I would assume that until you see the feat in action, players have no idea whether a given critter or NPC has any feat, AoO or otherwise.
A considerate DM would play his monsters and adversary NPCs as if they had no idea either.
This said, players might assume that an orc or other martial-oriented critter could easily have AoO or another martial feat. But they won't know for sure until they see it happen the first time.
A good recall knowledge check might reveal that orcs or hobgoblins or other similar critters have training equivalent to a fighter. Without necessarily revealing the specifics.
I would say - no they don’t know until they hit
A knowledge check (perhaps) or past experience would reveal this
As above this is true of most creature abilities . I have thrown monsters as my group recently in 1E and the players have no idea what they can do and still don’t
Most recent where the blood daemon things that can make you bleed if you try to heal and make bleed effects more deadly. They were really spooked because they actually couldn’t meta game it and had no idea what they were fighting
It is all part of the game and always has been
I tend to assume no, until they use it, then everyone knows they have some sort of reaction trick and act more wary. Depending on the monster's intelligence and awareness of course. Rats won't understand, goblins might not notice, that sort of thing.
Indeed, players can make some assumptions based on the GM's description of the enemy in question. Beyond that, I would borrow/extend theRecall knowledge action. For instance, I could see Lord Warfare (or perhaps Perception) as a very suitable skill to roll to get an idea of a specific enemy's tactics and combat abilities.
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No, they are not instantly aware of this. In-world, and based on who has it, it's clearly a reflection of martial training, however, so PCs and NPCs alike may be more inclined to think that martial looking creatures have it.
I mean, anyone in Full Plate being more likely to have it than anyone not in Full Plate is a solid assumption in many ways, and one PCs and NPCs alike might make.
Plus, obviously, you know about someone having it after they use it once.
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In a recent Knights of the Everflame YouTube video, in which Jason Buhlman himself hosted a game, there was a scene in which Jason made it clear to his players that (and I'm paraphrasing form memory) "some monsters could make attacks of opportunity and other could not, it was up to the players to figure it out."
Are combatants aware that a given opponent can perform an Attack of Opportunity? This is a fairly important piece of information, and the rules do not clearly state such a thing.
I think its okay to leave this in the realm of a DM discretion.
I don't know that all reactions have to be obvious, by I would generally run them that way when the reaction is clearly within the realm of physical possibility or is a well known legend. So I would make AOO's known and many creature reactions too.
We experienced surprise reactions during the playtest and the table largely hated them. That said, the DM partly brought this on by repeatedly touting PF2 as a game that encouraged mobility. If you spend time encouraging people to move and then spring surprise reactions on them because they moved, players can become bitter.
The section on Recall Knowledge on page 506 explicitly mentions that one of the things you can learn is the trigger for a reaction.
On a critical success. And I assume this is for reaction's inherent to a monster rather than learned ones like an AoO. It's a gray area for something like red dragon (who has a traditional form of AoO) vs. other dragons with their special reactions. But I certainly wouldn't allow a humanoid's learned AoO to be discoverable via a knowledge check, nor would a Balor or Pit Fiend's enhanced AoO be the most important thing to give away even if I were to decide it's eventually discoverable after five consecutive Hypercognition checks or something similar.
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A learned Reaction should absolutely be discoverable with a Recall Knowledge check. Specifically, by logic, a Society check to know what kind of training they have by their gear and the way they fight.
Coincidentally, this is exactly how the rules indicate things should work, since they make no distinction between learned and inherent stuff, and Humanoids are Society to know about.
This also maintains continuity with PF1, where per some later books, you could do this with martial abilities using Knowledge (Nobility), a skill that has definitely been subsumed by Society.