lanes, or a headless Linux box running tests.

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Clients

A client never owns a chat. Sessions live on the machine’s runtime, so the same conversation appears on every client attached to it.

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Account and pairing

Signing in with the same account links your machines into one list. ade connect adds a machine; a machine with no browser shows a QR code you scan from the phone. You can also skip the account and use one machine locally — you just cannot reach it from anywhere else.

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Where state lives

Each project keeps its ADE state in .ade/ inside the repository: the local database, worktrees, artifacts, and caches. Your source tree stays under Git’s control. Machine-wide state (accounts, machine list, provider credentials) lives in the ADE home directory, not in the repository.

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What follows from this

• A lane belongs to its machine. Chats and terminals for that lane run there and only there.
• A chat can still borrow another machine. It can run a command or a simulator on another of your machines in a hidden work copy there, without moving the chat or making a lane; see use another machine from the chat.
• Remote actions are scoped. The app passes the target machine with every action; see remote machines.
• Killing a client does not kill the work. The brain keeps running, and a chat can be resumed from another client.