Gateway-centered design
The gateway is where Pioneer work actually happens. If the gateway runs on your laptop, tools touch your laptop environment. If it runs on a server, tools touch the server environment.Local or remote deployment
Run a gateway on your computer for local work, or host one on a server when the files and tools should stay elsewhere. Separate gateways keep environments such as work, study, and home apart.One client, many gateways
Connect the desktop or mobile app to several gateways and switch between their execution environments. Each gateway keeps its own state.Shared client core
Desktop and mobile are different clients of the same gateway model. A workspace, thread, provider, skill, MCP server, and task have the same meaning in both clients.Workspace management
Create, switch, and rename workspaces inside a gateway. Each workspace keeps its own threads, provider keys, MCP servers, skills, tasks, and artifacts.Thread modes
Use Chat mode for direct conversations and Agent mode when the thread should plan, use tools, and work through multi-step tasks.Async work by default
In collaborative threads, sending a message starts independent work in the background. The composer stays available, so you can continue the conversation, start another request, or work in a different thread while the agent continues. Each request keeps the settings it started with, and its live status appears in a separate task card. Open that card to follow the child conversation; when the work is ready, the result returns to the original thread.Thread tree AGENTS.md
CreateAGENTS.md at the thread tree root or inside any thread folder to keep persistent agent instructions close to the work they affect. Threads inherit the nearest active file from their folder ancestry.
Multi-agent workflows
Tasks can split work into subagents. The parent agent receives each result and can accept it or ask for a revision with specific feedback.Agent memory
In agent mode, Pioneer can recall durable facts, preferences, project decisions, and recurring instructions across turns when memory is enabled. Pioneer also has a separate thread-context layer for searchable conversation history. Durable memory remembers long-lived facts; thread context helps recover useful old discussion snippets without sending the full transcript every time.Bring your own model or runtime
Pioneer supports API providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Gemini, Azure OpenAI, Bedrock, Ollama, Copilot, GLM, Telnyx, and OpenAI-compatible endpoints. CLI-backed runtimes such as Codex CLI have a separate configuration because they manage their own execution.Keystore-backed secrets
Provider keys, MCP secrets, remote-access keys, and gateway access tokens are treated as secrets. They are stored by the gateway or by the client platform secret store, not as ordinary visible settings.Real tools
Agents can use shell sessions, file reads and edits, patch application, grep, web search and fetch, URL downloads, computer use, MCP tool proxying, and dynamic skill tools.Permissions and sandboxing
Each agent turn has a permission mode and resolved security policy. Pioneer can allow, ask, audit, or block tool actions; check filesystem roots and network policy; constrain process execution; and use native or provider sandbox backends where the selected execution path supports them.Voice input
Mobile and shared client contracts support gateway-owned voice sessions. The client streams microphone chunks, the gateway transcribes, and successful sessions become normal turns with ordinary timeline and permission behavior. Voice transcription can also run locally on the gateway. Choose a supported local transcription model when local processing or offline use matters; Pioneer downloads, verifies, loads, and reports the model’s preparation state without requiring a transcription API key. Temporary model or transcription failures have explicit error states and can be retried.MCP servers
Install and manage servers compatible with Model Context Protocol per gateway and current workspace, track their health and catalog, and expose their tools to agents through the gateway. New servers are explicit-only by default and can be attached to a turn from the composer.Skills
Pioneer supports skills compatible with the Agent Skills specification, including installation, validation, trust gates, dependency preflight, gateway and current workspace availability, upload flow, and health diagnostics. New skills are explicit-only by default and can be attached to a turn from the composer.Tasks
Run scheduled and on-demand tasks for repeatable work. Tasks can retry, report progress, depend on other tasks, create subagents, and keep reviewable results.Protocol-first architecture
Pioneer has a documented protocol for clients and integrations. Most users do not need it, but it gives advanced users and developers a stable place to build from.CLI agent runtime
The gateway can drive CLI-backed agent runtimes when they are installed and authenticated on the gateway host. This is useful for tools such as Codex CLI that have their own execution model.Explicit artifacts
Pioneer copies uploaded files to the gateway as artifacts before a turn. Register agent-created result files as artifacts when they should appear in the UI, remain downloadable, or stay linked to the thread.Cross-platform packaging
Gateway builds target macOS, Linux, and Windows. Desktop packaging targets DMG, AppImage, and MSI.Multi-language clients
Desktop and mobile UI locales are available for English, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, and Chinese.Further reading
- Architecture Overview explains the main backend systems.
- Gateway explains why work happens where the gateway runs.
- Client Architecture explains how desktop and mobile clients share gateway-facing logic.
- Tasks Architecture explains task runs, subagents, review, and scheduling.