---
title: FAQ
description: Common questions about Agora.
sidebar:
  icon: circle-help
---

**How is Agora different from noVNC or a VNC server?**

VNC streams one desktop to one person. Agora runs one desktop for many agents: each has its own cursor, keyboard, tabs, permissions and results, and humans watch through an H.264 stream that costs nothing when nobody is watching. See the [benchmarks](/benchmarks).

**Why not one browser or container per agent?**

Memory. Five agents in one Agora workspace use about 326 MB; five separate Xvfb + noVNC + Chrome stacks use about 1.45 GB. Agents that need real isolation can still get separate workspaces.

**Do I need Playwright or Puppeteer?**

No. Agora talks to Chromium over the CDP pipe directly and has its own semantic layer, designed to be compact for LLMs.

**Which agents work with it?**

Anything that speaks MCP over stdio, plus anything that can call an HTTP API. Agora can launch Claude Code and Codex as subagents itself, or any command you give it.

**Can it run desktop apps, not just the browser?**

Yes. `desktop_launch` starts any X11 program in the workspace, and the `desktop_*` tools drive it with pixels and a real mouse and keyboard.

**Does it run on macOS or Windows?**

No. Agora needs Linux with Xvfb. Use a Linux server or VM and connect to it over an authenticated tunnel.

**Is there a GPU?**

No. Xvfb has no GPU, so Chromium rasterizes in software. That is fine for most sites; heavy WebGL will be slow.

**What happens to logins when a workspace is suspended?**

They survive. The browser profile lives on disk by name, so cookies and storage stay. Open pages are reloaded from their URLs on resume; memory is not checkpointed.

**Can agents solve CAPTCHAs?**

Agora detects common CAPTCHAs and lets the agent click the widget visually. When that is not enough, the agent calls `human_request`, you take control from the viewer or the Paseo panel, and the agent continues in the same session. See [human takeover](/concepts#human-takeover-and-captchas).

**Can I expose it to the internet?**

Not directly. Agora refuses non-loopback addresses by default. Use Cloudflare Tunnel with Access or an SSH tunnel. See the [security model](/security).

**How many agents fit in one workspace?**

Logical cursors cost about 1.3 KB each, so hundreds are fine. Agents that use desktop input share about 6 input seats per display, recycled after 2 minutes idle; browser-only agents do not need a seat.

**Is Agora related to the Olimpia cloud?**

Agora is built by [Olimpia](https://olimpia.dev) and runs on your own machine. The Olimpia cloud ([docs](https://docs.olimpia.dev)) hosts apps, Postgres, Redis and buckets; [Acropolis](https://acropolis.olimpia.dev), still experimental, builds OCI images.