Runtimes

A runtime is a coding agent you have installed. The Alpha works with four: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Pi. Aqorin finds them and probes what they can do. It never signs in for you, never reads a credential file and never changes a runtime’s configuration.

The Runtimes screen (6)

Each runtime is listed with its version, its status, and the connection and model it runs through. Your connections appear beneath it.

The inspector says:

• what Aqorin can do with the runtime: run steps that edit files, and whether it enforces the restriction of read-only and review steps here (if not, why not — such steps still run on it, with the restriction advisory);
• where it is installed;
• how it signs in;
• its model catalog.

Details shows the whole inspection: every capability, and where that knowledge comes from — verified on this machine, compatible, or unknown.

Several installations

Sometimes a runtime is installed more than once — for example, two Codex installations, one from npm and one under another Node version. Aqorin does not guess between them. The runtime shows as needing a choice, and Choose installation (on Home or Runtimes) lists each one by version and path.

Aqorin records your choice in its own configuration only. Your PATH, your links and the runtime’s configuration stay as they are. From then on, Aqorin uses exactly that installation.

If the chosen installation disappears, or the file at that path changes, Aqorin asks you again rather than pick another. An update usually replaces the file; an update that leaves it byte-identical is not noticed. On a working choice, Change installation changes it.

aqorin runtimes                                 # the inventory
aqorin runtimes inspect codex --models          # one runtime, with its models
aqorin runtimes select codex /path/to/codex     # choose the installation

The default runtime

The project’s default runtime is where a workflow step runs when nothing else says where. You choose it on Home’s checklist or in Settings (9); aqorin use <runtime> does the same. Where a step runs explains the order in which Aqorin decides.

Validate

Validate (v) checks that Aqorin can run the runtime on this machine, with one real model call. It is the same check as aqorin doctor --live. Before the call, it says:

• what the call goes through;
• that nothing of the runtime’s own configuration changes;
• that your provider may bill the call.

Cancel calls nothing. On a Pi connection, Validate checks Pi through that connection. On a runtime that has connections, Validate first asks which way: its own configuration, or one of the connections — its own default may be the one route whose key does not work.

Updating a runtime within a major version Aqorin has already run needs nothing: Aqorin reads the new version’s options locally, with no model call. A new major (Pi 0.x → 1.x, say) is flagged as new to Aqorin, on the plan, on Runtimes and on Home, but it is not something left to do: it runs, its first step checks what only a real run shows (the protocol, the events, the end of the turn), and once a step completes on it, it is recorded as verified. If it breaks what Aqorin needs, that first step fails and names what is missing, and the failure is recorded. Validate checks it now instead. If that check ends in the provider’s error, nothing is recorded: validate it through a connection whose key works — or, if it went through one, check that connection’s key and default model. A version whose help cannot be read at all is still refused until it is validated.

How each runtime runs under Aqorin

Runtime	In a workflow step
Claude Code	Headless, under an isolated profile: none of your settings, plugins or MCP servers. The skills and MCP servers you give an agent in Aqorin are added.
Codex	In Aqorin’s own Codex home, signed in with your login or an API key by reference.
OpenCode	Isolated, without your plugins. Provider keys come by reference (Credentials).
Pi	Isolated, without your extensions. A provider you reach through an extension needs a connection.

A Free chat can instead run with your own configuration, if you choose that when you create it.