The floor is waking up.
404Oak Desk · for project managers of AI agents
Claude and Codex are already writing code on your PC, your servers and in CI. Oak Desk is where every decision they shouldn't make alone comes to you: one card, coloured by urgency, with their recommendation ready. Answer in seconds from your desktop or your phone, and they get straight back to work.
404Oak Desk
The project manager's desk for AI agents. Every call Claude and Codex shouldn't make alone lands here as one card, with their recommendation ready to take in a tap.
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Oak Desk, the project manager's desk for AI agents.
404Oak Desk · for project managers of AI agents
One desk for every decision your AI agents shouldn't make alone. On your desktop and your phone.
02 · Away from the desk
Every card reaches the widget and the phone at once. Answer on whichever is closer, and the agent wakes up either way. On Android it's the Oak Desk app; on any other phone it's the same desk in the browser, paired with a code.
This is the same simulation as the desktop above. Tap a card to answer it yourself.
03 · Every kind of question
The agent picks the shape of answer it needs. A slider beats five guesses, and a tap on a screenshot says more than a paragraph. Screenshots and clips sit above the question and open full screen, and every card takes your own words. Try them.
If you don't answer, the agent waits for you.
04 · Under the hood
Agents run wherever the work is: a PC, a homelab VM, CI. They all talk to one small desk server on the homelab. The widget and the phone are the only places a person needs to look, and every answer is recorded on the server, so nothing depends on a chat window staying open.
05 · Live
The same simulation as the desktop: who is working, who is waiting on you, what is in CI, and why each step matters. An agent that goes quiet for 30 minutes shows as stalled.
| Agent | Where | Doing now | State |
|---|
desk inbox) and answer with desk say.06 · Deciding
Every round must say how urgent it is, and the desk refuses one that doesn't. A deadline with a fallback means silence is never dangerous, and one tap takes every recommendation on the card.
The agent has stopped. The widget's stack stays out until you answer, or the deadline's fallback kicks in.
Needed within a day or so. The agent can park the branch and pick up other scoped work.
Work carries on. Answer when you have a minute, for example in the morning digest.
Five ways to answer
Take the recommendation, or send your picks and notes.
The agent applies them.
None of the options? Write what you want instead.
It replaces the options; the agent does what you wrote.
Explain it plainly, show me, what happens with each, is there another option.
The card comes back with what you asked for.
Not now. Until tomorrow, or a date you pick.
The agent carries on; a deadline still applies.
Send back for better options, dismiss, or handled elsewhere.
Version 2, dropped, or what you agreed at the computer.
07 · Access
Agents never ask you to do their work: no "paste a token", no "log in and check". They ask for access, scoped to the job and for a set time, and you approve it with your fingerprint, PIN or security key. One tap stops everything.
08 · Days later
Some decisions can only be made next week, and some go stale before you get to them. The desk keeps track of both, so your stack only holds what still needs you.
A trial that runs a week comes back on its own, with the results and a recommendation.
desk post round.json --show-on 2wAn agent can resume itself on a date to read the numbers. Nothing shows on your desk until there is something to decide.
desk wake 2026-11-20 "read the trial"Explain it plainly, Show me, What happens with each?, Is there another option? The card comes back with what you asked for.
Asked before answering: Show meEvery hour the desk checks a round's issues and PRs. Once they are all merged or closed, the card says so and an agent tidies it up.
Looks settled: PR #48 was mergedA card nobody has touched for three days goes to a fresh agent, who rewrites it plainer or closes it with a reason.
desk resolve <id> --note "why"A half-answered card looks striped, filled as far as you got, and opens where you stopped.
The desk tracks how often you take the recommendation. Low-stakes rounds you always accept can be taken for you, and show in the digest.
desk prefs --project website"Later" rounds wait for the morning digest. Each agent ends its session with a one-line recap: what it did, what's blocked, what it decided.
desk recap "shipped #212 · …"09 · The playbook
Managing AI agents is mostly managing decisions, budgets and evidence. These are the rules this floor runs on.
Scope, acceptance criteria and decisions live on the forge, not in a chat. An agent that forgets can reread its brief.
Product calls, deletions and spending go to the desk with a recommendation and a reason.
If everything is blocking, nothing is. Blocking means the agent has truly stopped.
A deadline plus "what I'll do if you don't answer" lets you take a day off without the floor stalling.
Parallel agents stay in their own worktrees and branches, so two writers never touch the same files.
Plan usage shows on the desk, with a heads-up at 80% and 95%. Codex stops at its quota gate on its own.
Green CI and a reviewed diff allow a merge. Production needs its own approval for a named release.
Finished work is logged to the notes vault with links and screenshots, and the issue is closed with evidence.
10 · Get Oak Desk
Oak Desk is free and runs on your own hardware: your rounds, answers and grants stay on your server, backed up every night. It's in beta now, and the one-click installers are on their way.
docker compose up -ddesk command, the hook that resumes agents, and the protocol they follow.desk setupdesk pairDownloads and the installer open with the public beta.