The status command provides a comprehensive overview of all agent sessions, including PR state, CI status, code review status, and activity monitoring.
Syntax Options Output as JSON for scripting
Basic Usage # Show all sessions across all projects ao status # Show sessions for a specific project ao status --project my-project # Output as JSON ao status --json
The status table shows:
Column Description Session Session ID Branch Git branch name PR Pull request number CI CI/CD pipeline status Rev Code review decision Thr Pending review threads Activity Current agent activity state Age Time since last activity
Example Output $ ao status ╔════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ AGENT ORCHESTRATOR STATUS ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════╝ agent-orchestrator ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Session Branch PR CI Rev Thr Activity Age ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ao-int-1234 int-1234-fix-errors #156 ✓ ✓ 0 active 2m Fixing TypeScript errors ao-int-1235 int-1235-add-tests #157 ⏱ - 2 idle 15m Adding test coverage ao-int-1236 int-1236-refactor - - - - working 1h Refactoring API layer 3 active sessions across 1 project
Status Indicators CI Status Icons CI checks pending/running
No CI status (no PR or checks not configured)
Review Decision Icons Activity States Agent is currently processing (prompt visible, spinner showing)
Agent is waiting for user input (prompt hidden)
Agent is executing tools or commands
Activity state is detected by analyzing the terminal output using agent-specific patterns.
Time since last activity in human-readable format:
2m - 2 minutes ago15m - 15 minutes ago1h - 1 hour ago3h - 3 hours ago2d - 2 days ago
JSON Output Use --json for scripting:
JSON Schema [ { "name" : "ao-int-1234" , "branch" : "int-1234-fix-errors" , "status" : "working" , "summary" : "Fixing TypeScript errors" , "claudeSummary" : "Fixed 5 type errors in utils module" , "pr" : "https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/156" , "prNumber" : 156 , "issue" : "INT-1234" , "lastActivity" : "2m" , "project" : "agent-orchestrator" , "ciStatus" : "success" , "reviewDecision" : "approved" , "pendingThreads" : 0 , "activity" : "active" } ]
Field Descriptions Session status (working, idle, done, killed)
User-provided or tracker-derived summary
Agent-generated summary via introspection
Human-readable time since last activity
ciStatus
'success' | 'failure' | 'pending' | null
CI pipeline status
reviewDecision
'approved' | 'changes_requested' | null
Code review decision
Number of unresolved review threads
activity
'active' | 'idle' | 'working' | null
Current agent activity state
Filtering By Project # Show only sessions for my-project ao status --project my-project
# Count active sessions ao status --json | jq 'length' # List sessions with failing CI ao status --json | jq '.[] | select(.ciStatus == "failure") | .name' # Show sessions older than 1 hour ao status --json | jq '.[] | select(.lastActivity | test("[0-9]+h")) | .name'
Activity Detection The CLI detects agent activity by:
Terminal Capture - Reads last 5 lines from tmux panePattern Matching - Uses agent-specific patterns to detect stateTimestamp Tracking - Records tmux activity timestamp
Claude Code Patterns For claude-code agent:
Active : Prompt visible (e.g., claude>, spinner)Idle : No prompt, waiting for inputWorking : Tool execution, command output
Activity detection works best when the agent is in interactive mode. Background tasks may not update activity state.
Session Summary The status command shows two types of summaries:
User Summary - From session metadata or issue descriptionAgent Summary - Extracted from agent’s conversation history
Agent summaries are fetched via agent introspection:
const introspection = await agent . getSessionInfo ( session ); console . log ( introspection . summary );
Agent summaries are more accurate for long-running sessions because they reflect actual work done, not just the issue description.
Fallback Mode If no config is found, status falls back to discovering sessions from tmux:
$ ao status No config found. Run ` ao init` first. Falling back to session discovery... ╔════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ AGENT ORCHESTRATOR STATUS ║ ╚════════════════════════════════════════╝ 3 tmux sessions found ao-int-1234 (2m) Claude: Fixing TypeScript errors in utils module ao-int-1235 (15m) ao-orchestrator (1h)
Fallback mode has limited information. Create a config with ao init for full status reporting.
Common Issues No Config Found No config found. Run ` ao init` first.
Solution : Create a configuration:Unknown Project Unknown project: my-project
Solution : Use a valid project ID:ao status --project valid-project
No Sessions agent-orchestrator ( no active sessions ) 0 active sessions across 1 project
Solution : Spawn some sessions:ao spawn my-project INT-1234
Examples Monitor All Projects # Show all sessions ao status
Check Specific Project # Filter by project ao status --project my-project
Watch Status (Poll) # Refresh every 5 seconds watch -n 5 ao status
Find Failing Sessions # Sessions with failing CI ao status --json | jq '.[] | select(.ciStatus == "failure")'
List Stale Sessions # Sessions inactive for over 1 hour ao status --json | jq '.[] | select(.lastActivity | test("[0-9]+h"))'
Export Status # Save to file ao status --json > sessions.json # Pretty print ao status --json | jq '.' > sessions-pretty.json
Exit Codes
0 - Success1 - Error (invalid project ID)
Next Steps
Session Management List, kill, and cleanup sessions
Send Messages Interact with active sessions
Dashboard View status in the web interface
