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Kana sessions run on agent machines. An agent machine is any computer running the Agent Manager, a background service that starts coding agents, gives each task its own Git worktree, and reports back to Kanaeru. The kana CLI is installed alongside it. Every machine belongs to one person. Teammates can still share a session: each person’s turns run on their own machines. See Sessions that move.
In the closed beta, Kanaeru gives you a cloud machine and you don’t install anything. Installing the Agent Manager on your own computer, as described below, is for accounts that have it turned on.

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Supported platforms

On Linux and WSL, agents run inside a bubblewrap sandbox, so the installer needs bubblewrap at /usr/bin/bwrap. On native Windows there’s no built-in sandbox, so agents only start if you declare the host isolated or turn the sandbox off. See Sandboxing.

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Install

1

Open the machine page

In the chat box, open the runtime selector and choose Connect, or go straight to /machine-connect. The page is called Connect an agent machine, and it’s also a step during onboarding.At the top, choose New computer to install on a computer for the first time, or Already installed to update and reconnect one you set up before. Then pick the installer target for that computer.
2

Choose runtimes

Tick the runtimes to install, such as Claude Code and Codex. You can optionally paste provider API keys. They’re only inserted into the generated command and are stored locally by the Agent Manager on that computer.
3

Run the command

Choose Copy command (or Download installer) and run it on the target computer.
The command downloads install.sh and runs it with your connect URL, the workspace directory ($HOME/kanaeru), and your runtimes.
Download links in the command are signed and expire after an hour, so copy a fresh command if one stops working. The computer doesn’t need access to Kanaeru’s source.
4

Wait for Machine ready

The machine page refreshes on its own. When the machine connects, it shows Machine ready with a check for each runtime: Ready, or Needs setup with what’s missing.Each runtime also lists its Kanaeru harness bundles, the session plugins it runs with. Machine access shows whether the Kana CLI and Kanaeru’s agent tools can reach your account from this machine. If the CLI isn’t signed in, choose Set up Kana CLI.
On macOS and Linux, the installer puts kanaeru-agent-manager, kanaeru-agent-manager-daemon, and kana in ~/.local/bin. On macOS it registers a launchd agent for your user, and logs are written to ~/.kanaeru/logs/agent-manager.stdout.log. On Linux it doesn’t register a background service yet, so start kanaeru-agent-manager yourself. On Windows, the installer adds kanaeru-agent-manager.cmd and kana.cmd to %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin and registers a scheduled task named KanaeruAgentManager that starts when you sign in.

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Sign in to runtimes

Each runtime needs credentials for its model provider. You can provide them in four ways:
  • API keys in the install command. Paste them in the Providers section before copying the command.
  • Provider credentials panel. On the machine page, save one or more named accounts per provider.
  • Sign in on the machine. For Sign in with ChatGPT (Codex), AWS SSO (Claude Code on Bedrock), and Sign in with Google (Antigravity), the token is created and refreshed on the machine and never passes through Kanaeru.
  • Logins you already have. The Agent Manager detects runtimes that are already installed and picks up their existing sign-ins, such as your claude login, your Codex sign-in, and your Copilot login. If a runtime already works on that computer, there’s nothing more to do.
See Runtimes for which providers each runtime accepts.

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Upgrade

From the machine page, choose Upgrade agent manager. Tick Also update runtimes to upgrade the coding agents too. Upgrades wait until the machine is idle before restarting. Turn on Auto-update to keep the machine current without asking. To reinstall from scratch, choose Reinstall agent manager & runtimes. On a computer that’s already installed, switch the page to Already installed to get an update-and-reconnect command.

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Cloud machines

Your invite may include a cloud machine, a managed machine that Kanaeru runs for you. It appears on the machine page as Cloud machine with its CPU and memory.
  • It sleeps after a period of idleness (30 minutes by default) so it stops costing compute, and wakes in about a minute when you send it work. Choose Wake to start it early.
  • If it gets into a bad state, Recover machine rebuilds it on the same workspace, so your files are kept.
Some invites provide only a cloud machine. In that case the install controls are turned off and the machine page shows that your machine is set up for you. A cloud machine still needs your provider access before its runtimes can work. Select the machine, choose Wake if it’s asleep, and add an account for each runtime in Provider credentials. Each runtime you’ve given access shows Ready under Runtime checks. Once at least one is ready, you can start working with Kana.

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Capacity

The Agent Manager decides how many agents a machine runs at once from its memory and CPU. That’s typically 2 to 4 on a small machine, 8 on a 4-core machine with 8 GB, and up to 15 on larger ones. When every machine that could run a session stays busy for about a minute, the session doesn’t start: Kana tells you every machine was busy, and you send a message again once one frees up. See Sandboxing and capacity to change the limit.