Choose your surfaces

Glueprint has four surfaces. The desktop can start account registration in your browser, and the portal provides account and host management. This page is a quick guide to which surfaces to add when.

Just trying it out

Install the desktop app, choose Sign in or Create account, and complete the browser flow. Back in the desktop, choose or create a host, finish registration, and click Open Workspaces.

You don’t need the cloud relay or the mobile app to get value from a single machine — once activated, the desktop runs locally.

Daily coding on one machine

The desktop app is where most users spend their day. Sessions, assistants, teams, and routines all run locally. Memory persists across launches. Git, terminals, and the built-in editor work without an internet connection.

If you want to keep an eye on sessions from a browser, the portal shows everything as soon as the cloud relay is enabled under Settings > Cloud.

Daily coding across multiple machines

Install the desktop app on each machine. Sign in from each installation, then claim an eligible pending host or create one as an owner or admin with available capacity. Each machine needs its own host registration. The portal lists the hosts you can access.

Sessions stay on the host where they were started — they don’t migrate. But the transcripts are visible from any surface you’ve signed in to.

Adding the mobile app

The mobile app is for everyone, not just oversight. It gives you almost the same access as the portal: every running session, live transcripts, approvals, assistant chat, tasks, routines, the file browser, and a terminal attached to a session.

Two things mobile deliberately leaves out:

• The built-in code editor for authoring — long persona edits and complex configuration are easier on desktop or portal.
• The assistant workbench — desktop/portal only today.

If you have the mobile app installed, you’ve covered the day-to-day. Most users find they need desktop or portal only for heavier authoring work.

Running sessions on a server

Install the CLI daemon on the server. Activate it with a key from the portal. The daemon runs as a background service; it has no graphical interface. You drive it from the portal, the mobile app, or another desktop machine.

Common patterns:

• Long-running assistant routines that wake every hour.
• A 24/7 “infrastructure” assistant doing checks and reports.
• Sessions that need to outlive your laptop closing the lid.

See CLI Daemon for the full setup.

Just admin work

If you’re the administrator on a Team or Enterprise plan and your job is purely user/plan/SSO/audit management, the portal is enough — those admin surfaces live there. You’ll still want the desktop app installed somewhere if you also write code.

Quick reference table

If you…	Use…
Want the most capable experience	Portal + desktop
Need to monitor and act on the go	Portal + desktop + mobile
Have multiple machines	Portal + desktop on each
Want sessions running 24/7	Portal + CLI daemon on a server + mobile (or desktop) for oversight
Are an organization admin only	Portal

Next step

You’re ready. Head to Sessions > Start a session for the day-to-day reference, or AI Assistants to set up a persistent teammate.