# Installation Getting Codeman onto a machine, verifying it works, updating it, and removing it. ## Requirements | Requirement | Notes | | ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **macOS or Linux** | Windows works through WSL2. See [Windows](#windows-wsl) below. | | **Node.js 22+** | The installer offers to install it if missing. | | **tmux** | Not optional. Sessions live inside tmux, which is what makes them survive a server restart, a dropped connection, or a closed laptop. | | **An agent CLI** | At least one of [Claude Code](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code), [OpenCode](https://opencode.ai), [Codex](https://developers.openai.com/codex/cli), [Antigravity](https://antigravity.google), [Gemini CLI](https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli), [Pi](https://pi.dev), [Grok Build](https://github.com/xai-org/grok-build), [DeepSeek Harness](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness), [OMP](https://github.com/can1357/oh-my-pi). Plain shell sessions need none. See [Agent CLIs](Agent-CLIs). | Codeman itself sends no telemetry and phones no home. The only network traffic is your browser to your server, and whatever the agent CLI you chose does on its own. ## Route A: the installer (recommended) ```bash curl -fsSL https://getcodeman.com/install | bash ``` This installs Node.js, tmux and a build toolchain if they are missing (node-pty ships no Linux prebuild, so it compiles from source), clones Codeman into `~/.codeman/app`, and builds it. It starts by printing what it found (git, Node, tmux, build tools, agent CLIs, Tailscale, an existing install), then asks everything it needs up front, then does the work unattended. You can leave while it builds. What it asks you: 1. **One consent for the missing packages.** Git, Node.js, tmux and (on Linux) the build toolchain are installed after a single yes, and sudo asks for your password once for the whole run. Nothing is installed silently. If no agent CLI is found, a menu offers to install any of them (DeepSeek excepted: its npm package installs only a launcher with no runnable profile), or you skip and install one yourself later. 2. **How the dashboard should be reachable.** Three choices: - **Tailscale** (recommended for phone access): keeps the loopback bind, installs Tailscale if needed, logs in, enables the tailnet HTTPS toggle (it opens the admin page for you and waits; Ctrl+C there skips Tailscale for this run), then configures `tailscale serve` after the build and verifies the result end to end. If another app already owns `:443` on your node, you choose between a sub-path (`https://..ts.net/codeman`, the default), a second port, replacing the other mapping, or skipping. - **Your local network** (`0.0.0.0`): prompts for a password. Skipping the password takes an explicit confirmation and ends on a loud warning. - **This machine only** (`127.0.0.1`): the safest option, and the default for a bare `codeman web` regardless of what you pick here. Which one is preselected depends on what the installer finds. A fresh install defaults to the local network, unless Tailscale is already connected, in which case it defaults to Tailscale. An existing loopback install defaults to keeping loopback, or to Tailscale when a serve mapping for Codeman is already there. A bare Enter never pulls in new software, and a non-interactive run always keeps the safe loopback default. 3. **What to call this machine on your tailnet** (Tailscale route only). By default the URL uses the machine's existing name. Answer yes to rename it `codeman-`; the default is no, because the tailnet name is also what SSH and everything else on that machine are reached by. 4. **Whether to run Codeman in the background.** Enter installs a systemd user service or a macOS LaunchAgent that starts on boot; answering no offers to start it in this terminal instead, or not at all. It ends on a screen with the URL (your tailnet, your network, or this machine), a QR code to scan with your phone, and the two commands you need to manage the service. Re-running the same one-liner **updates an existing install in place**. Local changes in `~/.codeman/app` are stashed rather than discarded, a running service is restarted and verified, and your existing network binding is preserved. An interrupted first install resumes instead of restarting. Other entry points: ```bash install.sh status # print the URLs, the QR code and the manage commands again install.sh update # update only install.sh uninstall # remove (offers to undo a rename it performed) install.sh tailscale # retrofit Tailscale access onto an existing install install.sh name [] # rename this machine on your tailnet (default codeman-) install.sh cloudflared # install cloudflared for