Agent Won’t Start
Symptoms: Agent stays in “idle” or shows an error immediately after starting.
Solutions:
- Verify your Claude account is connected in Settings → Account
- Check that the repository has a valid Claude account assigned
- Ensure you have remaining API credits or an active subscription
- Try starting the agent with a different model
Agent Rate Limited
Symptoms: Agent shows “rate_limited” status and stops working.
Solutions:
- Wait for the rate limit to reset (shown in the agent status bar)
- Switch to a different Claude account with available capacity
- Use Resume All (
Cmd+K → “Resume All Agents”) to restart when limits reset
- Consider spreading work across multiple accounts
Workspace Setup Script Failures
Symptoms: Workspace stuck in “initializing” with script errors.
Solutions:
- Check the terminal output for the specific error
- Verify the script command works when run manually in the worktree directory
- Mark scripts as optional if they’re not critical (allows skipping on failure)
- Ensure all required dependencies (Node.js, pnpm, etc.) are installed
Integration Connection Issues
Symptoms: GitHub, Linear, or Slack shows as disconnected.
Solutions:
- Go to Settings → Integrations and reconnect the service
- Check that your OAuth tokens haven’t expired
- Ensure you have the required permissions on the connected account
- For GitHub: verify you’ve granted access to the specific repositories you need
Manager Not Responding
Symptoms: Manager view shows no responses or stale events.
Solutions:
- Check that the manager is enabled in repository settings
- Verify the manager’s Claude account has available capacity
- Try Kill Manager and restart it from the manager view
- Check the sampling interval — a very long interval means less frequent updates
Container Pull Failures
Symptoms: Container stuck in “pulling” or shows error.
Solutions:
- Verify Docker Desktop is running on your machine
- Check that the image name is correct and accessible
- Ensure you’re authenticated to private registries if needed
- Check your network connection
High Token Usage
Symptoms: Costs higher than expected.
Solutions:
- Set a daily budget in repository settings to cap spending
- Configure budget alert thresholds (default: 50%, 80%, 100%)
- Use lower effort levels for less critical tasks
- Use Haiku instead of Opus for simple tasks
- Monitor per-agent costs in the workspace detail view
App Not Updating
Symptoms: Commander doesn’t install the latest version.
Solutions:
- Check Settings → General → Check for Updates is enabled
- Enable Auto-Download Updates for automatic installation
- Manually check by going to Settings → About
- Download the latest version directly from commander.cyshel.com
Resetting Commander
If Commander is in a bad state, you can reset:
- Clear manager history — Settings → About → Clear Manager History
- Restart the app — Quit and relaunch Commander
- Reset data — Delete the Commander data directory at
~/Library/Application Support/Commander/
Resetting data removes all conversations, settings, and workspace state. Your git repositories and worktrees are not affected.