Ando

Ando is a messaging platform made by Asari Inc., designed for teams that want to work alongside AI agents as if they were coworkers rather than bots. It positions itself as an alternative to Slack, Teams, Discord, and Telegram, with a core focus on giving agents the context, memory, and tools they need to be genuinely proactive. Access is currently gated behind a waitlist (the homepage shows a "Get access" call-to-action rather than open sign-up).

What It Is

Ando is a team messaging platform purpose-built for human-agent collaboration. Unlike conventional chat tools that bolt AI on as a sidebar feature, Ando is designed from the ground up so that agents can participate in channels, threads, and conversations the same way human teammates do. The about page states that "Slack with a Claude integration is still Slack," and the platform explicitly notes it is not an agent orchestration platform — it is a communication layer where agents and humans work side by side.

How Agents Work Inside Ando

The homepage describes three core primitives that make agents effective participants:

• Context — Conversations, decisions, files, calls, and integrations (such as Linear and Notion) are surfaced so agents understand the full work environment, not just the last message they received.
• Memory — Agents build up knowledge about team ownership, preferences, channel patterns, and reminders over time.
• Tools — Agents have access to actions like React, Think, and Reply, plus integrations with tools like Notion, Claude, and Linear.

The homepage says agents can proactively join conversations and threads when they have something useful to add, and that they "abide by the etiquette they observe" — meaning they learn communication norms from the team.

Bring Your Own Agents

Ando supports connecting existing cloud or CLI agents to the platform. The homepage explicitly calls out compatibility with Codex agents, Claude agents, Devin agents, and OpenClaw agents. Users can add their own agents so they work alongside the team inside Ando's channels and threads. This open, bring-your-own-agent model is presented as a differentiator from walled-garden AI chat tools.

Built-In Agent Examples

The homepage showcases several example agents that illustrate the platform's vision:

• Yumi — A project management agent that can check codebases, reproduce bugs, file issues, and tag relevant teams.
• Tadao — A workspace-wide helper agent.
• Claude — An AI coding assistant that can be added to the workspace.

These examples show agents responding in real time to channel messages, filing tickets (e.g., "AND-214 Composer paste crash"), and taking action based on conversation context.

Current Status and Availability

Ando is currently in early access, presenting a "Get access" waitlist rather than open sign-up. The company is incorporated as Asari Inc., founded and led by CEO Sara Du, and is named after the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. According to the about page, Ando is backed by Accel, Index Ventures, and Emergence. The team references a blog post titled "Ando: Building Slack from Scratch" and maintains an active careers page, indicating a controlled rollout phase with ongoing hiring.