the in-app Cloudflare tunnel ``` **Flags** answer the questions from the command line and pipe through `bash -s --`: ```bash curl -fsSL https://getcodeman.com/install | bash -s -- --tailscale --service curl -fsSL https://getcodeman.com/install | bash -s -- --lan --password 'x' --service curl -fsSL https://getcodeman.com/install | bash -s -- --local --run ``` `--tailscale` / `--lan` / `--local` answer the access question, `--name ` / `--no-rename` the name, `--service` / `--run` / `--no-start` the last one. `--yes` takes every default (it still waits on a Tailscale login URL, and a network bind still asks for a password). `--port ` moves Codeman off 3000; the service file and the serve mapping follow it. On an existing install, `--port` and `--password` re-run the setup so the service file picks them up, and a re-run with `--lan` or `--tailscale` keeps the password the service already has. **Automation and CI**: with no terminal attached, any step that would change the system aborts with instructions instead of running silently. Set `CODEMAN_NONINTERACTIVE=1` to approve those steps. `CODEMAN_TAILSCALE=1` preselects the Tailscale answer, and never installs Tailscale itself non-interactively; a non-interactive run never renames the machine and never starts a service. Everything the unattended steps print goes to `~/.codeman/install.log`, and the last lines of it are shown when a step fails. ## Route B: npm ```bash npm install -g aicodeman codeman web ``` The npm package is named `aicodeman`; the product is Codeman. Both `codeman` and `aicodeman` are installed as commands. The trade-off against Route A: no guided network setup, and the in-app self-updater does not apply. npm installs report as non-updatable in **App Settings → System → Updates**, and you update with `npm update -g aicodeman`. ## Route C: git clone For contributing, or for running unreleased code. ```bash git clone https://github.com/Ark0N/Codeman.git cd Codeman npm install # postinstall builds the vendored xterm addon bundles npm run dev # dev server on http://localhost:3000 ``` For a production run from a clone: ```bash npm run build npm run start ``` `npm run dev` runs TypeScript directly through `tsx` with no build step. The frontend is plain JavaScript served from `src/web/public/` with no bundler, so editing a `.js` or `.css` file and reloading the page is enough. The one exception is `index.html`, which is read once at server start, so markup changes need a restart. See [Contributing](Contributing) for the rest of the development loop. ## Route D: Docker Compose Codeman itself can run in a container and spawn Docker cases as sibling containers through the host's Docker socket. Copy `docker/.env.example` to `docker/.env`, set `CODEMAN_PASSWORD`, then: ```bash bash docker/Start-Codeman.sh ``` Run the script again after updating rather than a plain `docker compose up`, so the rebuilt image, the refreshed volumes and the entrypoint arrive together. The full guide, including storage and networking options, is [`docker/README.md`](https://github.com/Ark0N/Codeman/blob/master/docker/README.md). ## Installing an agent CLI Codeman drives CLIs, it does not bundle them. Install at least one: | CLI | Install | Notes | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Claude Code** | `npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code` | The primary target. Some Codeman features are Claude-only: see [Agent CLIs](Agent-CLIs). | | **OpenCode** | See [opencode.ai](https://opencode.ai) | | | **Codex** | See [developers.openai.com/codex/cli](https://developers.openai.com/codex/cli) | | | **Antigravity** | See [antigravity.google](https://antigravity.google) | Google's successor to the consumer Gemini CLI. | | **Gemini CLI** | See [github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli](https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli) | Enterprise only since Google's June 2026 consumer cutover. | | **Pi** | See [pi.dev](https://pi.dev) | No permission prompts and no sandbox by design. Read [Agent CLIs](Agent-CLIs) before using it on a repo you care about. | | **Grok Build** | `curl -fsSL https://x.ai/cli/install.sh \| bash` | xAI. Lands in `~/.grok/bin`; `grok login --device-auth` for headless hosts. | | **DeepSeek Harness** | `npm i -g @deepseek-ai/dsh pnpm`, then a terminal profile | The npm package is only a launcher. Codeman's Run menu installs the community terminal profile for you. See [Agent CLIs](Agent-CLIs). | | **OMP** | `curl -fsSL https://omp.sh/install \| sh` | Oh My Pi. Run it once by hand to finish its own onboarding. | Log each CLI in once, by hand, before pointing Codeman at it. Codeman never collects or stores your CLI credentials. ## Verify the install ```bash codeman doctor # checks