Set up Rudder

From the invite to agents running, about five minutes. Start on your phone; the laptop is optional.

1. Get the app

Rudder for iPhone is in beta on TestFlight. Open the invite email from TestFlight on your phone, tap View in TestFlight, install TestFlight if it asks, then install Rudder. No iPhone? Everything below also works in your phone's browser at rudder-cloud-control.fly.dev/app.

2. Sign in

Sign in with Google or GitHub. That is your Rudder account, the same one on every device. If the app shows Create my cloud machine, tap it: that is one machine of your own that holds all your repos and keeps your agents running while your phone is locked and your laptop is closed. It takes about a minute to start the first time.

3. Get set up

The home screen shows a short checklist. Each step is one tap:

1. Connect GitHub. The app shows a short code and a button to github.com/login/device. Enter the code there and approve. This is how the cloud machine clones your repos and opens pull requests.
2. Sign in Claude Code or Codex. Rudder runs your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription; tap Sign in and approve in the page that opens. Rudder never charges for model usage.
3. Pick a repo. Choose one of yours under Open a repo, or make a fresh one under New repo. The first one takes a minute while the machine starts and clones it.

4. Your first task

Open the project and type what you want done, like you would to a colleague: "add a dark mode toggle to the settings page". An agent starts on the cloud machine in its own workspace. From the phone you can:

• read the conversation as it happens and send a message at any point;
• answer when it asks for permission or has a question, or approve its plan;
• attach a screenshot or a file with the paperclip;
• open a preview link when it starts a dev server.

When it is done, merge from the agent's menu: on the cloud machine that pushes a branch and opens a draft pull request on GitHub.

5. Your laptop (optional)

Want the full dashboard on a Mac or Linux machine? You need Node.js 22 or newer.

$ npm install -g @exla/rudder@latest
$ rudder login

rudder login shows a short code and a QR code. Scan it with your phone (or open Settings → Sign in a computer in the app and type the code) and tap Approve. If Claude Code or Codex is not on the laptop yet, Rudder offers to install it and sign it in.

Then bring a repo from the cloud machine down, with the work its agents have done:

$ rudder cloud sync your-repo
$ cd ~/code/your-repo && rudder

From then on, /sync in the dashboard keeps the laptop and the cloud in step, and H hands running agents back to the cloud before you close the lid.

Stuck?

Run rudder doctor on the laptop to check your setup, or tell us in GitHub issues.