Machines

A machine is a computer linked to a Stib server. Cards that run on it use its copy of the project, and either a Stib subscription or the account already signed in on the computer (Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity…). The server sends the work, the machine runs it.

A card has two independent settings: its Machine (where it runs) and its Credential (which subscription pays).

Machines require the Max plan.

Two kinds of machines

• Personal machine — added by a member for their own computer. Only its owner starts a turn there; other project members see the cards that run on it, follow them and comment, but never run anything on someone else's computer.
• Server machine — added by an admin, for a shared computer. Every member of the project can run their cards there.

Which subscription on a machine

• Server machine — it receives the server credential the card resolves, as on the server. An admin can also allow the Machine account (machine detail › Allow the machine's account): a card can then pick it in its Credential row, and run on the account signed in on the computer.
• Personal machine — it receives your API key when the card picks it, or when it is your default credential; otherwise it runs on the account signed in on the computer. A server credential is never sent to it, nor, for now, a subscription (OAuth). The computer's Stib CLI must be up to date.

The Machine account is chosen card by card, not on a project or an organization. Picking a credential on the card replaces it; a card brought back to the server, or to a machine that does not allow it, goes back to the inherited credential.

The credential sent is kept on the machine in a folder of each card's own, apart from the sign-ins of the computer's user. When no subscription suits, the card waits until one does, without failing.

Add a machine

1. In Settings › Credentials, add a credential of type Machine, name it (the name you and your colleagues will see on cards), then Add and pair.

2. Stib shows a command with a pairing code, valid for a few minutes. On the computer to link, install the Stib CLI and run it:

   stib host pair https://stib.example.com --code ABCD-1234

   An address without https:// is taken as HTTPS. A server reached over plain HTTP (on your local network) needs --insecure.

3. The page moves on by itself once the machine connects. Check that the fingerprint shown matches the one stib host status prints on the computer, then Confirm. "This is not my machine" forgets the pairing: the machine's secret stops working at once.

4. Keep the machine connected:

   stib host serve              # in the foreground
   stib host install-service    # or when your session starts

Until it is confirmed, a machine runs nothing. Pairing again replaces its secret and asks for confirmation again.

Add a project to the machine

A machine starts with no project. In the machine's detail, Projects on this machine › Add a project, then pick its folder on the machine: you browse the computer's disk, not the server's. The folder is compared with the project's repository; a different repository is kept but flagged. If the project is not there yet, Clone the repository clones it with the machine's own git credentials.

Only added projects can run on the machine. Removing a project leaves its folder on disk.

Git access

The machine reaches the project's repository itself, to clone it and to push the cards' branches. The project's Settings › Git › Repository access tests every computer that runs the project — the server and each machine — and tells whether it can read and write. Where the computer's own git setup is refused, Create a key makes a key on that computer for this project only: copy its public half into the repository's deploy keys (with write access), then Check access. The private half never leaves the computer. A failed clone offers the same key, then the same clone again.

Run a card on the machine

Pick the machine in the Machine row of the card's AI settings, or as the default machine of a project, an organization or the server (a server machine only). A personal machine can be your personal default: in Settings › Credentials, Use by default for my cards on the machine. Your new cards then start there, in the projects added to the machine. A card that imports a conversation or reuses a worktree starts on the server, where they are. The card's pill carries the machine's icon in a corner, red when it is offline. The card's header then names the machine, and its owner when it is not you; Settings › Cards › Header › Machine controls that mention.

• Machine offline or project not on the machine: the card waits, up to 30 minutes, and starts again by itself as soon as the machine can take it. The thread's banner offers to add the project to the machine or to run the card elsewhere. When the wait runs out, the card fails and says what it waited for; Resend starts the same message again.
• Worktree: a card with a worktree gets its own on the machine, created at its first launch and found again afterwards.
• Git panel: diff, history, stage, commit, push and pull request work in the machine's repository. On a personal machine only its owner writes: commits there carry their identity.
• Agent's Git identity: the agent's commits carry the machine's Git identity. When it has none, Stib gives it the owner's on a personal machine; on a server machine, the one of the project's repository on the server, or else the one of the account that started the card.
• Attachments and files mentioned with @ go to the card's folder on the machine; the files the agent leaves there come back into the conversation.

Current limits

• Compaction on request does not exist on a machine: type /compact in the thread.
• Forking a conversation is not offered for a card on a machine.
• Git-ignored files (mockups, plans, local .env…) do not travel through origin: the move dialog lists them, and the ones you tick are copied to the other computer, 50 MB in all. They arrive at the card's next launch there.
• A card that has worked (a conversation, or a worktree or branch of its own) changes machine through the move dialog: the conversation carries on through its history, the native session stays on the machine.
• Another account of the same provider on its machine is picked as on the server: the machine copies the conversation to the new account. Another provider, or the Machine account, goes through the move dialog, as does any change on a machine whose Stib CLI is not up to date.
• A card's worktree stays on the machine when the card is done or deleted.