Set up Shardflux with your coding agent

Ask your coding agent to install Shardflux. This page is the order it follows. Agents: work through it top to bottom, and ask your user wherever it says Ask.

npm i -g shardflux

The CLI needs Node.js 24 or later. Every command takes --json, reads secrets only from standard input and has documented exit codes.

First, one question

Ask: Is Shardflux for a SaaS platform, or for your personal setup?

Sign in

Both answers start here.

Ask: Do you agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy? Continue once your user does.

shard signup --accept-terms --json

With the Codex CLI signed in with ChatGPT on this computer, signup signs up (or signs in) with that login, no browser, then saves an organization, a project and an API key. A new account starts with 60 days of Pro.

Without a Codex login, or for an account your user already has, sign in in the browser:

shard auth login --browser --no-open --json
shard setup --json

The first line it prints is {"event":"open",...} with the link and the code: give both to your user. It ends with {"event":"signed_in",...} once they approve, within 10 minutes; run it in the background if your tool stops commands sooner. shard setup then saves the organization, project and API key, and is safe to run again.

SaaS platform

Your product calls Shardflux with a project API key. Claude and Codex sign-ins, the menu bar and the machine are for personal cloud coding agents, so skip them.

1. eval "$(shard env)" exports SHARDFLUX_API_KEY for the SDKs and the MCP server. Put the key in your product's server-side secrets.
2. Integrate with the TypeScript SDK (npm install @shardflux/sdk), the Python SDK (pip install shardflux), the HTTP API or the MCP server. The quickstart runs a complete example.
3. Give your customers' workspaces what they need from the first second: build a template with shard templates build template.yaml.
4. Choose a plan when you need more: shard billing upgrade <plan> --json prints the Stripe Checkout URL for your user.

Personal setup

Each Claude or Codex conversation gets its own VM, started from your machine (tools, logins, dotfiles and agent config) and the project's template (dependencies, services and secrets).

1. Connect Claude and Codex

Ask: Which do you use: Claude, Codex or both?

• Claude uses one cloud sign-in for your account. Your user runs this in their own terminal, once: it shows a claude.ai link and asks for the code.

  Shell

  shard agents credentials login claude

• Codex uses this computer's Codex login: codex login (with ChatGPT), once.

Then check both live and finish the Codex connection:

shard setup --inspect --connect --json --apps claude,codex

Each connection reports verified, or the action that completes it. Pass only the apps your user picked.

2. Build the machine

Ask: What should every cloud agent start with?

• Languages and runtimes, such as Node.js 24, Python with uv, Go or Rust
• CLIs and tools, such as gh, the AWS CLI, Terraform or ripgrep
• Dotfiles and shell: .gitconfig with their name and email, shell config and aliases
• Secrets and credentials that tools read from files, such as ~/.npmrc or gh auth
• Editor and agent config: CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md, Claude and Codex settings, skills and MCP servers

Write the answers as one brief. Your user runs shard machine in their own terminal and pastes the brief to the machine agent, which installs and configures everything in the machine VM. Then save it:

shard machine save --wait --json

The first open copies this computer's Claude and Codex settings into the machine. Every new conversation starts from the saved version; Machine and template covers changes and rollback.

3. Set up the project

Ask: Which project, which secrets does it need, and what does a good first run look like (the tests, a dev server)?

Import the project's secrets from your user's vault, then start a conversation in the project folder:

shard secrets import --from 1password 'op://Private/GitHub/token' --as GITHUB_TOKEN
shard ./ --json --prompt "Set up this project and run its tests"
shard conversations wait <conversation-id> --timeout 90
shard template --json

shard ./ --json starts the conversation in its own VM and prints it (conversation.id); use shard ./ codex --json ... for Codex. Setup installs the dependencies, runs the build and tests and saves the project template in the background. conversations wait returns the agent's result or question; run it again while it says Still working. shard template shows the saved version. Tell setup what to skip or how to run a step in .shardflux/setup.yaml.

4. Hand over

Your user runs this in their own terminal, from the project folder:

shard ./

It opens Claude Code in a new conversation VM (shard ./ codex for Codex). Claude conversations continue on claude.ai and in the Claude app; Codex threads continue in the Codex app, on the web and on the phone. T3 Code, Claude Desktop and the Codex app work too: see Cloud conversations.

What your user does

Answer the question, agree to the terms, approve the browser sign-in, sign in to Claude in their terminal and run codex login, describe their machine and project, and pay in Stripe Checkout when they choose a plan. The agent does the rest.