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By the end of this page you will have a coding agent running on your own computer, and you will be able to watch it, steer it, approve its work and reply to it from your phone, a browser, or another machine.

Happier does not replace your coding agent. It drives the one you already use — Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini, Cursor, Copilot, Qwen Code, Kimi, Kiro, Kilo, Auggie, Pi or Grok — and gives it a remote control.

What you need

Four things. Three are quick; the first is the one people miss.

1. A computer that stays awake. Happier connects you to your machine — it does not run your agent in the cloud. A laptop that sleeps stops the session. If you want work to survive the lid closing, use a desktop, a VPS, or a box that stays plugged in.
2. A coding agent CLI on that computer. The upcoming 0.2 setup flow can offer supported agents from Happier's catalog and install your choice, or let you skip and install one later. Installation does not sign the agent in: its own authentication must also be ready before it can code.
3. A Happier account, created in the app or the web client — not from the terminal. The CLI's login is an approval step against a client you are already signed in to.
4. About ten minutes, and a phone or second browser tab to approve from.

You do not need a server of your own, Node.js or npm, or a custom app build.

1. Get a client

Install the app, or just open cloud.happier.dev — the web client is the whole product and needs no install. Create your account there.

See Get the apps for iPhone, Android, desktop and browser.

2. Install the CLI on the machine that will do the work

curl -fsSL https://happier.dev/install | bash

iwr https://happier.dev/install.ps1 -useb | iex

The installer verifies the release signature, unpacks under ~/.happier, and offers to set up automatic startup so the machine stays reachable with no terminal open. Say yes unless you have a reason not to. On a fresh interactive install, it then continues directly into the setup flow below.

It adds ~/.local/bin to your shell profile, which the shell you are currently in has already read. Open a new terminal, or source your profile, before the next step.

3. Connect the machine to your account

If the installer was unattended, you skipped guided setup, or sign-in did not finish, resume it with:

happier setup

Setup asks the one question the installer cannot answer for itself — where your relay lives — then points this computer at it and signs you in. Your account lives on the relay you choose, so that gets settled before sign-in rather than after. Happier Cloud is the recommended first choice, but setup waits for you to choose it or an existing relay you control.

The relay hosts your account and syncs the encrypted conversation and session state between devices. It does not run the coding agent: that process still runs on this computer, beside your repository, whichever relay you choose. Switching relay profiles later selects the account stored on that relay; it does not move an account or its data between relays.

If you already know the answer, skip the question:

happier setup --cloud                 # Happier Cloud
happier setup --relay https://…       # a relay you already run
happier setup --this-computer         # install a relay here too

When a new sign-in is needed, Happier prints a URL and, when your relay is reachable from another device, a QR code. Scan it with the app, or open the URL in a browser where you are already signed in, and approve. A loopback-only relay (localhost or 127.0.0.1) cannot be reached from your phone, so this new-authentication step uses a browser on the same computer instead. If the stored sign-in is still accepted and only the machine registration is missing, setup repairs that registration without opening a browser or asking you to sign in again.

The terminal continues on its own after approval. If the request times out, that request ends; rerun happier setup or happier auth login to create a new request and approve that one.

If the selected relay does not answer, setup cannot verify either the stored sign-in or the machine registration. It keeps both the relay choice and stored credential, then offers retry or an explicit choice of another relay. An outage does not silently switch this computer to Happier Cloud or create another account.

Setup also checks whether you have a coding agent installed, and says so if you do not — it will not stop you, but it is the step people skip and then hit at the very end.

4. Start your first session

In the app, choose New session, select the connected computer and project, then choose an agent and start the session. The background service on that computer must still be running and the relay must be reachable; the app controls the session, but the agent process runs beside your repository on the selected computer.

Or start from a terminal in the project:

happier

That starts a session with Claude Code, the default agent. To use another, name it: happier codex, happier opencode, happier cursor. The session appears in your client within a second or two, and you can drive it from there.

If you skipped agent setup, the computer is connected but is not yet ready to run coding sessions. Install an agent, complete its own sign-in, and then start the session from the app or CLI.

5. Confirm it all worked

happier status

This reads your account, relay registration, automatic startup and CLI channel, and changes nothing. It is the first thing to run whenever something looks wrong later — see Check your setup.

If something went wrong

happier: command not found — the installer edited your shell profile but could not change the shell you were already in. Open a new terminal. If you use fish, add ~/.local/bin to your fish_user_paths yourself; the installer writes to ~/.profile, which fish does not read.

Claude CLI (claude) is not available from any configured source — you have reached the last step without prerequisite 2. Install the agent (curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash), sign in to it, confirm claude runs on its own, then run happier again. Or start a session with an agent you do have.

The machine never appears in the app — signing in and registering the machine are two different things, and the second happens when the background service or a session starts. Run happier status; if it reports the machine is not registered, happier doctor repair will fix it.

Where to go next

• Get the apps — every client, and which to start with.
• Onboarding — the same journey done from the app instead of the terminal, including choosing a relay.
• Coding agents — setup and limits for each agent.
• Local development — running the server and UI yourself while iterating.
• Agent capabilities — what varies between them.
• Run your own relay — if you would rather not use Happier Cloud.