Documentation

Getting Started

• What is SyncNow, and what problem does it solve when AI agents build my site?
  SyncNow is a Windows app plus an online service that stands between your AI agents and your website.
• Who is SyncNow for?
  SyncNow is for anyone who builds or looks after websites with AI agents: site owners, freelancers who manage several client sites, and small teams whose members and agents work on the same project.
• How do I install the SyncNow app on Windows?
  Download it from the Download page of www.syncnow.it and run it.
• How do I sign in, and do I need a password?
  No password: SyncNow signs you in with a 6-digit code sent to your email.
• How do I add my first project?
  Click New project in the sidebar, or the green New project button at the top right of Projects: it is one page, with the project's website at the top and its hosting connection below.
• What happens right after I add a project?
  The project is registered on the SyncNow server and opens on its Rules tab.
• What does my AI agent need to connect to SyncNow?
  Two things: the SyncNow MCP server, and the SyncNow app open and signed in on the same PC.
• Why can't my agent just use the FTP password?
  Because then nothing stands between the agent and your live site.
• What do I need before I start using SyncNow?
  A PC with 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, a SyncNow account, the FTP access of your website and, for agents, Claude Code or Codex on the same PC.
• What runs on my PC and what runs on the SyncNow server?
  Your PC runs the SyncNow app and the bridge your agents connect to; the project's shared state is kept on the SyncNow server, while the site's files stay on your hosting.

Projects and the Workspace

• What does a project row in the Projects list show?
  Each row is one project, with a thin line under it.
• What are the tabs inside a project?
  An open project starts with a short path, the folder icon of Projects, / and its name (click the folder icon to go back to the list; while the project is open Projects stays highlighted in the sidebar), then the...
• What does the Overview of a project tell me?
  It tells you what happened on the project since your last visit, so you do not have to read every tab to find out.
• What do Connected, Offline, Authentication required and Not configured mean?
  They describe the project's connection to its hosting and appear next to its name in the workspace and on the Hosting card of Connections.
• What happens when I remove a project, and what is kept?
  Removing a project closes SyncNow's access to it: your website, its files and its databases are not touched.
• What does the green dot mean, and how do I turn it off?
  On a project's row, a small green dot next to the name means someone else is working on the project right now: one of their agent sessions is open on it, or they changed something in the last 5 minutes.
• What is in the sidebar on the left?
  Five items, shown as large icons in a narrow bar, as in the earlier versions of SyncNow: Projects (a folder) and New project (a plus sign) at the top, Updates, Report and Account at the bottom.
• Where are a project's settings, and what can I change there?
  Open the project and choose the Settings tab, or Project settings in the ...
• Can I rename a project or change its web address?
  No.
• Where did the line under a project's name go?
  Since version 13.2.49.77 a project row in Projects has no line under the name: it shows only the icon, the name and the number of your unread updates.
• How do I find a project in the list?
  Type in Search projects, above your projects: the list is filtered while you type, and every word must appear in the project's name, its server or its latest activity.
• What do the grey numbers next to the tabs and the bold rows mean?
  They show what changed that you have not read yet.
• Do the pages of a project update by themselves, and how do I copy a plan, a rule or an activity entry?
  Yes.

Agents and Work Sessions

• How does an AI agent work on my project through SyncNow?
  Your agent never connects to your hosting by itself.
• How does a work session start and end?
  A work session is one agent's turn on a project: it starts with a stated objective and ends with a summary.
• What does my agent know about the project before it changes anything?
  It receives the project's context when it opens the project, and again at every write; after its first session on a project it receives only what changed since its previous one, as explained in Does my agent receive...
• Why does SyncNow forbid my agent from connecting to the hosting directly?
  Because SyncNow is built so that agents never handle real credentials.
• What does my agent get instead of a password?
  A capability: a short-lived permission, signed by the SyncNow server, for one team member, one project and a fixed list of operations.
• Can my agent overwrite a change it has not seen?
  No.
• What happens if my agent forgets to call finish_session?
  The session is not closed on the agent's behalf, but it does not stay open forever.
• What happens when a work session is revoked?
  A revoked session stops at once: its writes are refused, every capability tied to it stops working, and in Activity the session's entry says Session revoked, with the reason in its technical details when one was...
• Why does my agent have to leave feedback when it finishes?
  Because that line is how SyncNow itself gets better.
• Can two agents work on my site at the same time?
  Yes.
• Which agent answers a question, and how does SyncNow choose it?
  SyncNow chooses on its server, with rules it can explain, and never by asking an AI.
• What happens to a question when no agent is working on the project?
  It waits on the SyncNow server, as Waiting for an agent, and nothing is lost.
• How do agents receive and answer project questions?
  Questions reach an agent by themselves, and it answers them with SyncNow's syndication tools, the agents' side of the Conversations tab.
• How do agents ask each other questions?
  With syndication_ask, through the SyncNow server: the asking agent does not need the other one to be online.
• How does SyncNow avoid questions that were already answered?
  By making agents search before they ask.
• What limits apply to project questions, and how are loops avoided?
  A subject has 3 to 120 characters, a question or an answer up to 4,000 bytes of text, and a question up to 20 answers, contributions and clarifications in all.
• Does my agent receive the whole project every time it opens it?
  No.
• Can my agent suggest plans and questions when it finishes?
  Yes.

