Frequently asked questions

Straight answers.

What crosses the network, how Maestro differs from running Claude Code by hand, and how it behaves in locked-down environments. If your question is not here, use the contact form.

Does my code leave my machine?
No. Maestro is a Python CLI that runs entirely on your own machine. The only outbound calls are to api.anthropic.com using your own API key — the same call the claude CLI makes by hand — plus api.github.com for Git operations you request, and licence.maestrodevs.com for a periodic tier check. Your source code is never sent to a Maestro server, because there is no Maestro server in the request path.
Can I use Maestro with a Claude Pro or Max subscription?
Maestro authenticates with a standard Anthropic API key, not a subscription login. In April 2026 Anthropic updated its policy to restrict the use of Claude Pro and Max subscription OAuth tokens in third-party agent frameworks. Maestro is unaffected by that change because it never uses subscription OAuth tokens — you supply an Anthropic API key and pay Anthropic directly for token usage.
How is this different from just running multiple Claude Code terminals?
Opening several Claude Code terminals gives you parallel sessions with no coordination: they share no plan, no dependency order, and no quality gates, and they will happily edit the same files at once. Maestro assigns each session a specialised role — Planner, Builder, Tester, Scribe, Security, Releaser — runs each in its own Git worktree to prevent write conflicts, and enforces dependency ordering and acceptance-criteria gates between roles. You describe the work as structured orders and Maestro routes, sequences, and validates them.
Does Maestro work in air-gapped environments?
Yes. Set dataResidency.mode to air-gapped in workspace.json and Maestro refuses every outbound HTTP request except localhost. Licence validation has a 14-day offline grace period, so an air-gapped estate keeps working between revalidations. Claude inference still needs to reach an Anthropic endpoint, so fully offline use requires a local or on-premises model proxy.
Do I need an Anthropic API key?
Yes. Maestro is bring-your-own-key: you sign up with Anthropic directly and supply your own API key. Maestro's pricing covers the orchestration layer only — you pay Anthropic for model token usage. Your billing relationship and your key stay entirely under your control.
What exactly does Maestro send over the network?
Three destinations, and only these. Crew prompts go to api.anthropic.com under your key; Git operations go to api.github.com only when a crew you dispatched requests them; and a licence check goes to licence.maestrodevs.com. Workspace state — orders, plans, reports, the audit log — stays in the .mso/ directory on local disk and is never uploaded.
Which operating systems does Maestro run on?
Maestro runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It requires Python 3.9 or newer and the Claude Code CLI. On Windows the MAESTRO_ITER_MANAGED environment variable handles a subprocess-signalling difference; the dispatcher sets it automatically.
How many agents can run at once?
Up to five crews run concurrently on Pro and above; the Community tier runs one crew across three roles. Each crew operates in an isolated Git worktree, so five sessions can work the same repository in parallel without colliding.
Is Maestro open source?
The orchestration engine and CLI ship as a proprietary pip wheel; the source is not published. The framework still runs locally, and its data-flow behaviour is documented and verifiable — you can inspect every network destination and confirm that workspace state stays on disk.
How does Maestro support security and governance?
Every file write passes a pretool secret scan that blocks AWS keys, GitHub PATs, and other credentials before they reach a commit. A posttool scanner checks code against OWASP and CWE patterns, an MCP registry classifies every server before a crew may use it, and a hash-chained audit log records privileged actions. These controls are covered in detail on the financial-services use-case page.
What is a voyage?
A voyage is Maestro's term for a sprint or work package. One voyage maps to one Git branch and one pull request, and contains a set of orders to complete. The name comes from the default nautical persona; the mechanics are identical whichever persona you choose.