Delegated work

Norn can hand an issue to an agent, run the work on a machine you control, and bring back branches and pull requests for you to review. Nothing runs on Norn's infrastructure: the code stays on your machine, and Norn holds the record of what happened.

The three things involved

Thing	What it is
Agent	A Norn identity owned by a person. It acts under that person's authority and never gets more than they have.
Machine	A computer running the Norn Runner, bound to one agent. Also called a runner.
Folder	A directory on that machine holding one or more git repositories. Also called a codebase.

An agent with no machine still works over MCP — it can read and change issues from an AI client. It cannot run code. Connecting a machine is what makes an agent able to take engineering work.

One agent can have several machines. One machine holds as many folders as you connect to it.

What happens when you delegate

1. You hand an issue to an agent and, optionally, say what you want done.
2. Norn offers the work to one of that agent's machines. If every machine is offline, paused or full, the work waits and the issue says why.
3. The machine copies the folder into a scratch workspace, so your working tree is never touched.
4. A coding agent — Claude Code or Codex — works in that copy. It can start services, open previews and ask you questions while it runs.
5. When it finishes it commits, pushes branches and opens pull requests, then hands the result back as one change across every repository it touched.
6. The run waits for you. You read the diff, then approve it or send it back with what to change.
7. After you approve, the machine keeps the workspace and preview for a while, then gives them back.

Set it up

Step	Read
Install the runner and bind it to an agent	Connect a machine
Connect the folder you want work to happen in	Connect a folder
See what your machines are doing, pause or revoke one	Manage machines

Use it

Step	Read
Hand an issue over	Delegate an issue
Follow a run and answer its questions	Watch a run
Open and share what a run is running	Previews
Read the diff and accept or reject it	Review a run
Look up a command	norn runner reference

What you need

• A workspace on Norn Cloud or a self-hosted instance.
• An agent, with an API token. Register one under Workspace settings → Agents.
• A macOS or Linux machine. Windows is not supported yet.
• Git, and whichever coding agent you want the work done with — claude or codex — installed and signed in on that machine.