The tester program
The tester program is a small group of people who use Admiral before its general release. It is invite-only. Testers get new builds first and tell the Admiral team what breaks.
Data sharing in the program is optional. Admiral also works on your device with no account and no network.
What testers get
- An Admiral account. The account turns on sync, phone pairing, and control from a different device.
- Tester builds. Your install reads the
betaupdate channel, so you get new builds before other installs. - Release notes. The Admiral team sends notes by mail for each tester build.
- A direct feedback path. The Send feedback command sends your report to the Admiral team.
- The iOS app. The team adds you to the TestFlight group for the iOS app.
Join the program
- Request an invite at admiral.standardmethod.us. Give your name, your team, and the machines you use.
- Wait for the Admiral team to approve the request. The team approves requests in small groups.
- Look for two mails. The invitation mail creates your account. The approval mail has your download link.
- Open the invitation mail and create your account. The invitation link works for 14 days.
An invite is necessary to create an account. The sign-up page refuses an address that has no invite. If Create account in the app shows a sign-in page, use the link in the invitation mail.
Install Admiral
- Open the download link in the approval mail. The link downloads the Admiral disk image.
- Open the disk image and move Admiral to the Applications folder.
- Open Admiral. The first screen is Set up an Admiral account. Select Sign in.
- Finish the sign-in in the browser.
- Admiral offers to move your local work to the synced profile. Select Bring my work, Start fresh, or Later.
- A new account has no workspace. Admiral asks you to create one.
- The Tester program dialog opens. Choose what to share. The next section tells you what each choice sends.
Know these limits before you install:
- The Mac build is for Apple silicon only.
- An earlier Admiral build on your Mac used a different signature. macOS asks for its privacy permissions again one time.
- The download link is for you only. It stops working when you leave the program.
The iOS app
- Accept the TestFlight invitation that the Admiral team sends to your mail address.
- Install Admiral from TestFlight.
- Pair the phone with the QR code in the desktop app. See Connect another device.
TestFlight collects iOS crash reports and screenshot feedback. The iOS app adds no other data capture.
Updates
Admiral sets the beta channel when your tester status changes. Updates install as before: the app checks the feed, or you run admiral update.
Before Admiral replaces the app, it examines the code signature of the update. If the signature is not valid, Admiral keeps the installed app and shows UPD-002.
When you leave the program, Admiral reads the stable channel again. It never installs an older version. The next newer stable release updates your install.
What you can share
The Tester program dialog opens one time, after your first sign-in as a tester. It has two switches. Both switches start off.
| Switch | What Admiral sends |
|---|---|
| Usage data | The agents and models you use, the number and length of sessions, error codes, and the functions you use. |
| Crash reports | The program version, the fault location, and the stack trace. Admiral sends the report at the next start. |
Your choices have these results:
- Save records your choice. Save with both boxes empty records a refusal.
- Not now records nothing. The dialog does not open again by itself. The same switches stay in Settings > Account.
- View what is sent shows the data before it leaves your device.
If Admiral adds a new kind of data, both switches go off on your device. They stay off until you agree again.
Usage data in detail
Each usage event is a closed record. Every field is a number, a yes or no value, or a value from a fixed list. No event has a text field. The Admiral server refuses an event that has a different field.
| Event | What it records |
|---|---|
| App started | The mode (window or headless), the profile (local or synced), and the install type. |
| App stopped | How long the app ran, and if it stopped cleanly. |
| Session created | The agent, and the source of the session: you, an automation, an agent, or an import. |
| Run finished | The agent, the model name, the result, the run length, the error code, and two yes or no values. |
| Error shown | The error code, the part of the app that showed it, and a count. |
| Function used | A function name from a fixed list, a tool name from a fixed list, and a count. |
| Update applied | The old version, the new version, and the result. |
A model name that looks like a path becomes other. The two yes or no values of a run are "you steered the run" and "the run used a worktree."
Each batch of events also carries the app version and the update channel. It also names the operating system, its version, and the processor type. It also carries an install ID. The install ID is a random value that Admiral makes when you first agree. It is not the device ID that sync uses. The server adds your account ID from your sign-in.
Crash reports in detail
A crash report covers a fault that Admiral can catch, called a panic. It holds the version, the app mode, the operating system, and the processor type. It also holds the fault message, the source location, and the stack trace.
