Quickstart

By the end of this page you will have an AI model running on your own computer, and Claude Code answering from it instead of from the cloud.

Which computer should run the AI?

The most powerful one you own — a desktop with a graphics card, or a Mac with Apple Silicon. Your laptop can use that computer’s AI later, from anywhere, without running anything itself. If you only have one computer, use it: it will both run the AI and use it.

You do not need a graphics card. A GPU makes answers faster, but a recent CPU runs a small model fine.

Step 1 — Run one command

Open a terminal, paste the line for your system, and press Enter.

Windows

Open PowerShell as Administrator: right-click the Start button → Terminal (Administrator) → Yes.

iwr -useb https://github.com/waired-ai/waired-agent/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

iwr downloads Waired’s install script, iex runs it.

macOS

Open Terminal: press ⌘ + Space, type Terminal, press Enter.

curl -fsSL https://github.com/waired-ai/waired-agent/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

curl downloads Waired’s install script, sh runs it. You will be asked for your Mac password — nothing appears on screen as you type it, which is normal.

Linux

Open a terminal.

curl -fsSL https://github.com/waired-ai/waired-agent/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

curl downloads Waired’s install script, sh runs it. You will be asked for your password — nothing appears on screen as you type it, which is normal.

Before changing anything, the installer prints a summary of what it is about to do and asks Proceed? [Y/n] — press Enter to continue.

That one command does three things: it installs Waired, starts it running in the background, and then goes straight into sign-in. So do not close this window — the next step is already happening in it.

Would rather read the script first?

Download it, read it, run it — see the platform pages: Windows · macOS · Linux.

Step 2 — Sign in with Google

The installer hands over to sign-in on its own. It prints a link and waits:

In the terminal

Sign in using this link:
  https://app.waired.ai/login/…

>> Press Enter to open your browser (or open the link above yourself)...

Press Enter. Your browser opens; choose your Google account.

On a machine with no desktop

There is no browser to open, so the terminal prints the link and says “Nothing to press here — sign-in continues on its own once you open the link.” Open it on your phone or another computer; the terminal notices by itself.

Back in the terminal:

You should see

Logged in as: you@example.com
Waired is signed in and running in the background.

>> Setup is continuing in your browser…
   Keep this terminal window open until setup finishes — it does the parts the
   browser can't.
   (press Enter to continue in the terminal instead)

Leave this terminal window open

Installing the AI software needs administrator rights, and a web page cannot grant those. The terminal window you are in is what actually performs those steps while the browser drives them. Close it and setup stops with “The setup command was closed before this finished” — nothing is lost, but you have to come back and run waired init again.

The setup page in the browser says the same thing while it is working. Once the terminal has done its part it tells you so — “nothing more is needed from this terminal” — and from then on you can close it.

Step 3 — Finish setup in your browser

Switch to the browser tab that just opened. It asks which AI model to start with, then does the work.

1. Pick a model from the list and press Yes, set it up. You can change it later, so the first entry is a fine choice.

2. Watch the three steps run.

   screenshot pendingThe Waired setup page in a browser, showing three steps — Install the AI software (done), Download the AI model (in progress, 7.9 GB of 19.2 GB), and Check the speed (waiting).public/img/setup-wizard-progress.png

   You can close this tab — the download keeps going.

   Step	What is happening	How long
   Install the AI software	The program that loads and runs models. This is the part that needs administrator rights.	A minute or two
   Download the AI model	The AI itself — several gigabytes.	5–30 minutes
   Check the speed	A short measurement, so Waired knows whether this machine keeps up. If it cannot, you are offered a lighter model.	Up to 5 minutes

3. Wait for “Everything’s ready.” Then press Go to device.

You should see

Every step shows a tick, and the page says “Everything’s ready — this computer can now run AI on its own.”

That's not right

“To finish, run sudo waired init on this computer.”

The terminal window that was doing the work is gone — usually because it was closed, or because it never had administrator rights. Open a terminal and run that command; your progress is saved and it picks up where it stopped.

I would rather do this in the terminal

At “Setup is continuing in your browser…”, press Enter. The terminal asks you to confirm before it takes anything over:

   Taking over means this terminal drives setup and the browser page stops.
   Any model download keeps running either way.
   Take over setup in this terminal? [y/N] (default: No)

Answer y. (Pressing Enter again answers No and leaves the browser in charge — so a stray keystroke never moves setup out from under you.)

The terminal then takes over and asks whether to route Claude Code through Waired; answer Y. Model installation and download run with a progress bar in the terminal:

Starting the inference engine…
Preparing to download qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct…
Downloading qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct: 41%  7.9 GB / 19.2 GB (44 MB/s)

When it finishes:

╭─ 🎉 Waired is ready — everything completed successfully! ─────────╮
│  Account   you@example.com                                       │
│  Device    my-desktop  d-4f2a…                                   │
│  Network   personal  overlay 100.64.0.3                          │
│  Model     qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct  (58 tok/s)              │
│  Gateway   http://127.0.0.1:9479                                 │
│  Claude    http://127.0.0.1:9473 (managed settings)              │
│                                                                  │
│  Point your coding agent at Waired and start building.           │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

On a server with no desktop this is the only option — see Sign in and set up.

Step 4 — Check it worked

In the Waired app

Click the Waired icon — in the menu bar on macOS, next to the clock on Windows and Linux.

screenshot pendingThe Waired app menu showing the signed-in account, a Connected status, and an Inference submenu naming the active model.public/img/app-ready.png

Signed in, connected, and a model loaded.

You should see

The top of the menu says Connected, your email is below it, and Inference names the model that is running.

In the terminal

waired infer "say hi"

You should see

A greeting comes back within a few seconds. That answer was produced on your own computer — nothing was sent to a cloud AI provider.

Nothing came back?

Run waired doctor. It checks every part of the setup, marks each one ✓ / ⚠ / ✗, and — if you press f — repairs what it can. That single command resolves most first-run problems.

Step 5 — Use it from Claude Code

Open Claude Code as you normally would, in any project, and ask it something. The footer tells you which AI answered.

screenshot pendingThe Claude Code footer showing the Waired status line, naming the local model that answered the last request.public/img/claude-code-statusline.png

You should see

⚡ waired: on Waired (qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct)

Your own hardware answered, using that model.

Type /waired-route in the conversation to switch between your own AI and the cloud, or from a terminal:

waired claude route           # show where Claude Code is running
waired claude route waired    # your own AI only
waired claude route anthropic # the real Anthropic API

You’re done — what next?

Use it from your other devicesInstall Waired on your laptop with the same Google account, and it reaches this computer's AI from anywhere.

Get to know the Waired appEverything behind the Waired icon — models, routing, sharing, sign-out.

Choose a different modelSwap in a bigger model for quality, or a smaller one for speed.

Something looks wrongFind your symptom, get the one command that fixes it.

Changed your mind?

Removing Waired is one command and takes about ten seconds — see Uninstall. Nothing is left running in the background.