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Getting started — install and pair a node

Five steps. The agent runtimes and durable fleet record live on your machine — Hilo installs a background service, not a cloud tenancy. Model calls go directly from that node to the provider you choose.

Before you begin

You need a computer that stays on. At launch Hilo supports macOS 13 or newer on Apple Silicon, and Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 LTS on x86-64. Many operators use a Mac Mini. This machine hosts your fleet, so it wants a reliable power supply and network — but it does not need to be a server, and it does not need a public IP.

1. Create your account

Sign up at app.hilo.team with an email and a password, then verify the email. Keep the verification page open: after using the email link, choose I’ve verified — continue. If the message does not arrive, the same page can send another.

Hilo supports two agent runtimes: Claude Code and OpenAI Codex. You choose one per agent when you create it. Claude Code agents use your Claude account; Codex agents sign in with a ChatGPT plan that includes Codex. If your fleet uses another runtime — Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Cursor — join the waitlist from signup rather than entering a setup flow that cannot finish.

2. Install and connect the node

After verification, Hilo opens Account → Customer Node Connection. Download the one-time .hilo-connection file, copy the complete installation instruction shown there, and paste it into a shell-capable agent — Claude Code, Codex or similar — on the computer where the fleet will run.

The installing agent confirms the machine and file, then runs Hilo’s official installer, served over TLS from get.hilo.team and checksum-verified against the release manifest. It builds the node home (~/.hilo by default), registers the background service, creates the managed Cloudflare connection, shows progress while provisioning runs, and verifies the result with doctor. It does not inspect the rest of the computer, sign in to Claude or ChatGPT, or decide what agents to create or connect.

You do not configure DNS, expose a public IP, create a Cloudflare account, type an angle-bracket filename placeholder, or save a local sign-in key. The connection file is a one-time credential: never paste its contents into chat or commit it. A successful install consumes and removes it.

Once paired, sign in at app.hilo.team and you land in your workspace. Your teammates sign in there too, from anywhere. On a Mac, use the Mac app; on a phone, the iPhone app; on Windows or Linux, install app.hilo.team from Chrome’s address bar.

3. Connect the agent’s runtime

Each agent signs in to its own runtime. What that means depends on the runtime you choose.

Claude Code agents

Hilo’s setup and agent-creation screens guide Claude authorization. Each agent has its own saved connection choice: use a configured connection, supply a new credential, or choose Configure later. Review the concrete choice rather than assuming that future agents inherit a changing organization default. The agent’s Overview lets you check or replace its connection later.

If you use a Claude subscription token, open a terminal on the computer running the node and run:

claude setup-token

Claude opens your browser, you approve once, and Claude prints a long-lived subscription token back in the terminal. Copy it only into Hilo’s credential field, not a chat or brain file. It passes through Hilo only in transit and is stored write-only on your node — no surface ever shows it again.

Codex agents

Install the Codex CLI on the computer running the node, at the version Hilo supports — hilo codex status prints it. There is nothing else to configure up front: each Codex agent signs in with ChatGPT when you create it, through OpenAI’s official device sign-in, and keeps that sign-in in its own private home. The workspace’s first-run card offers Create a Codex agent above the Claude steps, so a fleet that runs only on Codex skips them. The full guide is Codex agents.

4. Create or connect your first agent

Choose one of three paths in the first workspace screen:

A new agent’s form asks where it Runs on: Claude, or Codex (ChatGPT plan). The choice is permanent, because each runtime keeps the agent’s brain file, skills and memory in its own native format. Copying in an existing agent works for Claude Code agents.

Connecting an existing agent does not scan your computer. Hilo previews portable instructions, memory and skills from the one directory you supplied — you can browse to it or type it — leaves the source untouched, and asks you to Confirm before the copied agent becomes active. Work files are opt-in. Existing schedules are reported but not activated automatically.

You can return to the same actions later in Admin → Agents.

Hilo provisions a harnessed employee rather than a blank process: it is created with an identity, an instruction file — CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md — and a home of its own on your disk, using the agent runtime and the model subscription on that machine. The new agent introduces itself in its own conversation once its connection is configured. Choosing Configure later does not immediately start a model turn. Review its memory schedule, timezone, batch budget, session-renewal option and semantic-memory disclosure during creation. These settings can later be changed per agent or through an explicit bulk edit.

By default only admins can message an agent directly; every member can work with it in groups. That policy is per-agent and you can change it — see Agents.

5. Give it something real

Message the agent and ask for something with an output — a summary, an analysis, a draft. When it produces a long result, that becomes a versioned document beside the chat rather than a wall of text.

Then use the loop the product is built around: select the parts that are wrong, comment on them, and send the batch. The agent receives all your comments as one turn and produces a new version with replies threaded against each comment. The previous version stays where you can find it.

That loop — comment, revise, compare — is the thing to try before deciding whether Hilo suits you.

Where to go next

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