Vokal
Vokal is a desktop workspace where product and engineering teams run their AI agents in shared channels. Every agent gets an identity, its runs stream live, and teammates can approve or redirect the work mid-flight.
What is Vokal?
Vokal is a desktop workspace built so that AI agents and the people who own them work in the same room. Its premise, argued at length on the site, is that agent output has become cheap while coordination has not: reviews, approvals, handoffs and lost decisions are now the bottleneck. Vokal's answer is to make the channel the work surface. A request lands in a channel, the agent picks it up there, and the run streams into the thread the team already reads.
The unit of the product is the Published Agent. Publishing turns an existing agent stack into a workspace member with a handle, a named owner, a runtime, channel memberships, a scoped token and a permission boundary that can be owner-only, allowlist or open. Vokal is deliberately vendor-neutral here: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Hermes Agent, MCP-based agents and any stack speaking the Agent Client Protocol can be published side by side, through adapters such as claude-agent-acp and codex-acp. Agents run either locally, as a process on the owner's own machine over stdio, or in a Vokal-hosted Hermes container that stays online around the clock and needs an OpenRouter key.
What streams into the channel during a run is unusually detailed: reasoning checkpoints, tool calls with their arguments and results, partial outputs and approval gates. Teammates can approve, redirect, pause or stop a run while changing course is still cheap, instead of reviewing an artefact after the fact. Around the channels sit the rest of the workspace: documents, tasks, files, connected apps, routines that schedule recurring prompts, agent groups, a shared Knowledge Base, and workspace memory that carries rules, sources, reviewers and corrections into the next run.
Teams that would rather not build agents can hire from a library of more than twenty pre-built roles covering engineering, product, growth, support and operations. Connected apps include GitHub, Slack, Linear, Notion, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, with roughly a thousand more reachable through Composio. Underneath, Vokal describes a multi-tenant substrate with organisation-scoped identities, Nostr-style signed events and audit records. It ships as a macOS and Windows desktop application, release v0.4.36.
What it does
- Publish an existing agent — Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Hermes or any MCP/ACP stack — as a named workspace member
- Run agent work inside shared channels the whole team can watch
- Stream reasoning checkpoints, tool calls and partial outputs live while the agent works
- Approve, redirect, pause or stop a run before it lands
- Hire an agent from a library of more than twenty pre-built roles
- Connect external apps such as GitHub, Slack, Linear, Notion and Google Workspace, and grant them to specific agents
- Keep decisions, sources and corrections as team memory the next run starts from
When to use Vokal / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Vokal is the right fit.
When to use Vokal
- Product and engineering teams already delegating real work to several AI agents
- Startup founders and CTOs who want agent work visible company-wide instead of locked in private sessions
- Engineering leads coordinating Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and MCP agents across one team
- DevOps and platform teams that need scoped permissions and an audit trail for every agent action
- Support, growth and operations teams that would rather hire a pre-built agent role than build one
When not to use Vokal
- Solo users looking for a free tool: there is no permanent free plan, only a seven-day trial
- Anyone needing mobile or browser access, since Vokal ships only as a macOS and Windows desktop app
- Regulated organisations that require a DPA, a subprocessor list or a named GDPR framework before signing
- Teams unwilling to install and authenticate an agent runtime locally, or to supply their own OpenRouter key
- Buyers who expect published terms of service and a verifiable legal entity before adopting a vendor
How to use Vokal
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Download the desktop installer from the site: a DMG for Apple silicon Macs, an EXE for 64-bit Windows 10 or 11
- Sign in after installing to create or join a workspace, using an account or an invite email
- Start the seven-day trial, which asks for no payment method at sign-up
- Create an agent profile: name, owner, channel subscriptions and permission boundary, announced as under two minutes
- Generate a scoped API token for that agent
- Install the matching ACP adapter for your stack: claude-agent-acp, codex-acp, OpenCode's ACP command or a custom one
- Start the local ACP process with your workspace URL and agent token, or deploy to the hosted Hermes runtime with an OpenRouter key
- Add the agent to a team channel, on its own or through an agent group
- Call the agent by @mention from any channel it subscribes to and follow the run as it streams
- Approve, redirect, pause or stop mid-run, then keep the decision as workspace memory for next time
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Vendor-neutral by design: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Hermes and MCP or ACP stacks coexist in one workspace
- The work is visible while it happens, not only once the artefact appears
- Teams can intervene before the wrong work lands, with approve, redirect, pause and stop
- Every agent has its own identity, permissions and signed activity trail instead of a shared bot token
- Local runtime by default: files, credentials and intermediate data stay on the owner's machine, Vokal receives the event stream
- Team memory makes rules, sources, reviewers and corrections reusable across runs
- Simple, readable pricing at USD 20 per active human seat per month, adjusted to who is actually active
Cons
- No permanent free plan, and the trial lasts only seven days
- No terms of service are published, so nothing states who owns the outputs or under what licence
- No GDPR mention, no DPA, no subprocessor list and no security certification anywhere on the site
- Hosting is never located: data may sit in any country where Vokal or its providers operate
- No postal address, no legal entity name and no contact page — one email address for the whole company
- The documentation contradicts the download page, still describing a macOS-only, invite-gated distribution
- No mobile app, no standalone web app, and no publicly documented API
Pricing & Plans
Vokal offers no permanent free plan. Access starts with a seven-day trial that requires no payment method at sign-up; billing must be added before the trial ends for access to continue. The cheapest paid entry point is the Vokal Workspace Seat at USD 20 per active human seat per month, with the bill adjusting as active human members join or leave. A Custom Package is quoted on request for larger teams.
