> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.obversa.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A Clean Run or Your Setup > Engines run clean by default, with your login and the repository's setup; turn clean off to run on your own setup, and see where each engine falls short. An engine runs clean by default: your own setup stays out, your login and the repository's setup stay in. Set `clean: false` on an engine or a seat when a run should use your own setup, the way you run the tool yourself. ## The default On every engine that can run clean, `clean` is on by default, so a workflow behaves the same for everyone who runs it. Set `clean: false` to run on your own setup. Grok has no clean mode, so it always runs on your setup unless you pass `authFile`. The API, Mastra and OpenAI Agents SDK engines load no setup and have no `clean` option. [The engines](#the-engines) table shows each one. ## What a clean run leaves out * **Your own setup stays out.** Your personal settings, hooks, plugins, skills, MCP servers and global instruction files, such as `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md`, don't load. * **The repository's setup still applies.** Its `AGENTS.md`, `CLAUDE.md` and project config are part of the code the run works on. * **Your login stays.** The run still uses your own sign-in and subscription. Not every CLI can leave all of your setup out. [Where an engine falls short](#where-an-engine-falls-short) says what stays in. ## Turn it off The option has the same name on every engine. Clean is the default; this is how to run on your own setup instead: * **Claude CLI.** `claude(model, { clean: false })` or `new ClaudeCliEngine({ clean: false })`. * **Claude Agent SDK.** `new AgentSdkEngine({ clean: false })`. * **Codex CLI.** `codex(model, { clean: false })` or `new CodexEngine({ clean: false })`. * **OpenCode CLI.** `opencode(model, { executable, clean: false })` or `new OpenCodeCliEngine({ ...options, clean: false })`. * **Devin CLI.** `devin(model, { clean: false })` or `new DevinCliEngine({ clean: false })`. * **Grok CLI.** Always runs on your setup; `clean: true` throws an error that says why. Grok has no clean mode. ## The engines "Read-only held" means a step in the `read` workspace mode was asked to create a file, and no file in the repository changed. | Engine | Runs on your setup | Clean mode | Read-only held, your setup | Read-only held, clean | | - | - | - | - | - | | [Claude CLI](/packages/engine-claude-cli#clean) | Yes | Yes | The model's tools held; your hooks can write | Yes | | [Claude Agent SDK](/packages/engine-claude-agent-sdk#clean) | Yes | Yes | The model's tools held; your hooks can write | Yes | | [Codex CLI](/packages/engine-codex-cli#clean) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | [Devin CLI](/packages/engine-devin-cli#options) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | [OpenCode CLI](/packages/engine-opencode-cli#clean) | Yes | Yes | Not proven: the proof needs a paid model | Not proven: the proof needs a paid model | | [Grok CLI](/packages/engine-grok-cli#clean) | Yes | No | Yes | No clean mode | | [Anthropic API](/packages/engine-anthropic-api) | No setup to load | Always clean | Refuses a read step | Refuses a read step | | [Jev API](/packages/engine-jev-api) | No setup to load | Always clean | Refuses a read step | Refuses a read step | | [Mastra](/packages/engine-mastra) | No setup to load | Always clean | Not enforced: your agent's tools decide | Not enforced: your agent's tools decide | | [OpenAI Agents SDK](/packages/engine-openai-agents) | No setup to load | Always clean | Not enforced: your agent's tools decide | Not enforced: your agent's tools decide | ## Where an engine falls short * **Claude CLI and Claude Agent SDK.** On your own setup, your own hooks still run during a read-only step, and a hook that writes files still writes. Clean mode also leaves out the repository's own MCP servers. * **Codex CLI.** Your own skills and command rules still load in clean mode. * **Devin CLI.** Your own MCP servers, skills and personal rules can still load in clean mode: clean mode replaces only your Devin settings file. * **OpenCode CLI.** Your own skills in `~/.claude/skills` and `~/.agents/skills` still load in clean mode. OpenCode's switch that skips them also skips the repository's own skills. Clean mode moves the whole config folder, so commands the step runs lose their settings in it too. Free models refuse a tool-limited run, so the proof needs a paid model. * **Grok CLI.** No clean mode: Grok's strict sandbox reads no login outside its own home folder. ## Check it on your own machine From a clone of the repository, build the packages and run the proof. It runs each installed CLI the ordinary way, with your own logins, so it spends a little of each subscription. It isn't part of CI. ```bash theme={null} pnpm build node scripts/prove-engines.mjs ``` Each run gets a fresh scratch repository. In each mode, one read-only step is asked to create a file, and a second one reads a word back from a file. A write-mode run on your own setup is the control: it shows the same prompt does make the engine write when writing is allowed. The proof prints one table, with one row for each engine in each mode: * **Engine.** The engine the row is about. Its first row shows the version of its CLI. * **Run.** The mode: your setup or clean, and read or write. * **Answered.** Whether the engine replied with the word from the file. * **Files changed.** Whether the step asked to create a file changed any file in its scratch repository. `-` means that step failed without changing a file, so it shows nothing about read-only. * **Note.** Which files a step changed, or why a step failed. ```text theme={null} Engine | Run | Answered | Files changed | Note -----------|-----------------------------|----------|---------------|------------------------------ Codex CLI | version codex-cli 1.2.3 | | | Codex CLI | your setup, read | yes | no | Codex CLI | clean, read | yes | no | Codex CLI | your setup, write (control) | yes | yes | write step changed created.txt ``` ## Next steps * [Claude CLI Engine](/packages/engine-claude-cli): the `clean` option and the read workspace mode. * [API](/packages/api#implement-an-engine): how the conformance kit checks an engine's clean mode. 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