Fix default notifier onboarding: remove Composio defaults, enable dashboard + desktop #1958

Bug / Product Gap

AO currently defaults notification routing to include composio even when the user has not run any Composio setup flow. At the same time, the desired first-run notification experience is not fully wired:

• dashboard should be enabled by default for all notification priorities.
• desktop should be enabled by default for urgent/critical notifications only.
• AO Notifier.app should be installed/configured during ao start on macOS.
• Composio, Slack, Discord, Webhook, OpenClaw, etc. should remain manual opt-in through ao setup ....

Current behavior does not match that policy.

Analyzed against: 45de80ce3f8bae4f8a2f8ff00bf81b09af874025
Observed AO version: 0.8.0
Environment observed: macOS Darwin 25.5.0 arm64, zsh, Node v24.15.0
Confidence: High - traced through global config defaults, effective config loading, notifier setup flows, plugin registration, and live ao doctor/setup status output.

Current Behavior

Fresh/global config defaults still include Composio:

// packages/core/src/global-config.ts
defaults.notifiers = ["composio", "desktop"]

notificationRouting = {
  urgent: ["desktop", "composio"],
  action: ["desktop", "composio"],
  warning: ["composio"],
  info: ["composio"],
}

This can cause composio to appear in ~/.agent-orchestrator/config.yaml or the effective config even when the user never ran:

ao setup composio

The plugin registry treats notificationRouting: ["composio"] as enough to instantiate the built-in Composio notifier with empty config. If no COMPOSIO_API_KEY exists, it becomes a no-op and may warn. If an env key does exist, AO may attempt Composio delivery without explicit notifier setup.

Live observed effective config included:

notifiers:
  desktop:
    plugin: desktop
    backend: ao-app
    dashboardUrl: http://localhost:3000
  dashboard:
    plugin: dashboard
    limit: 50

notificationRouting:
  urgent: [composio, desktop, discord, dashboard]
  action: [composio, desktop, discord, dashboard]
  warning: [composio, desktop, discord, dashboard]
  info: [composio, desktop, discord, dashboard]

ao doctor then reported Composio plugin resolution as passing even though there was no notifiers.composio setup block.

Desired Behavior

Fresh ao start / fresh global config should produce notification defaults equivalent to:

notifiers:
  desktop:
    plugin: desktop
    backend: ao-app
    dashboardUrl: http://localhost:3000
  dashboard:
    plugin: dashboard
    limit: 50

notificationRouting:
  urgent:
    - desktop
    - dashboard
  action:
    - dashboard
  warning:
    - dashboard
  info:
    - dashboard

Interpretation:

• “Critical” user-facing notifications map to AO’s current urgent priority.
• Dashboard receives all priorities.
• Desktop receives only urgent/critical notifications.
• Composio is absent unless explicitly configured.
• Discord/Slack/Webhook/OpenClaw are absent unless explicitly configured.

Expected ao start Behavior

On first run / startup:

1. Ensure dashboard notifier config exists.
2. Route dashboard to all priorities.
3. On macOS, install/configure AO Notifier.app best-effort.
4. Route desktop only to urgent priority.
5. Do not add Composio unless user runs ao setup composio or a composio-* setup command.
6. Do not add Slack/Discord/Webhook/OpenClaw unless user runs their setup commands.

If desktop setup cannot complete, ao start should not fail the whole startup. It should warn and continue with dashboard-only notifications.

Files / Areas To Inspect

• packages/core/src/global-config.ts

  • GlobalConfigSchema.defaults.notifiers
  • GlobalConfigSchema.notificationRouting
  • createDefaultGlobalConfig()

• packages/cli/src/commands/start.ts

  • first-run config/global registration path
  • startup onboarding hooks

• packages/cli/src/lib/desktop-setup.ts

  • runDesktopSetupAction
  • non-interactive default currently routes desktop to all

• packages/cli/src/lib/dashboard-setup.ts

  • non-interactive default currently routes dashboard to urgent-action

• packages/cli/src/lib/notifier-routing.ts

  • applyNotifierRoutingPreset
  • existing presets may need an explicit startup path for “desktop urgent-only + dashboard all”

• packages/core/src/plugin-registry.ts

  • currently instantiates a notifier when it is referenced by routing even without a config block

Root Cause

The standard config path was previously changed to make notifications opt-in by default:

722d14298 fix(config): disable all notifications by default — fully opt-in

But the newer global/hybrid config path reintroduced Composio defaults in global-config.ts, likely during the multi-project/global registry work.

As a result, the effective config can contain Composio routing without explicit setup.

Acceptance Criteria

• Fresh global config does not include composio.
• Fresh ao start configures dashboard notifier by default.
• Fresh ao start routes dashboard for urgent, action, warning, and info.
• Fresh ao start configures desktop notifier on macOS with backend: ao-app when possible.
• Fresh ao start routes desktop only for urgent.
• Composio is only added by ao setup composio*.
• Discord/Slack/Webhook/OpenClaw are only added by their setup flows.
• ao doctor should not report Composio as configured/routed on a fresh install.
• Tests cover fresh global config creation and first-run ao start notifier defaults.

Related

• fix(core): notifier system has 7 bugs — silent by default, dead features, missing context #1579 - broader notifier-system issue closed by feat(notifier): make notifier system robust with manual harness and desktop setup #1736, but this global default regression remains.
• Notifier plugin warnings spam stdout/stderr on every CLI command #1681 - notifier warnings on CLI commands; related symptom when unconfigured notifiers are loaded.
• First-run Codex selection leaves global config on claude-code and breaks dashboard session routing #1948 - first-run global/local config mismatch; separate first-run config issue discovered during the same onboarding investigation.