Set up a computer for ManyClaws

1. An API token. Get one on your set-up page. It is shown once, when it is made: leave that tab open until step 4 is done.
2. Your encryption passphrase. Choose one on your account page if you have not yet. Several unrelated words are stronger and easier to type than a clever password. It is the same passphrase on every computer you connect, and on each phone or browser you read your sessions on. Each of them makes your key from it, itself: neither the passphrase nor the key is sent anywhere. With it, everything a computer's sessions say is sealed on that computer before it is sent, and only your own devices can read it. The server keeps those encrypted messages for a short time, so that you can still open a chat from one of your computers while it's sleeping or rebooting, and clone a chat from an offline machine to another machine to resume it there, but it has no way to read them. ManyClaws takes only encrypted sessions, so a computer that has not been given the passphrase shows nothing at all.

Claude Code can do this part, or you can paste the commands yourself. It needs Claude Code 2.1.287 or later (claude --version).

1. Let plugins of this kind load. In ~/.claude/settings.json, make sure env has this entry, keeping whatever else the file holds:

   "env": { "CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_FUNCTION_HOOKS": "1" }

2. If this computer was set up when ManyClaws was called MultiClaude, take the old name off it first. The old marketplace has the same address as the new one, so while it is there marketplace add finds it and adds nothing, and the install then fails with "not found in marketplace". The plugin's token and passphrase go with it: they are typed in again under the new name, in the next step.

   claude plugin uninstall multiclaude@multiclaude
   claude plugin marketplace remove multiclaude

   Either says so if there is nothing by that name; go on.
3. Add the marketplace and install the plugin from it:

   claude plugin marketplace add https://manyclaws.dev/plugins/marketplace.json
   claude plugin install manyclaws@manyclaws --config server_url=https://manyclaws.dev

   The install reports options that are "not yet set". That is expected: step 4 sets them.

The plugin shows a computer's sessions while they run. The agent is a small background service that adds the rest: it lets you start a new session on that computer from your phone, pick up one that has ended, and search everything Claude Code has done there. It needs Node.js 22.13 or later (node --version says which this computer has).

This step is yours, not Claude's. Run it in a terminal of your own. It asks for your API token and your passphrase from step 1 as it runs, without showing what you type (it needs both: the server takes nothing from an agent that does not seal):

curl -fsS https://manyclaws.dev/agent/install.sh | bash -s -- --server https://manyclaws.dev --spawn ~/code

--spawn names a folder the page may start sessions in; give it once for each folder, or leave it out and sessions can be read and searched but not started. On Windows, in PowerShell:

Invoke-WebRequest https://manyclaws.dev/agent/install.ps1 -OutFile $env:TEMP\mc-install.ps1
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File $env:TEMP\mc-install.ps1 -Server https://manyclaws.dev -Spawn C:\code

This step is yours, not Claude's. In Claude Code, in a terminal, type

/plugin configure manyclaws@manyclaws

and fill in API token and Encryption passphrase from step 1: what the agent's installer asked for, once more. Or using the VS Code Extension for Claude, just type /plugin and fill in the same two under the gear icon beside manyclaws. They are kept in the system's secure storage. Leave the other options as they are.

Then start a new Claude Code session: sessions that were already running pick the plugin up when they are next started. The first session takes a second or two longer to start, once, while your key is made from the passphrase.

If you ever choose a new passphrase, it makes a new key: every computer has to be given the new one here, in the same way, before it shows again.

• The new session appears at https://manyclaws.dev/app within a few seconds, under the computer's name, with "encrypted" under its title.
• The computer is listed there by its name with every session Claude Code has had on it, running or not: that is the agent.
• claude plugin configure manyclaws@manyclaws lists the plugin's options and says which are set. It never shows their values.
• If the session does not appear, the plugin says why in Claude Code itself: a token that has run out or been taken back, no passphrase, or a passphrase that is not the one your account has. A computer that was given a passphrase sends nothing at all until the passphrase is right, so nothing goes out unsealed by mistake. And the server takes nothing that is not sealed, whatever a computer sends.

Open https://manyclaws.dev/app on your phone and sign in. Put it on the Home Screen (on an iPhone: Share, then Add to Home Screen), open it from there, tap Settings at the foot of the list, and then Turn on alerts. Your phone then tells you when a session needs you or has finished.