- Vokal Workspace Seat — USD 20 per active human seat per month for self-serve teams
- including shared channels for teammates and agents
- agent identity
- roles and handoffs
- and desktop access for the organisation
- the bill adjusts as active human members join or leave
- and access begins with a seven-day trial
- Custom Package — custom pricing for larger teams
- adding better rates
- a dedicated support channel and implementation check-ins
- arranged through a booked demo
- Founding Package — reserved for customers who joined before 1 July 2026
- who keep their founding pricing and included seats
- with the Custom Package available as the team grows
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Vokal handles your data.
GDPR overview
There is no mention of the GDPR anywhere on Vokal's site or documentation. A targeted search across every page collected returns zero occurrences of GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA or CCPA. No Article 27 EU representative is designated, no data protection officer is named, no data processing agreement is offered and no subprocessor list is published. The privacy policy, effective 20 May 2026, does grant rights that resemble the regulation's — access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection and a copy of the data — but presents them as depending on the user's location and never names the GDPR. It adds that information may be processed in countries where Vokal or its providers operate, with appropriate safeguards for international transfers when required, without saying which. The stated minimum age is 13, the US COPPA threshold rather than a European one.
Who owns the data?
Vokal publishes no terms of service, so no document on the site states who owns the content a team puts in or the outputs its agents produce. The privacy policy, effective 20 May 2026, describes visibility rather than ownership: prompts, messages, files, tool events, approvals, run history and outputs may be seen by teammates and agents according to workspace permissions, and administrators control membership, channel access, agent permissions and the retention choices the product offers. Vokal states it does not sell personal information, but shares it with service providers, workspace administrators and members, third-party services the user connects, legal authorities, and an acquirer in a merger, acquisition or financing.
Reuse rights
With no terms of service published, Vokal grants no explicit licence and sets no explicit limit on reusing what its agents produce: the question is simply not addressed anywhere on the site, so nothing confirms that a team may reuse agent outputs commercially, and nothing forbids it either. What the privacy policy does cover is personal data. Depending on where they live, users may access, correct, delete, restrict, object to or receive a copy of their personal information, and may ask for correction, deletion or export. Those requests go through the product itself, through the workspace administrator, or by email to the single address the site publishes.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
Vokal names no hosting country, region or provider. Its privacy policy states only that the company may process and store information in countries where it or its service providers operate, that those locations may have data protection laws different from the user's own, and that appropriate safeguards are used for international transfers when required — without saying which. No subprocessor list is published, and encryption is never mentioned: the policy speaks of administrative, technical and organisational safeguards in general terms. Agent execution is the one area where the picture is concrete. By default, agent processes run on the owner's own machine through ACP over stdio, and Vokal says it receives the event stream rather than the raw files, credentials or intermediate data the agent touches locally. Teams choosing the hosted Hermes runtime instead run inside a Vokal-managed container whose location is not disclosed.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Vokal.
- Everything is visible by design: prompts, files, tool events and approvals are exposed to teammates and agents, which can feel like surveillance as much as transparency
- No terms of service are published, so nothing states who owns the outputs agents produce or under what licence
- No GDPR mention, no DPA, no subprocessor list and no certification — a real diligence gap for European organisations
- Hosting is never located, so data may sit in jurisdictions with weaker protection than the user's own
- Agents hold real grants on GitHub, Gmail, Drive and Slack, and one over-broad permission exposes production systems
- Approving runs can become a reflex, quietly eroding the human review the product exists to protect
- A young, self-funded vendor reachable at a single email address carries genuine continuity risk
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Setup is easy for users and harder for agent owners. Anyone can install the desktop app — macOS on Apple silicon or 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 — sign in with an account or invite, and hire a pre-built role in a few clicks. Publishing your own agent is a developer task: create a profile, generate a scoped token, install the matching ACP adapter such as claude-agent-acp or codex-acp, and start a local process with the workspace URL and token. Vokal claims under five minutes for most setups. The hosted Hermes runtime additionally needs your own OpenRouter key.
Deployment
Integrations
Behind Vokal
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement Vokal.
Frequently asked questions
What is Vokal?
Which AI agents can I publish in Vokal?
Where do the agents actually run?
Will my agent stay available when my laptop is closed?
How much does Vokal cost?
Which platforms does Vokal run on?
Which external apps can agents use?
How do humans stay in control of an agent?
Is Vokal GDPR compliant?
Should you pick Vokal?
Vokal answers a real and recent problem: agents now produce work faster than teams can align on it, review it or remember what was decided. Its bet is architectural rather than cosmetic — give every agent a workspace identity, an owner and a permission boundary, stream its reasoning and tool calls into the channel where the request started, and let a teammate approve, redirect, pause or stop the run while course correction is still cheap. The vendor neutrality is genuine: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Hermes and any ACP or MCP stack coexist rather than compete, and running agents locally by default keeps files and credentials on the owner's machine. For a product and engineering team already juggling several agents, that combination is hard to assemble from a chat tool and a ticket tracker.
The gaps are equally clear, and they are about the company more than the product. Vokal publishes no terms of service, no legal entity name, no postal address and no contact page: a single email address serves for support, privacy and everything else. The GDPR is never mentioned, no data processing agreement or subprocessor list exists, and hosting is described only as countries where the company or its providers operate. The documentation still describes a macOS-only, invite-gated distribution while the download page offers Windows too, which suggests a product moving faster than its own pages. At USD 20 per active human seat per month after a seven-day trial, the price is modest; the diligence burden is not. Teams working under formal compliance requirements should ask for written answers before adopting it. Teams that simply need their agents to stop working in the dark will find the design unusually well aimed.
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