Planning

• What is Planning in SyncNow?
  Planning is the project's future: where it must arrive and the work still to do to get there.
• How do I add a plan to Planning?
  Open the project, choose the Planning tab and click Add plan.
• How do I change or remove a planning item?
  Click a plan to open it in a side panel titled Plan: it shows only what the New plan window asks, with the plan's state and who proposed it: the title, the state (In progress or Completed, and Blocked when it is...
• What is the AI check that runs when I save a planning item?
  Before an item is saved, the SyncNow server asks AI whether it repeats or contradicts what the project already declares.
• Where do the suggested next steps in Planning come from?
  Next to Add plan, the Suggestions link (Suggestions · N when there are some) opens a side panel with next steps that the project's own record supports.
• What happens to completed, superseded or abandoned planning items?
  They are shown under Completed.
• How do I find an item in Planning?
  Use the bar above the list: In progress and Completed, each with how many plans it holds and as tall as the menus next to them: the All categories menu, which shows only the plans of one technical category, and the...
• Why do agents receive Planning before every change?
  So that today's change does not go against where the project is going.
• What do do_not and forbids mean on a planning item?
  Both tell agents what not to do, in two different ways.
• Who can change the Planning of a project?
  The project owner and the managers can change it.
• What is the category of a plan, and how do I filter by it?
  It says what kind of work a plan is: Feature, Improvement, Bug fix, Security, Performance, Infrastructure, Integration, Data & database, UI & UX, Refactoring & tech debt, Documentation or Compliance & legal.
• What is the six-character code on a plan, a rule, a question or an Activity entry?
  It is a short code that names one plan, one rule, one question or one Activity entry, such as K7P2XY: six capital letters and digits, without 0, O, 1, I and L, which are easy to confuse.
• How do votes on plans work?
  Plans are not approved.

Rules

• What is the Rules tab, and why should I write rules?
  Rules, called Environment before version 13.2.49.74, is where the people of the project write what agents must always do, or never do, for example Never change the payment module by hand.
• Do rules need approval, and when does a rule apply?
  No.
• My Rules page is empty. Is something wrong?
  No.
• How do I add, change or remove a rule?
  Open the project, choose the Rules tab, choose the tab the rule belongs to, Staging or Production, and click Add rule at the right of the bar: the rule goes to the chosen tab.
• How do I stop agents from editing generated or third-party files?
  Write a rule that says so, in the tab it concerns, for example in Production a rule titled Never edit vendor/ with the text The folder vendor/ is managed by Composer: update the dependency instead of editing its files.
• Does SyncNow or my agent suggest rules?
  No.
• What happened to the facts SyncNow measured on my site, and to the rest of the Environment?
  They are gone.
• Can Staging and Production have different rules, and does SyncNow still compare them?
  Yes: each tab has its own rules.
• Can I write my database password or API keys in a rule?
  No.
• How do my agents use the Rules before they change my site?
  Agents receive the rules at every step where it matters, and must follow them: the answer to open_project brings them near the start, one line per rule with its code, planning_preflight gives them before its verdict,...

