# Local Operator docs

> Guides for the Local Operator agent runtime: the terminal UI, the desktop app, workflow automations, remote access, and building on top of it.

## Get started

- [What is Local Operator?](https://docs.local-operator.com/getting-started/what-is-local-operator): Local Operator is an agent runtime that runs on your machine — one runtime every surface, from the terminal to your phone.
- [Install & first run](https://docs.local-operator.com/getting-started/install): Install the Local Operator runtime with pip, pipx, or uv, grab the desktop app, or run it with Docker or Nix — then verify the install.
- [Quickstart](https://docs.local-operator.com/getting-started/quickstart): Sign in to a provider, launch the terminal UI, run your first task, and approve a tool call — the five-minute first-run path.
- [Choose your surface](https://docs.local-operator.com/getting-started/choose-your-surface): TUI, desktop app, mobile relay, browser extension, exec mode, or the Python SDK — which surface to pick, and when.
- [Updating Local Operator](https://docs.local-operator.com/getting-started/updating): Update the runtime with lop update or /update, upgrade an install by hand, and find release notes.

## Surfaces

- [The terminal UI](https://docs.local-operator.com/tui/quickstart): Launch, read, and drive the terminal UI — the transcript, the keys worth knowing, and the slash commands that matter.
- [Desktop app](https://docs.local-operator.com/surfaces/desktop): Install the desktop app, sign in, and learn the window — chat with run details, the tool trace, projects, schedules, themes, and the Agent hub inside the app.
- [Browser extension](https://docs.local-operator.com/surfaces/browser-extension): Give the agent the browser you are already signed into — install from the Chrome Web Store, pair the bridge, and know exactly what it can and cannot do.

## Capabilities

- [Always-on & proactive agents](https://docs.local-operator.com/capabilities/always-on): Sessions that start their own turns — scheduled wakes that fire with every terminal closed, the supervisor that runs them, notifications, and Aida, the built-in chief of staff.
- [Agent Hub](https://docs.local-operator.com/capabilities/agent-hub): Browse Radient's community registry of agents, pull one into your setup, publish your own, and share privately with a team.

## Build & automate

- [Exec mode](https://docs.local-operator.com/build/exec-mode): Run Local Operator headless — one-shot prompts, JSON event streams, background jobs, goal loops, and CI usage.
- [Python SDK](https://docs.local-operator.com/build/python-sdk): Drive sessions from Python — open or spawn one, deliver prompts, stream typed events, and collect results, with explicit roots and an approval policy.
- [SSE streaming](https://docs.local-operator.com/build/sse-streaming): Embed an agent runtime behind a Server-Sent Events stream — the endpoint shape, event taxonomy, resume with Last-Event-ID, keepalives, and working server and client examples.

## Ecosystem

- [What's in the ecosystem](https://docs.local-operator.com/ecosystem): The pieces around the runtime — model providers, Radient, MCP servers, skills, teams, the Agent Hub, and the browser extension.

## About

- [Why Local Operator](https://docs.local-operator.com/about/why): What Local Operator does differently — running on your machine, one runtime every surface, teams and projects, a mesh for your own computers, work that continues without you — and when a different tool fits better.
- [FAQ](https://docs.local-operator.com/about/faq): Short answers to the questions people ask first — privacy, accounts, models, cost, offline use, platforms and updates.

## Notes

- Every page above is available as raw markdown at `/raw/<slug>` — e.g. `/raw/getting-started/install`.
- The site search index is a static file at `/search-index.json`.
- Local Operator itself lives at https://github.com/damianvtran/local-operator (MIT).