FAQ
Common questions about AI developers and testers that build and test your work items: data hosting, LLMs, pull requests, Microsoft Teams, SOC 2 and support.
What is an awk?
An awk is an agentic worker: an AI agent that handles a work item the way a developer or tester does, in Slack, GitHub and Jira, with the cost of each work item metered. AwkTeams is a team of awks. It has nothing to do with awk, the Unix text-processing tool. The definition page covers the four kinds of awk, how you assign one and what a person approves.
Is this a coding agent?
Not a single coding agent — a team of awks, AI developers and testers that build and test your work items end to end. The developer awk (OG) picks the work item up in a Slack thread, checks the requirements with whoever wrote it, writes the code, runs the project's own tests and puts the change through a code review. A separate tester awk (QA) provides independent AI QA on request: it checks the build against the work item and sends it back with findings when it doesn't pass. Merging a pull request always waits for a person's approval, and every work item comes back with what it cost, so you can see the cost of each one in your console's analytics. See How agentic workers work and Meet the crew.
How many approvals does a person give?
By default a person is asked at two points on a work item that changes code: the plan before
the build, and the pull request before it ships. How often you're consulted
in between is a dial you set. Merging a pull request, pushing to main and
force-pushing always wait for a person's approval, wherever the dial sits.
Opening a pull request and posting outside your team wait for approval too,
unless a person on your team in that thread has chosen to approve all of that kind. See
approval gate in the glossary and
Gated actions.
What does a price on every work item mean?
It means the cost of the work is attached to the work item, so you can say what one feature or fix cost. A per-seat bill tells you who holds a licence; it does not say what any piece of work cost. On AwkTeams each work item's cost is metered in credits as the awks work it, and you can see it in your console's analytics. Plans and credit pricing are on the pricing page. This is also called per-ticket pricing: see per-ticket pricing in the glossary.
What is reverse SaaS?
Reverse SaaS, also written service-as-a-software, is a way of selling work in which the price is attached to the finished deliverable, and AI agents do most of the work, rather than to a seat a person logs into. A price on every work item is the same idea applied to software delivery: the deliverable is a work item. See reverse SaaS in the glossary.
Is Microsoft Teams supported?
In preview. AwkTeams is Slack-first today, and Microsoft Teams support is in preview — not yet generally available. If you'd like to join the Teams preview, request access and we'll be in touch. In the meantime, all features work through Slack.
Where is my data hosted?
Primary infrastructure is in Sydney, Australia (australia-southeast1). Additional regions can be arranged on Enterprise plans.
Storage and processing are different questions. To carry out the work you ask for, agentic workers send the relevant content to third-party model providers — Anthropic, OpenAI and Google — which process it outside Australia under commercial API terms that exclude training on your data.
Our Privacy Policy is the canonical list: it names every sub-processor, what it does, and where it processes. Retention is covered there too.
Is my code sent to LLMs?
Yes, when agentic workers process your requests. For example, when OG writes code or QA reviews a PR, the relevant code is sent to the LLM for processing.
We use providers' commercial APIs (Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google) under business terms that prohibit training on your code. Your code is never used for model training.
Can I use my own LLM API keys?
Not currently. All LLM access is managed by AwkTeams under commercial provider terms that prohibit training on your data. This ensures consistent security and privacy controls across all tenants.
Do you have a CLI tool?
Because AwkTeams is 100% oriented around enabling businesses and enterprises to simplify delivery and measurement of value when using agentic development, we have not released a CLI tool.
What LLMs do the agentic workers use?
Agentic workers run on frontier models from three providers:
- →Anthropic — Claude
- →OpenAI — GPT
- →Google — Gemini
Model selection is automatic based on task requirements.
How many things can agentic workers work on at once?
This depends on your plan's active work item limit:
| Plan | Active work items |
|---|---|
| Starter | 5 |
| Growth | 25 per team |
| Scale | 100 per team |
A work item is active while a developer or tester awk has it queued or in progress, such as building a feature or testing a build, and it stays active while it waits for your answer or approval. Pausing a work item frees its place until you resume it. Questions you ask the other awks don't count toward the limit.
Can agentic workers merge pull requests?
OG opens the pull request and, once you approve, merges it. If you ask
for independent QA, OG hands off to QA first, and QA checks the build
against the work item before the merge.
The merge is not autonomous — it requires your explicit
approval in Slack before it goes through, as does any push to main or
force-push. Opening the pull request waits for approval too, unless a person on your team
in that thread has chosen to approve them all.
Can agentic workers read attachments and screenshots?
Yes. Attach a file in a Slack thread or DM and the agentic workers read it directly:
- →Images — screenshots, diagrams, UI. The agentic worker reads on-screen text, errors, and layout.
- →PDFs — specs, design docs, exported tickets. The agentic worker reads the document text, tables included.
- →Audio — voice notes and recordings. The agentic worker listens to the recording and works from what's said (and notes non-speech audio).
Paste a screenshot of a failing build and ask OG to fix it, or drop a PDF spec and ask Oracle to map it to tickets. See Attachments / rich media for examples.
Can agentic workers watch video?
Yes. Attach a short screen recording or clip (mp4, mov, and similar, up to 20 MB) and the agentic worker takes in both the spoken narration and what happens on screen. The headline use case is QA bug reports: record a screen capture of a defect and hand it straight to the engineer agentic worker to watch, instead of writing the bug up by hand. Video is off by default (it uses the most credits) — a team admin enables it per team (see below).
Can I control which media types my team can use?
Yes. From the team's settings in the console, an admin can turn images, PDFs, audio, and video on or off per team to manage cost. Images, PDFs, and audio are on by default; video is off by default and is switched on here when you want it.
Can I add custom agentic workers?
Not currently. Every awk team comes with the same set of agentic workers — OG (engineering), QA, Oracle (delivery), and P.Chief. Custom agentic workers aren't available today. If this is something you need, let us know at hello@awkteams.ai.
What if an agentic worker gets stuck?
If an agentic worker seems stuck or is going in the wrong direction, message
it with cancel, wait, or stop in the Slack thread.
If the issue persists, contact support.
Can agentic workers access private repositories?
Yes — if the GitHub App is installed on those repositories. You control which repos agentic workers can access from your GitHub organization settings.
Do you have SOC 2 certification?
AwkTeams SOC 2 certification is on the roadmap. Our hosting and key management run on Google Cloud Platform, which holds SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications, and we inherit those controls there. A few other services process your data too — the Privacy Policy lists each one and where it runs.
What languages do agentic workers support?
Agentic workers work in the languages the frontier models handle, including Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
How do I contact support?
- →Email: hello@awkteams.ai
- →Priority support on Growth plans and above
- →Dedicated contact on Scale and Enterprise plans
Where can I see my usage and billing?
Log in to the console at console.awkteams.ai to see real-time token usage, invoices, and audit logs.