Admiral writes the report on your device when the fault occurs. It sends the report at the next start and then deletes the file. Your device keeps at most 10 reports, for at most 7 days.
A fault that Admiral cannot catch, such as a graphics driver fault, makes no report. Usage data shows it as a stop that was not clean.
What Admiral removes before a send
Admiral cleans each log and crash report on your device before it leaves:
- Private keys, access tokens, API keys, and passwords become
<secret>. - Email addresses become
<email>. - File and folder paths become
<path>. A path in the Admiral data folder becomes<data>/and the rest. - Web addresses lose their user name and their query text.
A source location in the Admiral code, such as crates/engine/src/sessions.rs:2551, stays. The Admiral team needs it to find the fault.
What Admiral never collects
Admiral does not collect your prompts, the agent output, your files, file paths, tokens, or secrets. This table shows each kind of data and how the design prevents its capture.
| Never collected | How the design prevents it |
|---|---|
| Prompt text, agent output, transcripts | No event has a text field. The server refuses unknown fields. |
| File contents, diffs | No event has a text field. The server refuses unknown fields. |
| File and folder paths, project names, repository URLs, branch names | No event field holds them. Logs and crash reports lose their paths before the send. |
| Tokens, API keys, secrets | Logs and crash reports lose them before the send. You can see the feedback logs before you send them. |
| Terminal input and output, browser page content, page URLs | The function event holds only a tool name and a count. |
| Session titles, device names, host names | No event field holds them. |
| IP addresses | The server does not store your network address with tester data. |
| The sync device id | Events use the random install ID. |
The data goes to Standard Method servers only. No outside analytics service receives it.
Send feedback
Open Send feedback from one of these places:
- The Help menu.
- The command palette.
- Settings > Account.
The feedback form has these parts:
| Part | Rule |
|---|---|
| Category | Fault, Idea, or Question. |
| Text | 1 to 4,000 characters. Admiral sends it as you wrote it. |
| Screenshot | Optional and off by default. It shows the Admiral window only. You can remove it before the send. |
| Logs | Optional and off by default. The last 2,000 lines of the current log, cleaned before the send. View what is sent shows the exact text. |
Admiral adds the app version, the update channel, the operating system and its version, and the processor type. It also adds the Mac model, the install ID, and the last five error codes that the app showed. The Admiral team sees your account email with the feedback.
Feedback does not need the usage data switch. You send each report by hand.
If you are not signed in, the command opens a mail to admiral@standardmethod.us. The subject holds the Admiral version.
In the iOS app, send feedback through TestFlight.
Turn data sharing off
Open Settings > Account. The Tester program block has the controls. Each change takes effect at once.
- Usage data off. Admiral stops usage data and deletes the events that wait on your device.
- Crash reports off. Admiral stops crash reports and deletes the crash files on your device.
- Delete my data. Admiral asks the server to delete your events, crash reports, feedback, and attachments.
- Sign out. Admiral stops all data sharing and deletes the events that wait on your device.
A device that is not signed in sends no tester data. A signed-in person who is not a tester also sends no tester data.
How long the data stays
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Usage events | 90 days |
| Crash reports | 180 days |
| Feedback text | 365 days |
| Feedback screenshots and logs | 90 days |
| Your consent choices | While you are a tester, then 365 days |
| Counters that limit how often the app sends | 2 days |
Delete my data removes your data at once. It does not wait for these limits.
Leave the program
Write to admiral@standardmethod.us to leave. When the Admiral team removes a tester, these things occur:
- The account loses access at the next sign-in refresh, in about five minutes. Admiral shows
AUTH-010. - Paired phones lose access.
- The download link stops working.
- The server keeps the stored data until the limits above. The team can delete it at once on request.
Your local sessions stay on your machines. Sign out to keep working in the local profile.
Error codes
| Code | Title | What to do |
|---|---|---|
AUTH-009 | Account not invited | Request an invite at admiral.standardmethod.us. Then sign in again. |
AUTH-010 | Access removed | This account is not in the tester program. Contact the Admiral team. |
UPD-002 | Update signature not valid | Do not install this update. Download Admiral again from the invite link. |
PROG-001 | Feedback not sent | Examine the network connection. Then select Send again. |
PROG-002 | Program setting not saved | Examine the network connection. Then change the setting again. |
Next steps
- Where your data lives: local-first storage and sync.
- Settings pages: the Account page and the other pages.
- Connect another device: sync and phone pairing.