Node, tmux, the agent CLIs, document converters codeman --version codeman web # then open http://localhost:3000 ``` `codeman doctor --json` gives machine-readable output, and `--category core` narrows it to the things a session cannot start without. If the dashboard loads and **+ New Session** opens, you are done. Continue to [Quick Start](Quick-Start). ## Where things live | Path | What | | ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | `~/.codeman/app` | The installed code (installer route only). | | `~/.codeman/` | All state: `state.json`, settings, session history, push keys, TLS certs. See [Core Concepts](Core-Concepts). | | `~/codeman-cases/` | Cases created from scratch. Linked cases stay wherever they already are. | | `~/.codeman/web.log` | Log for a detached (`-d`) server. | Everything is under your home directory, and nothing needs root. ## Keeping it running A bare `codeman web` dies with the shell that started it. Two ways to outlive that: ```bash codeman web -d # detached; --status and --stop manage it codeman service install # systemd user unit or macOS LaunchAgent; survives reboots ``` Full detail, including logs and the self-updater, is in [Running As A Service](Running-As-A-Service). ## Updating | Install route | How to update | | ------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | Installer | Re-run the one-liner, or **App Settings → System → Updates** in the UI. | | npm | `npm update -g aicodeman` | | git clone | `git pull && npm install && npm run build`, then restart. | | Docker Compose | Re-run `Start-Codeman.sh`. The in-app updater works too, and refuses a release that changes the container definition until you re-run the script. | The in-app updater covers git-clone installs supervised by systemd or launchd. It restarts the process that is running it, so the actual work happens in a detached script and the browser polls across the restart. Progress appears in the UI. ## Uninstalling ```bash install.sh uninstall # installer route npm uninstall -g aicodeman # npm route ``` Neither removes `~/.codeman/` or `~/codeman-cases/`. Delete those by hand if you want the state and your case folders gone as well, and check `~/codeman-cases/` first: linked cases point at directories you already had, but cases created from scratch have their only copy there. Running tmux sessions are not killed by an uninstall. `tmux -L codeman kill-server` ends them. ## Windows (WSL) ```powershell wsl bash -c "curl -fsSL https://getcodeman.com/install | bash" ``` Codeman requires tmux, so Windows runs it inside [WSL2](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install). If you do not have WSL yet: run `wsl --install` in an admin PowerShell, reboot, open Ubuntu, and install your agent CLI *inside* WSL. `http://localhost:3000` then works from your Windows browser. Work inside the Linux filesystem (`~/project`), not `/mnt/c/...`. Filesystem watching and git are both dramatically slower across the Windows mount, and agents notice. ## macOS notes **`Error: posix_spawnp failed.` on every session start.** node-pty publishes its macOS `spawn-helper` without the executable bit, and macOS launches every PTY through it. Codeman detects this and repairs it automatically on the first failure. If you hit it on a clone install and want to fix it by hand: ```bash npm run fix:node-pty ``` This is a `chmod`, not a rebuild. Look in `prebuilds/darwin-/`, not `build/Release/`, which does not exist on macOS. Linux cannot reproduce this. **launchd and PATH.** A LaunchAgent gets `/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin`, which finds neither a Homebrew or nvm `node` nor `tmux` or `claude`. `codeman service install` bakes your current PATH into the unit for exactly this reason, so prefer it over a hand-written plist. ## Gotchas - **`tmux: command not found` after a successful install.** The installer asks before installing packages, and a declined prompt is a valid answer it remembers. Install tmux and re-run. - **Port 3000 in use.** `codeman web --port 8080`, or set `CODEMAN_PORT`. - **Two Codemans on one machine.** The data directory and the tmux socket are both process wide, so a second instance discovers and attaches the first one's live sessions. Give each a distinct `CODEMAN_INSTANCE` before starting a second. See [Core Concepts](Core-Concepts). - **The dashboard is not reachable from your phone.** That is the default, not a fault. The server binds `127.0.0.1`. See [Remote Access](Remote-Access). ## Read next - [Quick Start](Quick-Start) - your first working session. - [Agent CLIs](Agent-CLIs) - picking and setting up a run mode. - [Remote Access](Remote-Access) - reaching it from another device. - [Troubleshooting](Troubleshooting) - when the above did not go as written.