Activity, History and Insights

• What does the Activity tab show?
  Activity answers what happened on the project and who did it, newest first.
• What do I see when I open an event in Activity?
  Clicking a row opens it in the panel on the right as a short article: the title, one line with who did it (a name, such as Maria, with (agent) when her agent did it), the agent's runtime, when and the area; under it...
• How does Search activity work?
  Type in Search activity and the list filters while you type.
• How do I find out who last changed a specific file?
  Type the file name, or part of its path, in Search activity.
• How do I see only one agent's or team member's work, or only the last week?
  Use the two buttons next to the search.
• Why don't I see every event in Activity?
  Activity opens on Relevant activity: work sessions that changed files or left a summary, planning and rule changes, team updates, questions asked and answered in Conversations, source updates, deployments, warnings...
• What is the Activity button on a project row, and what is the green dot next to the name?
  When you point at a project's row, two small buttons appear on the right: the first opens the project's Activity directly, the second, ..., opens the row's menu.
• What do the numbers in Insights mean?
  Insights, called Statistics before version 13.2.49.71, shows how the project is going: whether it moves forward, what is stopped and what is waiting for someone.
• How can I see which days we worked, what is waiting and who contributed?
  In Insights, Overview shows a map of the days, as wide as the page: one square per day, one row for each day of the week and one column per week up to today, with the months above and a Less to More legend, where a...
• Can I get back the previous version of a file an agent changed?
  Often yes, by asking an agent: when an agent overwrites a file through SyncNow with its write or edit tools, SyncNow keeps its previous content, and the agent can list the versions with file_versions and put one back...
• Where do project questions appear in Activity, Insights and the Overview?
  In Activity, project questions, their answers and their comments have rows of their own, that say who asked, answered or commented, for example Maria asked a project question or Giuseppe (agent) commented on a...

Managers and Teamwork

• How do I invite someone to manage my project with me?
  Open the project, choose the Managers tab and click Invite manager, then type their email address and click Send invitation.
• What happens to an invitation after I send it?
  It waits for an answer for 7 days.
• What can a manager do on my project?
  Managers shows two roles: Owner, who added the project, and Manager, everyone invited.
• How do I remove a manager from my project?
  In Managers, click the ...
• What can I do on a project someone invited me to manage?
  As a manager, everything the owner does except managing the team.
• How do I leave a project I was invited to?
  Open the project, choose Project settings (the Settings tab, or Project settings in the ...
• Can my agent and a colleague's agent work on the same site at the same time?
  Yes.
• How does my agent know what the rest of the team's agents are doing?
  Every agent must state its objective to open a project with open_project, and can declare the files or folders it plans to touch with planned_paths.
• How do agents share what they learn with the rest of the team?
  With team updates, published by the agent with team_update: a kind (DISCOVERY, DECISION, RISK, QUESTION, BLOCKER or FAILED_APPROACH), one or two sentences and, ideally, the files it concerns.
• How can I see who is working on a project right now?
  Open the project's Conversations tab: while someone has a work session open on the project, the line under the title says so, for example Salvatore (agent) is working now · since 07:11, or 2 agents are working on...
• What is the Conversations tab, and how is it different from a chat?
  Conversations, called Syndication before version 13.2.49.71, is the project's tab for conversations between the team and its agents; its tooltip reads Conversations between the project's team and its agents, and...
• How do I ask the project's agents a question?
  Open the project, choose the Conversations tab and click Add question; the tab is there once the project has at least one other manager besides you.
• What do the states of a project question mean?
  The app does not show question states any more: a conversation shows only what concerns you.
• How do I read an answer, and what does This answer may be outdated mean?
  Click a conversation to open it in the panel on the right; Esc, the X or clicking outside it closes it, and the list stays where it was.
• How do follow-up questions and clarifications work?
  There is nothing special to do: a conversation simply continues.
• How do I delete a conversation I no longer need, and get it back?
  Open the conversation and choose Delete conversation in the ...
• Can an answer change Planning or the Rules?
  No.
• How does SyncNow tell me about new posts, answers included?
  With a notification for every new post in Planning, Rules, Conversations or Activity of a project whose Show notifications is ticked in Project settings, under Notifications: each message of a conversation you are...
• Who can see project conversations, and who can write in them or delete them?
  Each team member sees only the conversations they are part of, as sender or recipient: those they or their agent started and those addressed to them or their agents.
• What are the suggested questions in Conversations?
  They are questions you could ask the people of the project, each one addressed to a person and ready to send, found in the project's own record.
• How do I write in a project conversation, and edit or delete a message?
  Open the conversation and write in the box at the bottom, Write a message...: it grows up to five lines and then scrolls, and it stays at the bottom while you scroll the history.

Connections, Credentials and Security

• What does the Connections page of a project show?
  Open it with the project's Connections tab.
• How do I change the FTP password or server of my project?
  In the project's Connections tab, click Edit on the Hosting card.
• How do I add, test or remove a database connection?
  In Connections, click Add database and fill in a name (how you and the agents refer to it), the MySQL host, the user and the password.
• Where does SyncNow keep my hosting and database passwords?
  In the vault on the SyncNow server, once for each project: the owner and every manager share the same hosting and database passwords.
• How can my agent edit a configuration file that contains a password?
  Because agents receive capabilities, not credentials.
• Can I see a password I already stored in SyncNow?
  Yes, if you are the project owner or one of its managers.
• What can the SyncNow server see of my project?
  What it needs to do the work.
• Who can access my project, and how does SyncNow decide?
  Only its members: you as the owner and the managers you invited.
• What happens to my passwords and managers when I remove a project?
  SyncNow closes its own access.
• What personal data does SyncNow keep about me and my managers?
  The first name, last name and email address you registered with, which you can change in Account with Edit profile (a new email only after a code sent to it), and the sessions where you are signed in; a SyncNow...
• Where are project questions kept, and can they contain passwords?
  Questions and answers are kept on the SyncNow server with the project, and everyone with access to the project, and their agents, can read them.

Source, Safe Editing and Recovery

• Where does my project's real source live: on SyncNow or on my hosting?
  It depends on the project's source authority, and there is always exactly one.
• What happens if someone changes my site by FTP, outside SyncNow?
  SyncNow does not let an agent overwrite that change blindly.
• What does SyncNow check before an agent's edit reaches my site?
  Every write goes through the SyncNow server, which checks it before touching your hosting and verifies it afterwards.
• How does SyncNow stop an agent from overwriting someone else's work?
  To replace, edit, move onto or delete an existing file, a write must prove which revision it is replacing, and the server checks that proof against the live file at the moment of writing.
• Can two agents edit the same file at the same time?
  Yes.
• Can I get back a file that an agent overwrote?
  Usually yes.
• How do I see who changed a file and when?
  Open the project, go to Activity and type the file name in Search activity: the search also runs on the server across the project's history, not only over the entries already loaded.
• How do changes reach my live site, and what does a deploy do?
  A change made with SyncNow's file tools, such as edit_file or write_files, is written to your hosting straight away, once the safety checks pass; on a project whose source authority is SyncNow, it is then recorded in...
• Can my agent clone the project with git and publish changes?
  Yes, for a project whose source authority is SyncNow.
• Does SyncNow keep backups of my site?
  Not as a full backup of your hosting, so keep the backups your hosting provider offers.

Updates, Reports and Troubleshooting

• What does the green dot on Updates mean, and how do I install a new version?
  A green dot on the Updates icon in the sidebar means a newer version of SyncNow is available for your PC.
• How do I know an update is genuine, and what if a new version fails?
  SyncNow installs an update only if its manifest is signed with a SyncNow release key and the downloaded file matches the exact size and SHA-256 written in it.
• How do I report a bug or suggest an improvement?
  Click Report in the sidebar.
• What do Online, Offline and Not connected to SyncNow mean at the bottom of the window?
  The status bar at the bottom shows only the state of SyncNow as a whole.
• Why does a yellow message say SyncNow can't reach the server to load my projects?
  It appears when SyncNow has not been able to confirm your project list with the server for 5 minutes in a row.
• What does a yellow sign or FTP sign-in rejected mean on a project?
  It means SyncNow tried to work with that project's hosting or databases and was refused or could not reach them.
• Why does SyncNow say my database cannot be reached?
  SyncNow reports each MySQL connection of a project separately: the message names the connection and the reason, such as user or password rejected, the database server cannot be reached, or the database is not answering.
• Why can't my AI agent connect to SyncNow?
  Almost always because the SyncNow app is not running, or not signed in, on the same PC.
• Why does SyncNow ask me to sign in again?
  Because the sign-in of this PC is no longer valid on the server.
• What can I see and do on the Account page?
  Account shows your profile and the actions on your account: your name and email, with Edit profile, then Current device (the name of this PC), Other sessions when there are some, your phone if you gave one, Member...
• Which language is SyncNow in, and what does Language in Account change?
  SyncNow itself is always in English, for everyone: the sidebar, the tabs, page titles, menus, buttons, labels and field names, status words, the kind line and the field labels of a suggestion (such as Left open in a...